The cheering section for Bernie Sanders (I-VT) at MSNBC is growing with each passing day. Wednesday night, Rachel Maddow was upbeat about the self-described socialist’s chances in the 2016 presidential election.
Maddow claimed that the media have unfairly dismissed Sanders’ ability to compete with Hillary Clinton: “The beltway media has been treating Bernie Sanders almost like a gadfly, somebody who exists only to pester Hillary Clinton to move to the left during the primaries.” According to Maddow, however, the Vermont senator has been defying the odds early on in the campaign:
But Bernie Sanders, you know what? Has been bucking that, both with his arguments now and also the description of how he has campaigned in the past. He’s running an aggressive campaign now. He’s launching a full court media press, bigger than almost any other candidate, Republican or Democrat.
Maddow wasn't content to leave it at that, either. She mentioned that Sanders has “already raised a lot of money,” adding that the amount – $4 million – was a lot more than “some of the top tier Republican candidates raised in their first few weeks.” She then complimented Sanders for his “aggressive” and “spirited” campaign kickoff.
Maddow has not been the only one on MSNBC to hop on the Bernie Sanders bandwagon. On All In last night, host Chris Hayes lauded Sanders’ speech, saying “there was a lot in it that I personally like and agree with profoundly.” Yesterday, commentators on The Rundown with Jose Diaz-Balart were just as positive about the Vermont senator’s ability to shake up the race.
Maddow was decidedly less friendly to candidates on the other side of the aisle in the past; in fact, she’s resorted to sexually charged references in discussing Newt Gingrich’s presidential announcement in 2011. In the same screed, she asserted that no one would vote for Rick Santorum. Of course, he came in second in the 2012 Republican primaries.
The relevant portion of the transcript is below.
MSNBC
The Rachel Maddow Show
May 26, 2015
9:58 p.m. EasternRACHEL MADDOW, host: Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, the next significant contender in 2016 politics is going to formally enter the race at weeks end, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley made it obvious before anybody else on either the Republican or Democratic side, that he was very interested in running for president. On Saturday, he will make it official.Today, though, today belonged to Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont. Bernie Sanders has technically already announced that he was running but today was his first big campaign event and it was big. The beltway media has been treating Bernie Sanders almost like a gadfly, somebody who exists only to pester Hillary Clinton to move to the left during the primaries.
But Bernie Sanders, you know what? Has been bucking that, both with his arguments now and also the description of how he has campaigned in the past. He’s running an aggressive campaign now. He’s
launching a full court media press, bigger than almost any other candidate, Republican or Democrat.He’s already raised a lot of money – $4 million so far in just the first few weeks since he officially launched, which is a lot more than some of the top tier Republican candidates raised in their first few weeks.And then, today, his big campaign kick off in his home state of Vermont. Aggressive, spirited, he spoke for about 45 minutes straight. He used paper notes, no teleprompter for him and the crowd was very amped to hear from him.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), presidential candidate: Today, we stand here and say loudly and clearly – enough is enough. This great nation and its government belong to all of the people and not to a handful of billionaires. This type of rigged economy is not what America is supposed to be about. This has got to change, and as your president, together, we are going to change it.
MADDOW: That was Bernie Sanders, Democratic candidate for president of the United States giving a big campaign kickoff address today in Burlington. In a speech sure to quell any fears that this will be a boring Democratic primary, also because it’s Vermont, there was free ice cream. Yes, it was Ben & Jerry’s.
