In something reminiscent of someone listing off glorifying titles for characters from Game of Thrones, CNN’s post-debate panel of liberals on Anderson Cooper 360 Tuesday marveled at how Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) conducted himself, even while digging himself into a hole by tripling down on his support for communist dictator Fidel Castro.
“The thing that struck me, and particularly on the answers on Cuba and digging himself a deeper hole. Is that Bernie Sanders is just this bulldozer,” chief political analyst Gloria Borger declared minutes after the CBS debate concluded.
What followed was former Democratic presidential candidate, businessman, and CNN political commentator Andrew Yang throwing out a whole bunch glowing descriptions of the Senator:
YANG: He’s like a fortress.
BORGER: A fortress.
YANG: Or Mt. Bernie.
BORGER: Mt. Bernie.
YANG: “No one can scale me.”
BORGER: You keep going at him and you can ask him and he will never change his position.
YANG: Like impermeable.
BORGER: Keep coming at me. Because those are good.
“Oh, I have been there, been on stage. He like has a force field,” Yang added.
After Yang humorously talked about what it was like to be on stage with Sanders, Borger continued to talk about how he would stay on message even when it hurt him. “There's no way to get him off it. So, when it’s the question about Cuba. He will continue to give that answer that he gave to you [Anderson Cooper]. That he'll give it again tonight. And then dig himself a deeper hole and he did it in our town hall,” she said.
Shortly after that, former Obama advisor and senior political commentator David Axelrod complained that nominating Sanders would make it hard for Democrats to shake the socialism label, especially since Sanders (according to him) was not a real socialist:
The Republicans and Donald Trump are going to make the same case against any Democratic candidate. But it's easier to make when the candidate embraces the title of socialist and doesn't refute it. And the truth of the matter is, Bernie Sanders is not a socialist. I mean, if you look it up in the dictionary, he's not calling for the society own the production and all that stuff.
At one point, Axelrod stated he couldn’t figure out why Sanders was “so reluctant to make that point” about not being a real socialist. “He is like a fortress, Andrew. But not on that question tonight. On that question, he looked unmoored,” he told Yang.
Maybe it’s because Sanders really was a socialist.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN Debate Post Analysis
February 26, 2020
10:12:20 p.m. Eastern(…)
GLORIA BORGER: The thing that struck me, and particularly on the answers on Cuba and digging himself a deeper hole. Is that Bernie Sanders is just this bulldozer. Who just --
ANDREW YANG: He’s like a fortress.
BORGER: A fortress.
YANG: Or Mt. Bernie.
BORGER: Mt. Bernie.
YANG: “No one can scale me.”
BORGER: You keep going at him and you can ask him and he will never change his position.
YANG: Like impermeable.
BORGER: Keep coming at me. Because those are good. Those are good. You just--
YANG: Oh, I have been there, been on stage. He like has a force field and everything you say to him—
BORGER: Right!
YANG: -- it's like, “Let me be clear. I'm going to talk about what I'm going to talk about. It’s going to have some relationship to what you asked me. But it is not really going to be what you ask me about and it’s now going to go into a Bernie-ism.” And then afterwards, you’re like, “What just happened there?”
BORGER: There's no way to get him off it. So, when it’s the question about Cuba. He will continue to give that answer that he gave to you [Anderson Cooper]. That he'll give it again tonight. And then dig himself a deeper hole and he did it in our town hall.
(…)
DAVID AXELROD: The Republicans and Donald Trump are going to make the same case against any Democratic candidate. But it's easier to make when the candidate embraces the title of socialist and doesn't refute it. And the truth of the matter is, Bernie Sanders is not a socialist. I mean, if you look it up in the dictionary, he's not calling for the society own the production and all that stuff.
And why he is so reluctant to make that point and why -- he is like a fortress, Andrew. But not on that question tonight. On that question, he looked unmoored. And while it shouldn't necessarily be the most important question, they will make it the most important question until he makes it a less important question by straightening the whole thing out.
(…)
