Bernie Sanders subtweeted Kamala Harris after the California senator and fellow Democratic White House hopeful told donors she wasn’t “comfortable” with her Vermont colleague’s “Medicare for All” proposal.
“I don’t go to the Hamptons to raise money from billionaires. If I ever visited there, I would tell them the same thing I have said for the last 30 years: We must pass a Medicare for All system to guarantee affordable health care for all, not just for those who can afford it,” Sanders wrote on Twitter Monday.
I don’t go to the Hamptons to raise money from billionaires. If I ever visited there, I would tell them the same thing I have said for the last 30 years: We must pass a Medicare for All system to guarantee affordable health care for all, not just for those who can afford it.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 19, 2019
A spokesman for the former California state attorney general and San Francisco district attorney similarly took to social media to defend his boss.
“Oh, spare me. NBC reported Sanders was ‘a regular presence at luxurious fundraising retreats,’ including in Martha’s Vineyard. No attendees ‘said they heard him chastise Wall Street banks or pharmaceutical companies to the faces of the lobbyists representing those interests,'” spokesman Ian Sams tweeted.
Oh, spare me.
NBC reported Sanders was “a regular presence at luxurious fundraising retreats,” including in Martha’s Vineyard. No attendees “said they heard him chastise Wall Street banks or pharmaceutical companies to the faces of the lobbyists representing those interests.” https://t.co/75OH10U7Cb
— Ian Sams (@IanSams) August 19, 2019
Harris told supporters who attended a fundraiser on Sunday night at the East Hampton, New York home of movie executive Jamie Patricof and his wife Kelly she had “not been comfortable with Bernie’s plan,” despite being an original cosponsor of his single payer platform. She used the event to clarify how private insurers would still have a role under a Harris administration after she confused the issue by making contradictory statements on her vision for healthcare in the country. She also sought to differentiate herself from Sanders, a socialist, telling attendees she believes in “capitalism.”
“But capitalism is not working for most people,” she said, according to Bloomberg.
Harris, who additionally courted donors this weekend in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, has previously cited her concerns with “Medicare for All” since rolling out her own proposal as part of her 2020 presidential bid. She told the Washington Post this month that she realized over time she couldn’t “make this circle fit into a square.”