Joe Biden’s (D) closest competitors are slamming his campaign after it modified its hardline stance against accepting Super PAC support, adding the former vice president is trying to “buy the election.”
Biden confidently proclaimed during an interview with CBS Evening News on Friday he is the Democrat frontrunner and claimed he is not concerned with how much money his competitors have in the bank.
“I know I’m the frontrunner. Find me a national poll with a notable – a couple exceptions. The last four that have come out – but look, this is a marathon,” Biden said. “This is a marathon.”
“You have less than $9 million in the bank. Bernie Sanders has $30 – nearly $34 million in the bank. Sen. Warren has $26 million. How do you compete against that?” CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell asked.
“I just flat beat them,” Biden said, adding that his campaign is on a course to do “extremely well.”
“I’m not worried about being able to fund this campaign,” he continued. ” I really am not, truly.”
His campaign’s actions, however, do not match up with the presidential hopeful’s rhetoric. His campaign on Thursday essentially modified its position on accepting Super PAC support and blamed President Trump for using advertising to “intervene directly” in the Democrat primaries in an effort to take down Biden.
“Let’s be clear: Donald Trump has decided that the general election has already begun,” Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, said in a statement.
She continued:
He and his allies are already spending massive amounts of money on paid television and digital advertising to intervene directly in Democratic primaries with the goal of preventing Joe Biden, the opponent that Trump fears most, from becoming the Democratic nominee.
Both Warren and Sanders wasted no time to slam Biden for reversing course.
Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir said the Biden campaign is essentially trying to “buy the primary through a super PAC that can rake in unlimited cash from billionaires and corporations.”
Shakir’s campaign statement, via Bern Notice, reads:
Joe Biden has spent his campaign promising elite donors that nothing will fundamentally change for them, and he has made clear to fossil fuel and pharmaceutical donors that he will be their ally. As a result, he has had trouble generating significant grassroots support from Americans who are getting crushed by those same big donors — and so his supporters are suddenly begging for help from super PACs, even though they are vehicles for the kind of corporate corruption that Democrats should be fighting to stop.
Let’s be clear: super PACs exist for one reason and one reason only: to help billionaires and corporations bankroll a presidential campaign with unlimited amounts of money, in exchange for favors. Every Democratic candidate should forcefully reject any help from super PACs — and they should tell their supporters and surrogates to stop engaging with super PACs that aim to buy elections and undermine our democracy.
Sanders also criticized Biden during a town hall event in Marshalltown, Iowa, on Thursday.
“I don’t need a super PAC. I am not going to be controlled by a handful of wealthy people. I will be controlled by the working people of this country,” he said.
Similarly, Warren – who has pledged to refrain from attending big fundraisers and courting wealthy donors despite doing so during her senatorial bids and transferring leftover funds to cushion her presidential run – took a shot a Biden on social media but did not call him out by name.
“It’s disappointing that any Democratic candidate would reverse course and endorse the use of unlimited contributions from the wealthy to run against fellow Democrats,” Warren said.
“A handful of wealthy donors should not be allowed to buy the Democratic nomination,” she continued. That’s not who we are.”
“Every Democratic candidate should agree: Super PACs have no place in our primary,” she added:
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.