Remember that @BuzzFeedNews article on how Bernie’s campaign crumbled by @rubycramer that hardcore Sanders supporters mocked and dismissed as an unsourced hoax? @alexburnsNYT just published a story that rereports and underscores key elements of that piece.
nytimes.com/2020/03/21/us/…
nytimes.com/2020/03/21/us/…
Bernie adamantly refused to directly criticize Joe Biden because he and the only advisor he regularly listened to, his wife Jane, personally like him. They even punished surrogates who went hard at him—something they notably failed to do when surrogates attacked Elizabeth Warren. 
Sanders actually resisted reaching out to AOC for the endorsement that saved his campaign—assuming he was essentially entitled to it.
While Warren pushed hard for Ocasio’s support, AOC’s team had to prod Sanders even to call her. Imagine if AOC had given the nod to Warren.
While Warren pushed hard for Ocasio’s support, AOC’s team had to prod Sanders even to call her. Imagine if AOC had given the nod to Warren.
AOC, in turn, pushed the Sanders campaign to reach our to Warren after the flap over Sanders allegedly saying a “woman couldn’t beat Trump.”
Instead, Sanders’s campaign manager called the report a “lie”—and Sanders reiterated that on the debate stage, triggering the snakestorm.
Instead, Sanders’s campaign manager called the report a “lie”—and Sanders reiterated that on the debate stage, triggering the snakestorm.
In all, the piece complements Cramer’s earlier postmortem—painting a picture of a campaign that acted as if progressive unity behind Sanders was inevitable, of a candidate who put personal ties over political necessity. Both are hard but necessary reading.
“Might have beens” don’t count. But if AOC endorsed Warren, Sanders’s campaign never comes back after his health crisis and Liz unites progressives AND many moderates in taking the fight hard to Biden in a way Sanders rejected. NOT AOC’s fault. But we’d be in a different place.
