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US election: 'Sanders said no woman could win', Warren says | US election: 'Sanders said no woman could win', Warren says |
(about 4 hours later) | |
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren claims rival Bernie Sanders told her a woman could not win this year's presidential election. | |
Ms Warren said the comment was made during a two-hour meeting with Mr Sanders in 2018. | Ms Warren said the comment was made during a two-hour meeting with Mr Sanders in 2018. |
Mr Sanders denied the claim and insisted he believed a woman could beat President Donald Trump. | |
Mr Sanders and Ms Warren are the most prominent progressive candidates for the Democratic nomination. | |
Their spat has left an unstated non-aggression pact between them in tatters and is likely to come up at a live televised debate on Tuesday night in Des Moines, Iowa. | |
CNN quoted Warren aides as saying she had been told by Mr Sanders during a private meeting that a woman could not win. | |
In his response, he said the comment had been made up by "staff who weren't in the room and are lying about what happened". | |
The Vermont senator told CNN: "It is ludicrous to believe that at the same meeting where Elizabeth Warren told me she was going to run for president, I would tell her that a woman couldn't win. | |
"What I did say that night was that Donald Trump is a sexist, a racist and a liar who would weaponise whatever he could. | |
"Do I believe a woman can win in 2020? Of course! After all Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 3 million votes in 2016." | |
But later on Monday, Ms Warren stood by the allegation. "Among the topics that came up was what would happen if Democrats nominated a female candidate," she said in a statement. | |
"I thought a woman could win, he disagreed." The Massachusetts senator added: "I have no interest in discussing this private meeting any further because Bernie and I have far more in common than our differences on punditry." | |
She added that the two remained "friends and allies". | She added that the two remained "friends and allies". |
It is not the first flashpoint between the Sanders and Warren campaigns. | |
On Sunday, Politico reported that some Sanders volunteers had been instructed to depict Ms Warren as an elitist. | |
The volunteers were reportedly telling voters on the doorstep that Ms Warren's appeal was limited to "highly educated, more affluent people". | |
Ms Warren accused Mr Sanders of "sending his volunteers out to trash me". She warned against the kind of internecine "factionalism" she said split Democratic voters in 2016. | |
He denied sanctioning the script. | |
Mr Sanders told reporters in Iowa: "We have hundreds of employees. Elizabeth Warren has hundreds of employees. | |
"And people sometimes say things that they shouldn't. You have heard me give many speeches. Have I ever said one negative word about Elizabeth Warren?" | |
The pair will be among six candidates on stage in Tuesday's televised debate hosted by CNN, including former Vice-President Joe Biden and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. | |
According to an opinion poll taken on 8-9 January, 23% of registered Democrats said they supported Mr Biden, while 20% supported Mr Sanders and 15% Ms Warren. | |
Former Democratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand, who last August ended her campaign focusing on women's equality, has commented on the gender row. | |
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