Sanders “Totally Sold Out”: Trump’s Not Taking Bernie’s Endorsement Of Hillary Well

Although it was known for nearly a week that this was going to happen, Donald Trump (and more than a few Berners) were crestfallen when independent Vermont Senator stood on a New Hampshire stage Tuesday and formally endorsed Hillary Clinton.

After a hard-fought primary campaign that became contentious at the end, Sanders finally tossed his support behind the former Secretary of State. Her embrace of a number of his policies, as well as Sanders pushing the party platform in a more progressive direction, led to the Democratic Socialist finally feeling comfortable in endorsing Hillary for president.

While the New Hampshire rally was going on, Trump took to his favorite form of communication — mean tweeting — to express his disgust at Sanders for getting behind Crooked Hillary.

Bernie Sanders, who has lost most of his leverage, has totally sold out to Crooked Hillary Clinton. He will endorse her today – fans angry!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2016

I am somewhat surprised that Bernie Sanders was not true to himself and his supporters. They are not happy that he is selling out!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2016

Beyond the Twitter tantrum, Trump’s team sent out various statements and ‘flashbacks’ to the press, highlighting the times Sanders criticized Clinton during the Democratic primary. (I mean, who does that, saying harsh stuff about their opponents to win elections?)

The following official campaign statement was written by Senior Policy Advisor and owner world’s most punchable face Stephen Miller, calling Bernie part of the rigged system:

“Today, Bernie Sanders will be endorsing one of the most pro-war, pro-wall street, and pro-off shoring candidates in the history of the Democratic Party. The candidate who ran against special interests is endorsing the candidate who embodies special interests. The candidate who ran against TPP is endorsing the candidate who helped draft the TPP. The candidate who ran in opposition to globalization is running against the candidate who has led the push for globalization. The candidate who warned that open borders destroy the working class is endorsing the candidate with the most open borders policy in our history. The candidate who wants to reform H1-B visas is endorsing the candidate who supported lifting the caps on H1-B visas. The candidate who wants less war is endorsing the candidate who launched wars in Iraq and Libya and would lead us to a new war in Syria. The candidate who wants to get money out of politics is voting for the candidate who has made a career out of making money from politics.

Bernie’s endorsement becomes Exhibit A in our rigged system – the Democrat Party is disenfranchising its voters to benefit the select and privileged few.”

Now, remember, Trump claims he’s worth more than $10 billion, but he’s hammering away at Democrats for trying to benefit the “privileged few” this election.

Anyway, now part of this is normal politics. You try to take advantage of every opportunity provided to you and spin it to your benefit as best you can. Trump wants to try to discredit Sanders’ endorsement and call him a hypocrite. Seems like a decent line of attack.

At the same time, it seems he may have felt deep down that Bernie was going to give Hillary the cold shoulder and maybe, just possibly, run a third-party campaign. He also appears to think that he can poach a bunch of disappointed Berniecrats who have declared #NeverHillary endlessly on Twitter and Facebook.

Outside of the fact that those voters would trend more towards Jill Stein and the Green Party than Trump, a recent Pew poll shows that 85% of Sanders supporters have already switched over to Clinton. While that #BernieOrBust sliver may seem huge on social media, the reality is the vast majority of Bernie fans have already said #ImWithHer.