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In the early ’70s, Sanders helped found the Liberty Union Party, which called for the nationalization of all US banks and the public takeover of all private utility companies.

After failed runs for Congress, Sanders in 1981 managed to get elected mayor of Burlington, Vt., where he restricted property rights for landlords, set price controls and raised property taxes to pay for communal land trusts. Local small businesses distributed fliers complaining their new mayor “does not believe in free enterprise.”

His radical activities didn’t stop at the ­water’s edge.

Sanders took several “goodwill” trips not only to the USSR, but also to Cuba and Nicaragua, where the Soviets were trying to expand their influence in our hemisphere.

In 1985, he traveled to Managua to celebrate the rise to power of the Marxist-Leninist Sandinista government. He called it a “heroic revolution.” Undermining anti-communist US policy, Sanders denounced the Reagan administration’s backing of the Contra rebels in a letter to the Sandinistas.

His betrayal did not end there. Sanders lobbied the White House to stop the proxy war and even tried to broker a peace deal. He adopted Managua as a sister city and invited Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega to visit the US. He exalted Ortega as “an impressive guy,” while attacking President Reagan.
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Republican operatives are having a strange crush on Bernie Sanders.

During Sunday night’s Democratic debate, the Republican National Committee made the unusual move of sending no fewer than four real-time e-mails to reporters defending the self-described democratic socialist from attacks by Hillary Clinton or echoing his message against her. Based on their content, one could be forgiven for thinking the RNC communiques came from the Sanders campaign.

One RNC e-mail, which was titled “Clinton’s Misleading Health Care Attack,” defended the Vermont senator from what it described as “the Clinton campaign’s inaccurate remarks on Sanders’ single-payer plan,” and quoted news articles that featured rebuttals of her arguments. A second message countered Clinton’s attacks on Sanders over gun control by pointing out her gun-friendly statements in the past. Two other e-mails sought to bolster Sanders’ case that Clinton is too close to Wall Street and the drug industry.

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Meanwhile, American Crossroads, a group co-founded by Karl Rove, is airing an ad in Iowa bolstering a core tenet of Sanders’s case against Clinton: that she has received large sums of campaign contributions from Wall Street, and therefore can't be trusted to crack down on big banks. “Hillary rewarded Wall Street with a $700 billion bailout, then Wall Street made her a multi-millionaire,” a narrator in the ad says. “Does Iowa really want Wall Street in the White House?”
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Even when Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is making a good point, his dull sense of the reality of governing — which involves policy details, practical constraints and trade-offs — is obvious.

The insurgent presidential candidate pressed Hillary Clinton on global warming at Thursday night’s Democratic presidential debate. He had some decent things to say about the issue. Lowering carbon dioxide emissions should be a national priority.

But Sanders does not appear to understand why that is. In addition to calling for a carbon tax, he railed against fracked natural gas and stood by his call to eliminate nuclear power. When a moderator pressed him to explain how he would eschew these energy sources and meet the nation’s energy demands without burning more dirty coal, he said that the transition would not happen overnight and that he would invest in things such as rooftop solar.

Sanders ignores or misunderstands the underlying logic of a carbon tax, his own policy. A key benefit of a carbon tax would be that it induces the economy to reshape itself. Fuels that emit carbon dioxide become more expensive. Cleaner energy sources get cheaper. Consumers and businesses respond to these price signals in the goods and services they buy, in the energy infrastructure they build, in the amount of electricity they use, in the number of miles they drive, in the types of appliances and cars they purchase, and their behavior shapes how the country decarbonizes. By enlisting the ruthless efficiency of markets in the battle against climate change, the costs of transitioning onto clean energy are minimized.

But this process might lead to results that Sanders would not like. Perhaps the most cost-effective way to transition onto clean energy is to use fracked natural gas for a while and keep nuclear plants running for decades longer. Perhaps not. A carbon tax allows politicians to set an emissions-reducing policy and get out of the way. But Sanders does not want to get out of the way. It is not enough simply to reduce greenhouse emissions. The country must transition the way he wants it to. No nuclear power. No fracked natural gas.
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Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is praising a decision by a Connecticut judge to allow the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre to sue the gun manufacturer.

After Judge Barbara Bellis denied a motion from the gun manufacturers to dismiss a case brought by the families of the Sandy Hook massacre victims, Hillary Clinton said, “Today’s ruling in Connecticut is an important step forward for these families, who are bravely fighting to hold irresponsible gun makers accountable for their actions. They deserve their day in court. Period. Unfortunately, PLCAA – the sweeping immunity law that protects gun manufacturers and dealers – still remains a major obstacle for these families and others seeking to hold these gun companies accountable. That is why, as president, I would lead the charge to repeal this law. Nothing can make these families whole again after losing their children and loved ones in Sandy Hook, but they deserve a president who will fight for them, and I am committed to doing just that.”

The presidential campaign of Sen.[font size="+1"] Bernie Sanders has yet to release a statement on the decision, but in the past Sanders has said that he is not in favor of the gun manufacturers being sued for selling a legal product[/font].

Gun policy has been a major point of difference between the two Democratic presidential campaigns. It is a near certainty that this topic will be brought up at the CNN Democratic debate.
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Bernie’s response is disingenuous: “In 1988, before I was elected to Congress I was in a race, three-way race, the gun lobby was against me [in] that race because I said in 1988 that we should not have assault weapons sold or distributed in this country… I lost that race because I said in 1988, let’s ban assault weapons in this country. So to keep attacking me, I think, is unfair.”

Disingenuous, because when Bernie ran again two years later, he’d learned his lesson. According to the Washington Post:

As a candidate in 1990, Sanders won over gun rights groups by promising to oppose one bill they hated — a measure that would establish a waiting period for handgun sales. In Congress, he kept that promise. The dynamic served as an early demonstration that, despite his pure-leftist persona, Sanders was at his core a pragmatic politician, calculating that he couldn’t win in rural Vermont without doing something for gun owners.

Bernie modulated his position, and the NRA decided to go after his Republican opponent Peter Smith, pouring money into ads opposing Smith, which they knew would benefit Bernie. NRA honcho Wayne LaPierre endorsed Bernie, writing to members: “Bernie Sanders is a more honorable choice for Vermont sportsmen than Peter Smith.” It worked.

Bernie won. And he kept his word.

According to Correct the Record:

May 1991: Bernie Sanders voted against the Brady Bill. (H R 7, Vote # 83, 5/8/91)

November 1991: Bernie Sanders voted against the Brady Bill. (H R 3371, Vote #443, 11/26/91)

November 1993: Bernie Sanders voted against the Brady Bill. (H R 1025, Vote #564, 11/10/93)

November 1993: Bernie Sanders voted against the final version of the Brady Bill. (H R 1025, Vote #614, 11/22/93)

Bernie Sanders voted for the Gekas Amendment to the Brady Bill. (H R 1025, Vote #559, 11/10/93; CQ Floor Votes, 11/10/93)

This three-day default proceed, also known as the Charleston loophole, allowed Dylan Roof to obtain a gun. [New York Times, 7/11/15]

Bernie Sanders opposed a seven-day waiting period for firearms purchases so gun owners wouldn’t “get caught up in a bureaucracy.” (Rutland Herald, 3/30/91)

Sanders voted for the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms (PLCAA) in Arms Act which, “shields gun makers and dealers from most liability when their firearms are used criminally.” (Slate, 5/6/15, House Roll Call 534, 10/20/05)

And just today, on ABC News:

Link to video: https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/719175432654839808

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It’s one thing for the Sanders campaign to point to Hillary Clinton’s Wall Street connections, which are real, although the question should be whether they have distorted her positions, a case the campaign has never even tried to make. But recent attacks on Mrs. Clinton as a tool of the fossil fuel industry are just plain dishonest, and speak of a campaign that has lost its ethical moorings.

And then there was Wednesday’s rant about how Mrs. Clinton is not “qualified” to be president.

What probably set that off was a recent interview of Mr. Sanders by The Daily News, in which he repeatedly seemed unable to respond when pressed to go beyond his usual slogans. Mrs. Clinton, asked about that interview, was careful in her choice of words, suggesting that “he hadn’t done his homework.”

But Mr. Sanders wasn’t careful at all, declaring that what he considers Mrs. Clinton’s past sins, including her support for trade agreements and her vote to authorize the Iraq war — for which she has apologized — make her totally unfit for office.

This is really bad, on two levels. Holding people accountable for their past is O.K., but imposing a standard of purity, in which any compromise or misstep makes you the moral equivalent of the bad guys, isn’t. Abraham Lincoln didn’t meet that standard; neither did F.D.R. Nor, for that matter, has Bernie Sanders (think guns).
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Presidential candidates have consistently released their tax returns since the 1970s. The Tax History Project, a public service initiative from Tax Analysts, has compiled tax returns for presidents, vice presidents and candidates vying for their seats in recent decades. The public can even access President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s hand-written tax returns dating to 1913.

In the 2016 election, two candidates have been notably transparent compared to others: Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush. This appears to be the one area where Clinton may be immune to transparency criticism.

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Plainly put, Sanders has not released his full federal tax return. The little he has released was the Form 1040 in 2014, which is a summary of his tax filing that gives a snapshot of his finances — not what is considered a full tax return. The Sanders campaign confirmed to The Washington Post that it has not released other tax returns prior to 2014, which is a sharp contrast to Clinton’s voluminous release of her complete tax returns.

Tapper correctly questioned Sanders, asking why “nobody has seen them [federal tax returns] at all.” Yet Sanders interrupted Tapper to reject the notion, insisting: “That is not true. Of course, we have released them in the past.” But this answer is nothing remotely close to the little federal tax records he has released to the public.

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Sanders is not required to release his tax filings, and he clearly decided to keep them confidential. That’s his choice. But it doesn’t excuse him from misleading the public to believe otherwise with this false claim.

Four Pinocchios

Clinton up 14 points over Sanders in the Empire State

In the Democratic race, Clinton is ahead of Bernie Sanders among likely Democratic primary voters by 14 points, 55 percent to 41 percent.

Clinton leads Sanders among African Americans (68 percent to 28 percent), those ages 45 and older (66 percent to 30 percent) and women (58 percent to 38 percent).

Sanders, meanwhile, holds the advantage among those younger than 45 (62 percent to 37 percent) and those who describe themselves as "very liberal" (59 percent to 40 percent). The two are running roughly even among men and Latinos.

Geographically, Clinton is ahead of Sanders in New York City (58 percent to 39 percent) and in the suburbs (61 percent to 36 percent), but Sanders holds a one-point lead in Upstate New York (49 percent to 48 percent).

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As President Obama prepares for a trip to Saudi Arabia later this month, a CBS 60 Minutes segment has rekindled calls to declassify the 28 pages omitted from the 2003 report about the 9/11 attacks.

The 28 pages are believed to expose a number of links between various officials in Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 hijackers — 15 of 19 of whom were Saudi citizens. A CIA watchdog report from last year says there is no evidence that the Saudi government “knowingly and willingly” supported al-Qaeda’s attack, but many congressmen believe the 28 pages could indicate heavy Saudi involvement in the 9/11 attacks.

“I think it is implausible to believe that 19 people, most of whom didn’t speak English, most of whom had never been in the United States before, many of whom didn’t have a high school education — could’ve carried out such a complicated task without some support from within the United States,” Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) told 60 Minutes. During the interview, 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft asked Graham which of the Saudi government, charities, and wealthy benefactors were involved in aiding the hijackers.

“All of the above,” Graham replied.

The papers are accessible to members of Congress, so long as they are unaccompanied and do not take notes. A bipartisan effort led by Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) and Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) is attempting to get the documents read and declassified. Obama has promised the families of victims on two separate occasions that he would declassify the 28 pages, which have been classified for 13 years, but he may be reluctant to strain already fragile ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
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Bernie Sanders told CNN’s Jakes Tapper today that he can’t yet release his tax returns, even though his challenger Hillary Clinton has released eight year’s worth of such returns, because Sanders’ wife Jane does their taxes, and she’s been too busy with the campaign to get to them.

Tapper expressed surprise that Sanders, who is running as a “new” kind of candidate who is super transparent about his finances, is hiding his tax returns at such a crucial point in the Democratic primaries.
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