What is Hillary Trying to Accomplish by Bashing Bernie?

If you thought we were nearing the end of Hillary’s debrief on what happened in 2016, think again. Just today, on an interview with NPR, Hillary doubled-down on her sharp criticism of Bernie Sanders. She also reserved some of her harshest words for his followers, who she claims became incredibly personal and insulting with their criticism of her during the campaign.

The Hill reports on Hillary finally unloading on team Bernie:

During an interview with NPR on Tuesday, Clinton was asked about her response to those who say she ran in 2016 as a candidate who believed it was her turn to be president.

“Well, I just totally reject that. As you probably would have expected me to say,” Clinton said.

“I find this criticism from Sanders supporters to be so off base. He’s not even a Democrat.”

Clinton clarified her comments were not meant to be a “slam” on Sanders.

“I’ve been working on behalf of Democrats, to be elected, to be reelected, for decades. And so yes, I was familiar to broad parts of the electorate, and I’m proud of that,” she said during the interview.

“And I did well across the country. I won by 4 million votes. That’s a landslide. I won, really, by March and April.”

But even after that point, Clinton said, Sanders kept going and launching attacks against her.

“He and his followers’ attacks on me kept getting more and more personal, despite him asking me not to attack him personally,” she said.

“And, you know, I really regret that. But now he’s got a chance to prove that he’s something other than a spoiler. And that is to help other Democrats. And I don’t know if he will or not, but I’m hoping he will.”

I’m not sure why she’s getting upset about being asked whether she entered the campaign as the “inevitable” candidate? She’s the one who chose to write the book and rehash the entire election cycle again all the way back to the primaries. Furthermore, it’s very clear that she puts far more blame on Bernie Sanders than she would let on. Obviously Hillary believes that Bernie hung on too long during the primary despite mounting evidence that she would eventually win the nomination.

I know a lot of people are sick of reading about Hillary and/or reading articles that look back on the previous election cycle. I’m generally in that category myself, but in this case, the criticism is so pointed that it’s evident Hillary’s political career is probably over. Some of the anger probably stems from that realization, perhaps even most of it. When the primary started, there was almost no chance that Bernie Sanders would become the nominee. As the primary progressed, and Bernie gained some support, he gave Hillary a scare. But even still, was he really ever in a position to win the nomination against the Clinton machine? Most people would say no way. That is where I think the anger comes from against Bernie. Hillary was entering the primary as the inevitable nominee because, frankly, she was inevitably going to be the nominee.

From her perspective, she would wipe the primary slate clean early on, then just sit back and bank money for the general election. Instead, she had to fight bitterly with Bernie in debate after debate, absorbing his criticism but too afraid of fighting back harshly for fear of alienating his supporters she’d need in the general.

I think this was exacerbated by Donald Trump in the general election. During the primary, Hillary presumed she’d be the shoe-in against the disheveled, cranky Grandpa. During the general, she presumed she’d be the shoe-in against the loud-mouth, offensive Uncle. Well, we know how it all turned out. Though I don’t think this complaining is doing anything positive for Hillary aside from selling books, but it’s not helping her public image.