Bernie Refuses to Accept Hillary Boot-Licking Barney Frank As Co-Chair of Platform Committee
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As the Democratic National Convention draws closer, former Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, who has become increasingly critical of Bernie Sanders over the past month, appeared on MSNBC with Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver on Wednesday to discuss the convention and its committee appointments.
Before diving into the hostile interview, it’s worth reviewing the history between Frank and the Sanders campaign. Sanders was recently given the power to make five appointments to the Democratic National Committee, which writes the Democratic Party platform. Politico reportsthat Sanders chose “Arab-American Institute President James Zogby; Cornel West; Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison; Deborah Parker, an activist on Native American rights; and Bill McKibben, an activist on environmental issues.”
But Sanders was not thrilled with co-chairmen of two standing committees, Barney Frank and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy. International Business Times recently explained that Frank’s position is an obstacle for the Sanders campaign, noting that Frank not only “sits on the board of directors of a major bank that was recently named in a lawsuit about an alleged Ponzi scheme,” but that he “has also publicly boasted about the money he has raked in from Wall Street, both as a lawmaker and now as a top Democratic Party power broker.” Essentially, Frank’s position in the party encapsulates what Sanders believes is wrong with the current political system.
Seen in this context, it’s perhaps unsurprising that last weekend Sanders sent a letter to the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee in which he made a “formal credentials challenge” to Malloy and Frank’s positions. Politico reports:
Malloy serves as co-chairman of the convention’s Platform Committee, and Frank is co-chairman of the Rules Committee. Both have been unsparing in their criticism of Sanders. Frank dismissed the Sanders campaign’s objections in an interview with POLITICO on Saturday. Miller and Roosevelt also rejected the letter’s criticism.
The Sanders letter to Roosevelt and Miller reads: “Governor Malloy and Mr. Frank have both been aggressive attack surrogates for the Clinton campaign. Their criticisms of Senator Sanders have gone beyond dispassionate ideological disagreement and have exposed a deeper professional, political and personal hostility toward the Senator and his Campaign.”
The Vermont senator has argued before that Malloy and Frank, both Hillary Clinton supporters, have unfairly and aggressively attacked his candidacy.
Frank was none too pleased at the publication of this letter. On MSNBC on Wednesday, alongside host Chris Matthews, Frank gave Weaver a piece of his mind. Salon summarizes the heated exchange:
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