Elizabeth Warren confirmed reports that Bernie Sanders told her he believed a woman couldn't win the presidency
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday confirmed a report that her fellow 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders told her he didn't believe that a woman could win the presidency.
Warren, who released a statement Monday evening, said the comment was made during a private meeting in December 2018 to discuss the 2020 election.
"I thought a woman could win; he disagreed," Warren said.
Warren went on to say she wouldn't discuss the private meeting any further because "Bernie and I have far more in common than our differences on punditry."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday night confirmed a report that her fellow 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders told her he didn't believe that a woman could win the presidency. Sanders has denied the claim.
In a lengthy statement shared on Twitter by Warren's communications director, Kristen Orthman, the Massachusetts senator addressed speculation of Sanders' comment on the record after multiple outlets reported about it earlier Monday.
During a private meeting in December 2018, Warren said, she met with Sanders to discuss the 2020 election and the topic of the possibility of a female Democratic candidate came up.
"I thought a woman could win; he disagreed," Warren said in the statement.
The New York Times cited people briefed on the meeting as saying that, in context, Sanders made the comment while arguing to Warren that he believed President Donald Trump would employ sexism against a female competitor to great effect.
Warren said she wouldn't say any more because "Bernie and I have far more in common than our differences on punditry."
"I'm in this race to talk about what's broken in this country and how to fix it — and that's what I'm going to continue to do," Warren said. "I know Bernie is in the race for the same reason.
"We have been friends and allies in this fight for a long time, and I have no doubt we will continue to work together to defeat Donald Trump and put our government on the side of the people."
When the story first broke on CNN, Sanders denied the exchange.
"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," he told CNN in a statement. "It's sad that, three weeks before the Iowa caucus and a year after that private conversation, staff who weren't in the room are lying about what happened.
"What I did say that night was that Donald Trump is a sexist, a racist, and a liar who would weaponize 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."
Sanders' senior campaign adviser Jeff Weaver echoed the sentiment to CNN's Chris Cuomo after Warren confirmed the comment, saying "there's some lines crossed here."
—Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) January 14, 2020
Sanders' supporters rallied behind him and backed up the presidential candidate via Twitter, with the hashtag #ITrustBernie trending on the social-media site soon after reports began to emerge of the comment.
The disagreement came a day before the candidates were to appear onstage alongside four others in a presidential debate in Iowa.
Read more:
Bernie Sanders told Elizabeth Warren during a private meeting that a woman can't win the presidency
Warren, Sanders campaigns spar in rare show of discord between progressive Democratic contenders
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