Disgruntled Democrats have blamed Hillary Clinton’s decisive election loss to Russian hacking, and, among other reasons, on FBI Director James Comey.
But Jon Svitavsky blames Clinton’s Democratic challenger during the primaries, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for Trump’s victory.
“I hold him absolutely, centrally responsible for Donald Trump being president,” Svitavsky said.
Svitavsky, a Clinton supporter whose energies are usually devoted to championing the homeless, is channeling his anger against Sanders by entering politics for the first time and running against him–even though Sanders has not yet made his campaign for re-election official.
Svitavsky also blames Democrats for allowing the self-described Independent into the fold.
He said, “I believe that Bernie Sanders’ entire involvement with the Democratic party has been devastating. I think it was a big mistake for the Democratic Party to let him in in the first place.”
Despite Sanders overwhelmingly winning the Vermont Democratic primary last year by carrying 85 percent of Democratic voters, Svitavsky smells blood in the water, and believes that grassroots Democrats want Sanders out of office.
Claiming that within mere hours of floating his intention to challenge Sanders, Svitavsky stated that thousands of voters have flocked to him wanting to donate their time, effort, and energies to volunteer for his campaign. For him, this is proof that not every Democrat out there wants to “coddle” Sanders.
“There’s a lot of anger out there in my party against Bernie,” Svitavsky said.
Along with the Senator’s alleged sabotaging of Clinton’s campaign against Trump, Svitavsky also believes voters are repelled by an ongoing FBI investigation as to whether Sanders’ wife, who headed Burlington College, bankrupted and thus closed down the college with her so-called corrupt business practices.
Svitavsky, who is an alma mater of the university, called the probe “a very serious investigation.”
In the past, Svitavsky has even claimed that he went head-to-head with the Vermont Senator over homeless issues.
Nevertheless, the DNC backed Sanders in his first-time Senate run in 2006 and in 2012; in the latter, Sanders, despite winning the Democratic primary vote, ran instead as an Independent.
Despite the ongoing FBI investigation, a political scientist at the University of Vermont who has studied Sanders’ successful Senate runs for years believes the Senator’s popularity is so substantial that the investigation won’t sink him if he decides to run for the Senate a third time.
Professor Garrison Nelson said that he does not believe that making the FBI probe a campaign issue while challenging Sanders will put a dent the Senator’s “popularity.”
“Anybody who’s going to run against Bernie will use this to justify it… {But} Bernie’s popularity is enough to withstand it,” Nelson said.
Nelson likens any primary challengers running against the Senator from the Democratic side as engaging in a “kamikaze mission.” The evidence thus far proves Nelson right. In past Senate runs, Sanders overwhelmingly defeated challengers from both experienced political figures and rich businessmen. Svitavsky’s chances are hindered by his lack of credibility and glaring ties to Clinton.
Despite Svitavsky claim that it was the FBI probe that activated his run, his other statements invalidate this claim. He cites Sanders aiding Trump as his “number one issue.”
Although currently ignored by upper echelon Democrats, Svitavsky’s pro-Clinton sympathies are evidenced by his backing from the pro-Clinton group, Organizing for Democrats, who have sharply attacked Sanders and his Democratic Party benefactors.
Hate does not sell.