No, Bernie Didn't Say Abortion Rights Were A "Distraction" From "Real Issues"

 Hey, remember when Bernie Sanders called abortion rights a "distraction" from "the real issues"?

Well, no, you don't. But if you've spent any time discussing public affairs on social media in recent years, you've seen that claim dozens--maybe hundreds--of times. It's a tenet of the online Clinton cult, repeated as a mantra not only to attack Vermont Sen. Sanders but progressives in general. Back in the Summer, I created a brief thread on Twitter correcting it--figured I'd adapt and expand it here.

This began--as is usually the case with these things--with Hillary Clinton. In her 2016 struggle with Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination, Clinton was unable to match Sanders on policy. Policy should theoretically be central to any such campaign but compared to Sanders, Clinton was really bad on it, so to parry his advocacy of wildly popular progressive issues, she turned to weaponized "identity" attacks, aiming at key Democratic constituencies by suggesting Sanders was weak on race- and gender-related issues, even that Sanders, the lifelong champion of civil rights and women's rights, was a "racist" and "sexist"/"misogynist." The "distraction" talk began as just another chapter in that despicable playbook.

In March, 2016, the always-appalling Donald Trump said women who had abortions should be legally punished. The Democratic candidates were dutifully publicly appalled by this but at a campaign appearance in New York, Clinton insisted that, during an interview with Rachel Maddow, Sanders had dismissed abortion rights as a distraction from the important issues.

"'Last night, Senator Sanders agreed that Donald Trump's comments were shameful but then he said they were a distraction from, and I quote, "a serious discussion about the serious issues facing America,"' the Democratic presidential candidate told the crowd of roughly 700 people at an event here in Purchase, New York-- prompting boos from some in the crowd.

"'To me, this is a serious issue. And it's a very serious discussion,' she continued."

This was amplified by the Clinton cult, which dropped even Clinton's pretense of nuance ("shameful"), and we were off to the races with, so far, 7 years and counting of the Clinton cult claiming Sanders had called abortion rights a distraction.

To untangle this, here's what Sanders actually said about abortion rights in that interview with Rachel Maddow:

MADDOW: After, uh, the word spread that Donald Trump had made those remarks today about abortion, that a woman needs to be punished, uh, if she seeks an abortion and abortion should be banned, you said today that was shameful. What is shameful about it?

SANDERS: Well, I think it is -- shameful is probably understating that position. First of all, to me, and I think to most Americans, women have the right to control their own bodies and they have the right to make those personal decisions themselves.

But to punish a woman for having an abortion is beyond comprehension. I -- I just -- you know, one would say what is in Donald Trump's mind except we're tired of saying that?

I don't know what world this person lives in. So obviously, from my perspective, and if elected president, I will do everybody that I can to allow women to make that choice and have access to clinics all over this country so that if they choose to have an abortion, they will be able to do so.

The idea of punishing a woman, that is just, you know, beyond comprehension.

At one point, Sanders went off on the perpetually-recurring press obsession with every stupid, outrageous thing Trump says--a major problem with the coverage of the 2016 campaign:

"You know, you mentioned a moment ago, Rachel, that the media is paying attention to Donald Trump. Duh? No kidding. Once again, every stupid remark will be broadcast, you know, for the next five days. But what is Donald Trump's position on raising the minimum wage? Well, he doesn't think so. What is Donald Trump's position on wages in America? Well, he said in a Republican debate he thinks wages are too high. What's Donald Trump's position on taxes? Well, he wants to give billionaire families like himself hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks. What is Donald Trump's position on climate change? Oh, he thinks it's a hoax perpetrated, shock of all shock, by the Chinese. You know, on and on it goes. But because media is what media is today, any stupid, absurd remark made by Donald Trump becomes the story of the week. Maybe, just maybe, we might want to have a serious discussion about the serious issues facing America. Donald Trump will not look quite so interesting in that context."

These entirely uncontroversial remarks--the press obsession with Trump's absurdist, attention-grabbing hijinks in 2016 have been called out by pretty much everyone--are what Hillary Clinton misrepresented as Sanders calling abortion rights a "distraction."

Several years later, Clinton cultists began buttressing that false "distraction" narrative with a hacked-up video of a Sanders appearance on THE ED SHOW on MSNBC, which they insist shows Sanders on the 2016 (sometimes 2015) campaign trail against Clinton, throwing under the bus both abortion rights and gay rights.

The video is from a clip of an interview with Sanders from 18 Oct., 2013, long before the presidential race, and can be seen in full on Sanders' own Youtube channel. At the time, Sanders had been touring deep-South states, noted that Republicans use things like abortion and gay rights to rile up white working class voters and get them to vote against their own best interests and suggested popular economic policies could counter this:

"I honestly believe that [Democrats] can win states in the South, because you got a lot of folks here who are hurting terribly. These are people who are working for low wages, they don't have any health care, they can't afford to send their kids to college, and if we start pounding away at the economic message, out willingness to take on the big-money interests, to take on Wall Street, to create millions of jobs we need, to raise the minimum wage, to make college affordable, y'know what? I think we can win in these Southern states."

Pretty much the same things Sanders has said for years. Republicans have been cynically weaponizing social issues in this way, as wedges to get people to vote against their own interests, for over four decades, and--more to the point--Democrats and other political commentators have been pointing it out for over 40 years as well. It's entirely uncontroversial. Unless it's Sanders saying it. Sanders' comments on the Ed Show had been a matter of public record for 9 years--displayed, as noted earlier, on Sanders' own Youtube channel--before Clinton cultists pulled it out and began misrepresenting it.

Bernie Sanders' record on abortion rights is unambiguous: He holds perfect 100% ratings from both NARAL and Planned Parenthood. Even given the often-dubious nature of interest-group ratings, he's never cast a single vote with which these orgs disagree.

Sanders was, in fact, on the record as pro-choice on abortion before, in 1973, Roe v. Wade had even been decided--significantly longer than many of the Clinton cultists perpetually attacking Sanders over this nonsense have even lived. From 1972:

In 2016, Sanders was stronger on the issue than Hillary Clinton, who said she'd be willing to accept restrictions on abortion rights, whereas Sanders refused to support any. It was, in fact, in the aftermath of a Clinton/Sanders debate, when the press began to make note of the contrast between Sanders' firmness and Clinton's mushiness on the issue, that Clinton launched her phony narrative about Sanders calling abortion rights a "distraction."

Here's the sort of thing Sanders actually said about abortion rights, the Roe v. Wade ruling, etc. during the 2016 campaign:

Another example: a long string of Sanders' tweets on the subject, starting here.

This piece is likely to have no impact on the false claims of the Clinton cult on this "issue." The cult has long made it clear that when it comes to this sort of thing, it doesn't really care about the truth. But the relevant facts are recorded here for anyone who does and may come across it.

--j.