‘Liar’ Trump and ‘Crazy’ Bernie Sanders already in fundraising battle for 2020
The 2020 race to be US president heated up this week with the entrance of Senator Bernie Sanders, who raked in $6 million in donations in 24 hours, prompting a war of words and a fundraising battle with Donald Trump.
Sanders announced his second bid for the presidency on Monday, giving an interview to Vermont Public Radio in which he called President Trump a “pathological liar.”
A day later he announced that his campaign had already raised nearly $6 million in small-dollar donations – breaking Senator Kamala Harris’ first-day record of $1.5 million.
The huge fundraising haul caught Trump’s attention and his campaign sent a text and email to its own supporters asking for donations to “CRUSH that number” and to stop “radical socialism” in its tracks. Sanders is a self described “democratic-socialist” who is promoting a more “progressive” economic agenda.
Interesting: Trump campaign attempting to beat Bernie Sanders’ online $ haul. pic.twitter.com/kum48PrLNe
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) February 20, 2019
The Sanders camp was quick to respond, tweeting that Trump’s fundraising effort signalled that he was "terrified" by the campaign’s first-day fundraising numbers, and calling on supporters to donate again.
Trump tweeted, emailed, and text-messaged his supporters—terrified of our Day 1 fundraising and sign-up numbers. He’s scared. And he should be. Help us send Trump a message in a language he’s sure to understand: Make a $10 donation to our campaign today: https://t.co/gmJT4pVDbTpic.twitter.com/pBY4p7noAZ
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 21, 2019
Earlier in the week, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he does “like” Sanders and wishes him well. Trump also said he believed Sanders was “taken advantage of” and “not treated with respect” four years ago when the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which is not supposed to favor any candidate during the primary process, was found to be working actively with the Clinton campaign to keep Sanders from winning the nomination.
On Bernie Sanders running for president, Trump says "I like Bernie" and "I wish Bernie well." He goes on to lament "what happened to Bernie" during the 2016 campaign."I think he was taken advantage of. He ran great 4 years ago and he was not treated with respect by Clinton." pic.twitter.com/cvU7XaYu0X
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 19, 2019
The compliments from Trump quickly ended there, however, and he called the senator “crazy” in a tweet the next day, prompting another verbal jab from Sanders, who said the president was “a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe and a fraud.”
Crazy Bernie has just entered the race. I wish him well!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2019
What’s crazy is that we have a president who is a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe and a fraud. We are going to bring people together and not only defeat Trump but transform the economic and political life of this country. Say you're in: https://t.co/rxqbjJJKv3https://t.co/HoJG0Rlwq1
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 20, 2019
The instant clash between Trump and Sanders seems to indicate that the Trump team views Sanders as the most serious challenger to enter the crowded Democratic primary field so far.
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