Trump’s Impeachment Is The Story, Not Hillary vs. Bernie

Yesterday, news media’s top trending story was the “outrage” over Hillary Clinton’s interview in which she said ‘nobody likes Bernie Sanders and nobody wants to work with him.’ She spent 8 years as First Lady, dealing with him in Congress while she fought for health care, she was a 2-term Senator and Secretary of State. She likely knows a hell of a lot more about Bernie than you and I will ever know and has a right to speak up. Yet, why the focus on—and predictable outrage at—her comments yesterday: The first day of Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate. Who here thinks it’s an accident that an interview Hillary gave months ago was thrust into the headlines on the same day? 

Once again, the distraction becomes the story. It’s another case of, “Look over there! Squirrel!”

Even Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman tweeted from the outrage bandwagon. Shocking since Krugman is a longtime Hillary defender, rightly taking his own New York Times to task for their miserable treatment of her, even as he commented how disgraceful it is that she’s not going to support Sanders if he’s the nominee. Tommy Vietor commented too.

But that’s not what she said.

When are we going to learn to stop being distracted by shiny objects? When is it going to be okay for a woman to speak her truth—after the way Hillary was treated by Bernie and his supporters in 2016, she has every right to share her thoughts. Per the Los Angeles Times:

In “Hillary,” a four-part Hulu documentary series premiering at this week’s Sundance Film Festival, the former presidential candidate expresses her irritation with the independent from Vermont, dismissing his track record as a senator and noting the “vitriol” of his supporters.

“Honestly, Bernie just drove me crazy,” she says in an interview early in the second episode. “He was in Congress for years. He had one senator support him [in the 2016 primary]. Nobody likes him. Nobody wants to work with him. He got nothing done. He was a career politician. He did not work until he was like 41, and then he got elected to something. It was all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it.”

She’s not alone:

And as night follows day, how many times does a woman have to justify, clarify, and apologize for herself because she’s not an old white man?

From Hillary last night:

Again…do we really think an interview Hillary gave months ago just became a front-page story on the same day as Trump’s impeachment by accident?

Let’s keep our eyes on the prize. Put pressure on your Senators to allow witnesses and a real trial instead of asking a woman to apologize for something she has every right to say.

But while we’re on the subject, if in the unlikely event Sanders becomes the nominee, does anybody have any doubt that Hillary would get out there and campaign for him? She’s a Democrat through and through and has proven that repeatedly. Let’s let the outrage police take a rest for a minute and put our focus back where it belongs.

As a fitting coda, on day 2 of Trump’s impeachment, news dropped of Senator Tulsi Gabbard suing Hillary for “defamation”. This is a desperate attention grab that will go nowhere.  It will die a quiet death as soon as Ms. Gabbard realizes she will need to be deposed. But do you see a pattern here? Why, it’s more “Look over there! Squirrel!” Anything to keep Trump’s name off the front page.

GOP and a corporate owned press know the best way to do that is to push the name of their favorite lightning rod into the headlines.

Don’t fall for it.