The gender wars are escalating in Hillary Clinton’s drive to stop Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in New Hampshire.
Sanders leads Clinton by 16 points in the latest UMass/7 News tracking poll, and has a 12-point edge in the ARG tracking poll.
On Bill Maher’s show Friday night, Gloria Steinem suggested that young women are backing Sanders’ campaign because “when you’re young, you’re thinking, ‘Where are the boys?’ The boys are with Bernie.” Maher promptly told Steinem that she’d “smack” him if he suggested the same thing.
Executive director of Progressive Democrats of America said in response to Steinem’s comments that if you’re pro-choice “presumably that includes the right to our own political decisions as well.”
Steinem apologized on her Facebook page. “In a case of talk-show Interruptus, I misspoke on the Bill Maher show recently, and apologize for what’s been misinterpreted as implying young women aren’t serious in their politics… Whether they gravitate to Bernie or Hillary, young women are activist and feminist in greater numbers than ever before.”
While campaigning with Hillary at a Concord rally on Saturday, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright proclaimed, “Young women have to support Hillary Clinton. The story is not over!”
“They’re going to want to push us back,” she said. “It’s not done and you have to help. Hillary Clinton will always be there for you. And just remember, there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.”
Then late Sunday, former President Bill Clinton accused Sanders’ backers of launching sexist attacks on his wife.
“People who have gone online to defend Hillary and explain — just explain why they supported her — have been subject to attacks that are literally too profane, often — not to mention sexist — to repeat,” he said during an event in Milford, N.H.
Clinton supporters who say they have been harassed online have dubbed their harassers “Bernie bros.”
Sanders told MSNBC in an interview aired today that Albright’s comments were “unfortunate.”
“I think women should women, women should help men. Men should help women. Men should help men. That’s what life is about. But we’re now talking about electing the president of United States and people should make their decision based on who they think can do the job best,” the senator said.
Sanders stressed that “anybody who supports me who is engaged in sexist attacks is unacceptable.”
“I don’t want that support. But you know, we have millions of people out there and we cannot control every single person, but I don’t want anybody, anybody to be supportive of me who is engaged in sexism,” he said.
“…I know every day, Hillary Clinton’s people send out ten e-mails telling the world how terrible I am.”
In October, Sanders had to push back against Clinton’s claim that he was being sexist toward her during a presidential debate.
While sparring over gun control during the CNN event in Las Vegas, Sanders said, “As a Senator from a rural state, what I can tell Secretary Clinton, that all the shouting in the world is not going to do what I would hope all of us want, and that is keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have those guns and end this horrible violence that we are seeing.”
At the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Iowa afterward, Clinton told the audience of Dems that she’s “been told to stop shouting about ending gun violence.”
“Well, I haven’t been shouting, but sometimes when a woman speaks out, some people think it’s shouting,” she said.
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