Sanders’ criticism of the Center for American Progress, delivered Saturday in a letter obtained by The New York Times, reflects a simmering ideological battle within the Democratic Party and threatens to reopen wounds from the 2016 primary between him and Hillary Clinton’s allies. The letter airs criticisms shared among his supporters: That the think tank, which has close ties to Clinton and the Democratic Party establishment, is beholden to corporate donors and has worked to quash a leftward shift in the party led partly by Sanders.
“This counterproductive negative campaigning needs to stop,” Sanders wrote to the boards of the Center for American Progress and its sister group, the Center for American Progress Action Fund. “The Democratic primary must be a campaign of ideas, not of bad-faith smears. Please help play a constructive role in the effort to defeat Donald Trump.”
Sanders sent the letter days after a website run by the action fund, ThinkProgress, suggested that his attacks on income inequality were hypocritical in light of his growing personal wealth. The letter is tantamount to a warning shot to the Democratic establishment that Sanders — who continues to criticize party insiders on the campaign trail — will not countenance a repeat of the 2016 primary, when he and his supporters believe party leaders and allies worked to deny him the Democratic nomination.
That primary between Sanders and Clinton left deep divisions in the party.
Democratic leaders worked assiduously to heal rifts and avoid a recurrence in 2020, in part by overhauling the party’s presidential nomination process. Specifically, they engaged in extensive outreach to Sanders’ fervent base of liberal supporters, who had come to distrust party leadership as beholden to major donors who favored centrist positions and supported Clinton’s campaign. Some viewed the Center for American Progress, and its leader, Neera Tanden, as part of that cabal, working to stymie liberal activists and ideas.
The letter from Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who is among the early front-runners in the 2020 Democratic field, threatens to undo a delicate rapprochement, and could presage another bitter primary battle.
The Center for American Progress, which is known as CAP, was founded in 2003 by John Podesta, a close ally of the Clintons, and is based in Washington. It has played an important role in Democratic politics, even as it is legally required to be independent from the party. It has been funded by major Democratic donors, like the financier George Soros, as well as entities with interests that do not always align with progressive politics, including health insurance companies, Walmart, big banks, defense contractors and foreign governments.
The group hosts forums featuring Democratic officials and candidates, including Sanders, while its action fund wages political advocacy campaigns targeting Republicans. It has also served as a Democratic administration-in-waiting, building teams and developing policies that President Barack Obama drew upon after his 2008 election. The group was expected to fill the same role for Clinton had she won the White House in 2016.
Both Podesta, who was the chairman of Clinton’s 2016 campaign, and Tanden, who advised it, were mentioned as candidates for White House chief of staff had Clinton won. Tanden has privately disparaged some of Sanders’ supporters and advisers during the 2016 campaign. Among them was Faiz Shakir, who advised Sanders’ 2016 campaign and is his 2020 campaign manager. He worked at CAP for years, helping to launch and run ThinkProgress, which he defended in 2008 as independent from CAP, writing that the website “will oftentimes write items that are bolder, more strident, or more critical than what others here at the institution may be comfortable with.”
Since Trump’s victory, Tanden has recast herself and her organization as leaders of the anti-Trump “resistance,” and has sought to harness the energy of liberal activists who backed Sanders in 2016, even as she has continued complaining about his supporters.
Tanden, in an email Sunday morning, deferred comment to the editor-in-chief of ThinkProgress, which she said is “editorially independent” of CAP and its action fund.
On Saturday night, after Shakir emailed a copy of the letter to leaders of the Center for American Progress groups, Tanden responded to him with an email calling the situation “unfortunate,” offering to meet to discuss it, and adding of CAP “we share the goals of unity.” That email was provided to the Times by Shakir.
The letter takes issue with ThinkProgress’ commentary on the acknowledgment by Sanders, who represents Vermont in the Senate as an independent, that he himself became a millionaire partly by writing a best-selling book. One ThinkProgress post deemed the revelation “very off-brand and embarrassing.” Another post contained a video seeking to demonstrate that, as he grew wealthier, he altered his repeated denunciations of “millionaires and billionaires” to no longer include as many references to millionaires.
In his letter, Sanders accused ThinkProgress of “dishonestly” questioning his attacks on income inequality.
“Center for American Progress leader Neera Tanden repeatedly calls for unity while simultaneously maligning my staff and supporters and belittling progressive ideas,” he wrote. “I worry that the corporate money CAP is receiving is inordinately and inappropriately influencing the role it is playing in the progressive movement.”
Sanders also accused ThinkProgress of “personal attacks” on two other Democratic presidential candidates who have espoused progressive policies, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. He cited a February post on the website accusing Booker of undermining a bill he wrote with Sanders that would allow the importation of medications from Canada and other countries. Sanders further accused ThinkProgress of playing into President Donald Trump’s hands by publishing op-eds criticizing Warren for claiming Native American heritage.
“I and other Democratic candidates are running campaigns based on principles and ideas and not engaging in mudslinging or personal attacks on each other,” he wrote. “Meanwhile, the Center for American Progress is using its resources to smear Senator Booker, Senator Warren and myself, among others. This is hardly the way to build unity, or to win the general election.”
Representatives for Booker and Warren did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Jodi Enda, editor-in-chief of ThinkProgress, said in a statement that her website’s work is not reviewed before publication by CAP or its action fund, and that the groups “had nothing to do with the article or video about Senator Sanders or articles related to any other political leader.” She said the website “will not take sides in the Democratic primaries,” and suggested that Sanders was trying to bully the website in response to posts he does not like.
“Political leaders should not be able to muzzle or stop coverage that they consider critical,” she said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.