AIDS Group: We never endorsed Bernie | Bernie strikes back

Post Reply New Topic

This is just depressing. We emailed our "open letter to Senator Sanders" from the 19 activists who attended the Sanders meeting, to the various contacts we had corresponded with. Warren Gunnels, Senior Policy Advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders, just sent the following email in reply, which repeats Michael Weinstein's lies that I get pharma money (I'm a volunteer AIDS activist that has been living on my own savings since 2011). Again, we had many supporters of the Senator in our coalition, and at the meeting on Wednesday. They do not deserve a response like this from the Sanders campaign:

This is absolutely absurd and ridiculous. No presidential candidate running for president is more committed to ending the AIDS epidemic than Bernie Sanders. And you would know this if you read Bernie's plan
https://berniesanders.com/issues/hiv-and-aids/

While we are disappointed in your continued mischaracterizations and repeated attacks on the Bernie Sanders campaign, it is not surprising that someone who depends on Gilead Sciences and other big pharmaceutical companies for funding would continue to drop bombs on the only presidential candidate who has the courage to stand up to the greed of the big drug companies.

Pharmaceutical companies are expected to spend as much as $100 million to defeat the Drug Price Relief Act. That fact alone is a major reason why we will continue to do everything we can to support this important initiative.

We're proud to stand with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, National Nurses United, AARP of California, and many other groups who understand that this ballot initiative will significantly lower drug prices and could save lives. Bernie Sanders has spent his career fighting pharmaceutical greed. He's not about to stop now.

The establishment is on an all out push to stop Sanders. They will stop at nothing to try to discredit him while backing an already known criminal in Hillary...

Sadly this will most likely lead to a Trump presidency because the DNC is backing a loser.

So Warren Gunnels (Sanders' senior policy director) deleted his tweet, which is something, I guess. I must admit, it's no fun being personally attacked by a campaign that leads millions of millennials, and one that I've often praised for raising many of the progressive issues I've long fought for (lost in all this was that we thanked Sanders in Kenyon Farrow's opening statement, saying "We commend you for your leadership and advocacy on single payer universal health coverage—something AIDS activists have been calling for since the 1980s.").

This is all so sad, and so unnecessary. We actually had a good meeting with Senator Sanders (see HealthGAP's press release, and my and others early posts about it), and then it all blew up into a shit-show when Bernie's team used us (in their press release) and then abused us (launched personal attacks, firmly hitching their train to AHF's slime machine). Our coalition will issue another press release on Tuesday that will reflect on the actual meeting we attended (not the one Gunnels dreamed up), and we will thank the Senator for some of the promises he made.

Our only goal, from the day Clinton made her AIDS gaffe, was to push all the campaigns to make some firmer promises in the fight against HIV/AIDS -- to turn lemons into lemonade. I hope the Sanders campaign will re-engage with us towards that end.

After Tuesday, we'll pivot back to the Clinton campaign (that process hasn't really stopped). They have promised us a meeting with their senior policy folks to discuss our harder asks. We will raise bloody hell if that meeting doesn't happen in the weeks ahead. We will also ask her campaign to reopen a dialogue with the Trans United Fund over their unfilled questionnaire.

And finally, we have to keep fighting against outrageous drug prices, especially HIV, PrEP and HepC drugs. Personally, I don't believe for one second this is an issue that Michael Weinstein and AHF are serious about. Most AIDS activists support workable government price controls like those used throughout Europe. Senator Sanders, can we save you from Weinstein, and discuss how to create a real revolution on drug prices?

This has nothing to do with the establishment.

It has to do with Sanders inviting them to a meeting about policy, then lying about them endorsing him, with them sending an email correcting him by stating they are politically neutral as they've always been.
He ordered his campaign to take them down for them refusing to support him by abandoning their neutrality.

This is on top of Sanders horrible interview Thursday Night on Univision, where he openly stated he's too busy running for president to learn and care about Latin America and about socialist governments.
He tore into the Univision interviewer for wasting his time and accused Univision of being Pro Hillary.
(Univision has been pro Sanders for this election beating up Hillary at ever chance).

If anything Trump wants Sanders to win because Americans hate communist (which Sanders has expressed a love for), which would be easy to take down.