Donald Trump is encouraging Bernie Sanders to run as an Independent, stating unfair treatment by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party as his reasoning. According to ABC News , Trump — who just swept five states in Tuesday’s primaries — spoke out on social media yesterday after weeks of Sanders’ potential party-switching rumors. Although Trump says he’s not a fan of Sanders, he has recognized the poor treatment the presidential hopeful has received.
Bernie Sanders has been treated terribly by the Democrats—both with delegates & otherwise. He should show them, and run as an Independent!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2016
Donald Trump has shared his feelings on Bernie Sanders openly and has made it no secret that he doesn’t approve of Sanders’ politics. However, Trump realizes that Sanders is similar to him in this race for the White House. The Donald may seem like he’s defending Sanders, but in actuality, this is his way of calling out the “rigged” primary system.
“This is a crooked system. I’m not a fan of Bernie. I couldn’t care less. As far as I’m concerned, I couldn’t care less about Bernie. But he wins. And he wins. Like me,” Trump said earlier this month.
But don’t think that’s all there is to it.
You see, Donald Trump knows that there are a lot of people out there that love Bernie Sanders. He also knows that if Sanders ran an Independent campaign, that would take votes away from Hillary Clinton, Trump’s likely opponent. What Trump may fail to realize, however, is that many people who love Bernie actually hate Hillary and wouldn’t vote for her no matter what. Therefore, if Sanders decided to run as an Independent, he could end up hurting Trump’s chances by taking away those crossover votes.
According to CNN , Bernie Sanders’ wife, Jane Sanders , has responded to Donald Trump’s suggestion.
“We’ve been very clear right from the beginning that we will not play the role of spoiler. The reason that he was active and he decided to run in the Democratic Party was just that: We cannot afford a Republican in the White House. We cannot afford a Republican appointing Supreme Court justices. So Bernie will not be running as an independent,” Jane said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
Donald Trump’s message was heard loud and clear, but Bernie Sanders doesn’t have any intentions of dropping out of the race until June 7 at the earliest.
“I think we’ve got a path to victory and we’re going to fight this until the last vote is cast. So we’re in this until the end. I think we have a shot in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island. Maybe Delaware. I think Maryland’s going to be tougher for us,” Sanders said before Tuesday’s primaries.
According to CNN , Donald Trump hasn’t been the only one using the opposing party to beat the war drum.
“Here’s the truth: no matter what the Clinton campaign says, there is one candidate in this race Donald Trump said would make a great president, and another that he would never want to face in November. And that’s because poll after poll after poll shows that he wouldn’t stand a chance against our political revolution,” read a Sanders fundraising email that included a photo of Hillary and Bill Clinton at Trump’s 2005 wedding.
Do you think Donald Trump is smart to encourage Bernie Sanders to run as an Independent? Do you think Bernie Sanders should run as an Independent?
[Photos by Spencer Platt & John Sommers II/Getty Images]