In a series of Twitter messages posted on Friday, President Donald Trump offered a theory about the dynamics of the Democratic Party primary race. According to Trump, Democratic leadership is once again “rigging” the election against Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in order to benefit former Vice President Joe Biden.
“They are rigging the election again against Bernie Sanders, just like last time, only even more obviously,” the president began, alleging that Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi waited for the right moment to release articles of impeachment to the United States Senate in an effort to force Sanders off the campaign trail.
Given that Biden is not a member of the United States Congress, he will be able to campaign in key early states, which means he will have a significant advantage over Sanders, suggested Trump.
“They are bringing him out of so important Iowa in order that, as a Senator, he sit through the Impeachment Hoax Trial,” Trump wrote, concluding that “Crazy Nancy thereby gives the strong edge to Sleepy Joe Biden, and Bernie is shut out again.”
“Very unfair, but that’s the way the Democrats play the game. Anyway, it’s a lot of fun to watch!”
This is not the first time for Trump to claim that the Democratic primary race is fixed. In April, Trump similarly suggested that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is looking to “destroy” Sanders in order to help the “more traditional, but not very bright, Sleepy Joe Biden” win the nomination .
It remains to be seen how the 2020 presidential election will unfold, but during the 2016 Democratic primary, the DNC was criticized for tipping the scales in former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s favor. According to emails published by WikiLeaks, the Clinton campaign took over the DNC, with top advisers saying that Sanders needs to be “ground to a pulp.”
Sanders lost to Clinton, who then went on to lose to Trump. Still, according to reports, the Democratic establishment remains opposed to his candidacy. Even former President Barack Obama has reportedly vowed to intervene in the Democratic primary in order to stop the Vermont senator from winning the nomination, according to Salon .
Sanders and Biden are the leading Democratic contenders. The former vice president is topping national polls, but Sanders has surged in key early states. In New Hampshire, for instance — according to the latest 7News/Emerson College poll — Sanders is leading the field with 23 percent of the vote, and Biden is in third place with 14 percent.