Opposition to Bernie Sanders draws out bipartisan unity at AIPAC
AIPAC has struggled to maintain its bipartisan stature on Capitol Hill recently, but rallying Democrats and Republicans against Bernie Sanders has given it a new opportunity.
It’s no secret that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has struggled recently to maintain its bipartisan clout in Washington. But Vice President Mike Pence and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg managed to find a strong point of bipartisan consensus at AIPAC’s annual policy conference today.
At the heart of that consensus is the current front-runner in the Democratic presidential primary, Bernie Sanders. The independent senator from Vermont is boycotting the conference and has denounced it as a platform for “bigotry.” Still, he nonetheless loomed large in his absence.
Pence and Bloomberg received some of their biggest applause lines when they eviscerated Sanders before AIPAC’s rank and file attendees, who were not shy about actively booing the Jewish candidate from Vermont.
Pence condemned Sanders for criticizing President Donald Trump’s strike on Iranian Maj. Qasem Soleimani as “assassinating a government official.” Later in the speech, Pence denounced Sanders’ recent attacks on AIPAC as a platform for “bigotry” and tried to tie Sanders' views to the rest of the Democratic presidential field.
