Trump Rises to Sanders’ Defense Against Warren: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump often calls Bernie Sanders “crazy,” but he also likes to defend him as a way to stir up trouble in the Democratic Party.

At a campaign rally in Milwaukee on Tuesday before the Democratic debate, the president defended the Vermont senator after a recent claim by Elizabeth Warren that he told her in a private meeting that a woman couldn’t win the presidency.

“She said that Bernie said a woman can’t win,” Trump told the crowd. “I don’t believe that Bernie said that. I really don’t. It’s not the kind of a thing he’d say.”

Trump has a history of using Sanders to provoke Democratic in-fighting, repeatedly arguing in 2016 that the self-proclaimed socialist was “being treated very badly” by the Democratic Party.

A key Trump ally, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, recently tweeted that Democratic leaders are trying to “cheat” Sanders out of the nomination by timing Trump’s impeachment to keep senators off the campaign trail just before the Iowa caucuses.

DNC Raised Record $95 Million in 2019 (8:52 p.m.)

The Democratic National Committee had record fundraising in 2019, but still lagged far behind its GOP counterpart.

The DNC and an affiliated committee brought in $95 million for 2019, a record for a non-election year, according to a spokesman. That was $30 million more than in 2015, when Democrats still held the White House.

But it pales in comparison to the $215 million the Republican National Committee took in through the end of November. Altogether, President Donald Trump’s re-election effort and the RNC said they raised $464 million in 2019.

The Democratic candidates running for the party nomination collectively raised about $557 million last year. That includes $165 million taken in by candidates who have already dropped out of the race.

Candidates and party committees are due to file year-end reports detailing their receipts and expenditures with the Federal Election Commission on Jan. 31. -- Bill Allison

COMING UP:

The first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses will be held Feb. 3.

(Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)

--With assistance from Bill Allison.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan Teague Beckwith in New York at rbeckwith3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley

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