Bernie surrogate locks horns with Maddow over alleged report that Democrats are plotting against Vermont senator

Activist and Bernie Sanders supporter Shaun King has sparred with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, after claiming she reported that the DNC is angling to prevent the socialist senator from winning the Democratic nomination.

King tweeted out to his more than 1 million followers that Maddow had disclosed that “senior officials” within the Democratic Party were pressuring billionaire-turned-presidential-candidate Michael Bloomberg to drop out so that “Biden would have an easier time against Bernie.” He made the provocative accusations that the Democrats were in fact “interfering with the primaries to stop” Sanders.

The claim sent shockwaves through the social media platform, with the post garnering more than 8,000 retweets and some 25,000 likes in less than twelve hours.

It wasn’t long before the MSNBC host caught wind of the claim — which she promptly disputed. “I didn’t report any such thing,” Maddow fired back.

King countered by posting a short clip of the network news host discussing the latest DNC gossip. Citing a scoop from NBC’s national politics reporter Josh Lederman, Maddow states: “It’s striking to hear Letterman say that the Bloomberg campaign is experiencing intense pressure from multiple sources from inside of the Democratic Party that he needs to quit.”

In his report, Lederman said that the calls for Bloomberg to bow out of the race essentially “clear a path for Joe Biden” to clinch the Democratic nomination. According to Lederman, “senior people within the party” want Bloomberg to step aside “for the sake of party unity,” noting that the Democrats “really coalesced behind Joe Biden.”

However, it doesn’t appear that these unnamed officials mentioned specific plots against Sanders, nor does it appear that Maddow shared any new information that would suggest such things. The theory that the Democratic establishment is betting big on Biden is hardly a conspiracy, however. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and former mayor Pete Buttigieg ended their campaigns shortly before Super Tuesday and endorsed Biden, apparently in a bid to consolidate the moderate vote.

Whether the strategy qualifies as a plot against Sanders is debatable, but the socialist senator and his supporters certainly have good reason to be weary of the Democratic establishment — as well as the corporate media.Veteran MSBC talking head Chris Matthews, who resigned this week, infamously compared the Vermont senator’s victory in Nevada with the Nazi invasion of France. He apologized for the remark, but his earlier rant about how a Sanders presidency may lead to public executions in New York Central Park was not retracted.

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