'Uncompromising' and an 'a--hole': Not everyone loves Bernie Sanders

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has made headlines for getting sassy with the media, but it turns out journalists don't need to take it personally: He's that way with everyone. Even while "Sanderistas" sing his praises, buoying him ahead of Clinton in some polls, some of those closer to Sanders have less generous things to say about the way he behaves.

"Bernie's an a--hole, but he's our a--hole," one unnamed Vermont politician explained to Boston Magazine. Sanders' campaign field director put it more gently: "Bernie is a very demanding guy. He has very high expectations, and he expects people to meet them."

Chris Graff, a journalist who has covered Sanders for the past two and a half decades, expressed similar sentiments. "Bernie has no social skills, no sense of humor, and he's quick to boil over," he said. "He's the most unpolitical person in politics I've ever come across." Likewise, following Bernie's threats to walk off the stage when Black Lives Matter protesters interrupted him in Phoenix, Vermont's Seven Days newspaper described the move as "exasperating and classic Bernie... Man of the people treating the people like tiresome children, telling them what the issue is, instead of listening to what their issue, our issue, America's issue is right now."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"Bernie is so certain that what he represents politically is unquestionably correct, therefore everyone should agree," Susan Boardman Russ, the former chief of staff for Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords, told Boston Magazine. "Not much room for compromise... it was, 'Play in my sandbox, or get out.'"

But however the senator might behave, fans haven't stopped flocking to Sanders in droves. In current combined national polls collected by the Huffington Post, Sanders sits at 27.5 percent. Though that's behind Clinton's 42.7 percent, it's leagues ahead of any other Democrat who's actually running.