Bernie Sanders aide denies report he considered a primary challenge to Obama

It didn't take long for the Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) camp to respond to a report published earlier Wednesday by The Atlantic in which former President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign manager Jim Messina said Sanders considered mounting a primary challenge that year.

In the report, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was named as the person who talked Sanders out of the idea, but Sanders' deputy campaign manager Rabin-Havt said Wednesday that conversation didn't take place, and Sanders hadn't even thought about running. "Bernie Sanders never considered a primary challenge to Obama," he said.

One of Reid's aides was less clear than Rabin-Havt, opting not to comment on whether the two senators ever had a conversation about a primary challenge, but the source did say there was never anything "serious" brewing.

Subscribe to 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

Reid responded to the story, as well, and similarly said he wouldn't comment on private chats, but he did suggest Sanders probably had more important things to worry about at the time. "Bernie was running for re-election in 2012," Reid said. "He would've been a fool to run against Obama and Bernie's no fool."