Sanders surrogate: Attacks on Clinton don’t apply to Obama

A top Bernie Sanders surrogate denied that Sanders’s criticisms of Hillary Clinton should extend to Barack Obama despite the fact that many of those concerns could apply to the president.

{mosads}MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki pressed former Ohio State Sen. Nina Turner on Sanders’s recent claim that Clinton is unqualified to serve as president during a Thursday interview. Kornacki said Sanders’s critiques of Clinton’s super-PAC, Wall Street ties and support of trade deals are all issues where Obama is “just as vulnerable.”

“This has nothing to do with Barack Obama; President Obama is not running for reelection,” Turner said on MSNBC’s “MTP Daily.”

“Sen. Bernie Sanders is running against Secretary Hillary Clinton, not President Barack Obama, and its just weak right now to continue to bring the president into the argument.”

Sanders spent the day defending his remarks, arguing that he would not sit back while Clinton insinuated that he was not qualified to serve as president.  

Clinton’s campaign repeatedly denied that characterization. While Clinton didn’t directly answer the question of whether she felt he was qualified, she told NBC’s “Today” that she’d “take Bernie Sanders over Donald Trump or Ted Cruz anytime.”