Clinton aide: Sanders has ‘explaining to do’ on fundraisers

Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager is questioning whether Bernie Sanders tempered his message against special interests and Wall Street when attending “lavish” party fundraisers and donor retreats. 

Robby Mook on Tuesday noted a recent report from MSNBC saying Sanders had been a regular attendee at Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) retreats. Mook framed those as events where Sanders and other senators raise money “from Wall Street lobbyists and other corporate lobbyists.” 

“He has a little explaining to do with the voters,” Mook said on MSNBC’s “MTP Daily.” 

“He says one thing when he’s in front of an audience in New Hampshire. Was he saying the same things to those lobbyists he was hobnobbiung with in Martha’s Vineyard and down in Florida? That’s a question he needs to answer.”

The Clinton campaign blasted out the MSNBC report to the press Tuesday, hours before the polls closed at the New Hampshire primary in the hopes of flipping the script on accusations Clinton has faced in recent days. Rivals have continued to press her to release transcripts from her paid speeches to Wall Street firms. 

On Monday, the Sanders campaign bashed Clinton “falsehoods” on the issue, noting that the DSCC receives significant funding from everyday Americans. 

“To say that every nickel that Bernie received came from Wall Street is beyond preposterous. It is laughable and suggests the kind of disarray that the Clinton campaign finds itself in today,” campaign manager Jeff Weaver said in a statement. 

The scrap between the campaigns comes as Sanders continues to question whether Clinton’s donations and significant speaking fees from Wall Street could influence her as president.

That issue boiled over during last week’s debate, when Sanders {mosads} Clinton by arguing that special interest money regularly shapes politicians’ views, citing the fossil fuel lobby’s donations to Republicans as why many question climate change. 

Clinton pushed back on similar comments earlier in that debate, telling Sanders to stop the “artful smear” against her.