“Majority Report” host Sam Seder addressed an influential Nevada union’s criticism of what it said was aggression by supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) after it distributed flyers blasting “Medicare for All” proposals in a Hill.TV interview Thursday.
Asked by host Saagar Enteji about the Culinary Union “buying into the media Bernie Bro narrative” with its comments, as well as tweets in support of the union by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Seder agreed with Enjeti’s characterization of this as “a bit of a cynical ploy.”
“It’s politics, there’s going to be some of that,” Seder responded. “There’s an attempt to leverage that, I don’t know how well that works with voters on the ground.”
“I think a lot of those ploys, they play out on Twitter,” he added. “Online it can get a little bit nasty and some of that may be founded in some measure of reality, but I don’t think there are a huge number of people who are making their votes based upon a mean tweet or not.”
Seder also noted that the Culinary Union’s health plan was under the Taft-Hartley Act, and thus while there would be significant money at stake for leadership, “in terms of its membership down the road, the ability to have Medicare for All gives them a lot more bargaining power long-term [so] there’s a little bit of conflict of interest there, I think, at the top of some unions’ leadership.”
In a statement Wednesday, the Culinary Union wrote “It’s disappointing that Senator Sanders’ supporters have viciously attacked the Culinary Union and working families in Nevada simply because our union has provided facts on what certain healthcare proposals might do to take away the system of care we have built over 8 decades.”
The statement came shortly after the union put out a statement claiming Medicare for All would “take away Culinary Healthcare.”
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