Bernie Sanders Snubs Home State’s Largest Newspaper After He Tried to Set Interview Pre-Conditions

Sanders Calls Reporter a ‘Gossip Columnist’

Vermont’s largest daily newspaper is going after its best-known Senator. Seven Days, the state’s independent newspaper, has been snubbed by the state’s independent Senator, and now they’re fighting back. Sanders has refused to talk to the paper, it says, for nearly three years – over 1000 days, and backed out of an interview Monday after Sanders’ team tried to set pre-conditions on what questions he would and would not answer, Seven Days says.

Sanders’ spokesperson Daniel McLean had reached out to the paper Sunday night, to arrange an interview Monday morning. 

“But McLean made clear that two subjects would be off the table,” Seven Days reports. “Sanders, the spokesman said, was not interested in answering questions about ‘political gossip’ nor about the senator’s family. He did not elaborate on either condition. (Sanders’ wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, has been under scrutiny by federal prosecutors over her role leading the now-defunct Burlington college. His stepdaughter, Carina Driscoll, is running for mayor of Burlington.)”

The paper says its reporter “informed McLean that Seven Days does not allow politicians to set such restrictions in exchange for access.”

Seven Days then published this exchange between its reporter and Senator Sanders at the Burlington International Airport.

“Hey, senator, do you have time for that interview?” Seven Days called after him.

“Pardon me?” Sanders asked.

“Do you have time for that interview that we’ve been talking about?” Seven Daysrepeated.

“No,” the senator said as he handed his ticket and identification to a Transportation Security Administration officer. “Not right now.”

“You think you could make time at some point in the coming weeks?” Seven Days pressed.

“Well, as I think Dan indicated, we talk about issues. We don’t talk about gossip,” Sanders said. “And anybody who wants to talk to me about real issues, I’m happy to—”

“That’s precisely what I want to talk with you about,” Seven Days interjected. “So will you make time, then, to talk about real issues?”

Sanders ended the exchange by saying, “I don’t talk to gossip columnists,” and “I talk about issues,” the paper reports.

The reporter is not a gossip columnist.

The paper says it responded to Sanders by saying, “we don’t accept conditions from politicians in exchange for interviews. Not a policy at Seven Days.”

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license