- 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren confirmed that Sen. Bernie Sanders told her he believed a woman couldn't win the presidency.
- Warren, who released a statement Monday evening, said it was at a private meeting in December 2018 to discuss the 2020 election.
- "I thought a woman could win; he disagreed," Warren said of their exchange.
- Warren went on to say that she wouldn't discuss the private meeting any further because "Bernie and I have far more in common than our differences on punditry."
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2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren confirmed Monday that fellow candidate and Sen. Bernie Sanders told her a woman couldn't win the presidency during a private conversation, even after he denied saying it.
In a lengthy statement shared on Twitter by Warren's Communications Director Kristen Orthman, the Massachusetts senator cleared the speculation on Sanders' comment after multiple outlets reported about it earlier Monday.
At a private meeting in December 2018, Warren said she met with Sanders to discuss the 2020 election, the topic of the possibility of a female Democratic candidate came up.
"I thought a woman could win; he disagreed," Warren said in the statement.
According to The New York Times, Sanders said that in the context that Trump would employ sexism to hurt her chances in winning the race.
Warren said she wouldn't say any more because "Bernie and I have far more in common than our differences on punditry."
"I'm in this race to talk about what's broken in this country and how to fix it — and that's what I'm going to continue to do," Warren said. "I know Bernie is in the race for the same reason."
"We have been friends and allies in this fight for a long time, and I have no doubt we will continue to work together to defeat Donald Trump and put our government on the side of the people," she continued.
However, when the story first broke on CNN, Sanders denied the exchange.
"It is ludicrous to believe that at the same meeting where Elizabeth Warren told me she was going to run for president, I would tell her that a woman couldn't win," he said in a statement to CNN. "It's sad that, three weeks before the Iowa caucus and a year after that private conversation, staff who weren't in the room are lying about what happened."
"What I did say that night was that Donald Trump is a sexist, a racist and a liar who would weaponize whatever he could," he continued. "Do I believe a woman can win in 2020? Of course! After all, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 3 million votes in 2016."
Sanders' supporters rallied behind him and backed up the presidential candidate via Twitter, with the hashtag #ITrustBernie trending on the social media site soon after reports began to emerge of the comment.
The disagreement comes a day before they appear on stage alongside four other presidential candidates in a Democratic debate in Iowa, a crucial event ahead of the Iowa caucuses next month.
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