Bernie Sanders: Meeting with Pope Francis at Vatican not Political

[Donkees]

[msongs]

1. there is not a pinocchio big enuff to hide bernie saying this is not a campaign stunt trip nt

[TM99]

34. Give it up.

Y'all lost. Your predictions were wrong. You just need to eat the crow y'all deserve and move on. Otherwise y'all just look worse and worse.

[geek tragedy]

2. His campaign paid for it! nt

[pat_k]

8. Just a thought

The trip was certainly not a campaign event. But, nevertheless, he needed to charter a plane to get there from the debate (a campaign event), and get back to NY ASAP for more campaign events.

Seems to me the travel is a legitimate campaign expense.

Just like travel from a campaign event back home and back out on the trail would be. Your home isn't a campaign stop either.

Does the FEC demand that candidates make no plans other than to go from one campaign event to another?

[geek tragedy]

17. The non-campaign part can't be paid for.

Only travel from one campaign stop to another. Detours can't be paid for in campaign funds.

If campaign paid for it legally is a campaign trip.

[pat_k]

18. Absurd.

So, you are saying a candidate who flies to a campaign event, flies home, and then flies to another campaign event, can't use campaign funds to cover all the travel?

Ridiculous!

When I traveled for work, flights from wherever I happened to be -- at home, on vacation, whatever -- to a business meeting, and from the business meeting to wherever I needed to be next (whether personal or not) were covered.

The "detour" is the business meeting, and travel to and from it is covered.

To assert that a company should only pay the expenses for an employee that flies from one business meeting, to another business meeting, to another business meeting, is absurd.

Sanders had campaign events he had to get to on both sides of the his time in Rome. The expense of getting him to and from those campaign events is a legitimate campaign expense.

[geek tragedy]

23. Flying home isn't a detour.

Flying to another continent is.

If he flies to Vegas for a campaign event, but wants to go skiing in Tahoe, he has to pay all expenses traveling to and from Tahoe.

That is crystal clear in the law. Under your way of doing things, every vacation could be paid for by campaign funds. Ridiculous.

[pangaia]

26. Who gives a shit.

[geek tragedy]

27. If his campaign paid for this, it was by definition political.

Can't have it both ways--pay with political campaign funds then say nope no politics here.

[pat_k]

31. Not true.

OK. So i'm a candidate. I have critical events in LA Thursday evening and Friday evening. I get word an hour before the event on Thursday that my mother in NY has hours to live. It's not an event I really "have" to be at, but it is a once in a lifetime thing, If the only way the campaign can get me to be with my mother between the critical events on Thursday and Friday is to charter a plane, then the plane is a campaign expense.

The campaign pays for travel required to enable me to meet my obligations to the campaign, while meeting the other obligations I have taken on in my life.

My mothers death is not a "campaign event," but the travel to and from is a campaign expense. It was necessary to allow me to fulfilly the obligation I felt to my mom, while fulfilling my obligations to the campaign.

[geek tragedy]

32. That's not how the law works.

See page 80 of the PDF (listed as page 70 at the bottom):

http://www.fec.gov/pdf/candgui.pdf

[pat_k]

36. I see nothing on that page that directly applies here.

If the report that the travel was covered by the campaign is correct (I suspect it may not be) do you really think they would have taken as a campaign expense without clearing it first?

If the report is wrong, this discussion is moot.

If your assertion that the expense is being unlawfully taken as a campaign expense is true, we'll know soon enough. (But I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for vindication if I were you.)

[pat_k]

29. Not "crystal clear" in the least.

If I'm in the UK visiting family and my work needs me at a meeting in NY in a hurry, they pay to get me there. They don't require me to go home to Seattle first so they can fly me from Seattle to NY (which would probably make me miss the meeting anyway).

And if they are interrupting my vacation to get me to that meeting, they are going to pay to fly me back to where I was. As I said, the meeting is the detour.

OK. So i'm a candidate. I have critical events in LA Thursday evening and Friday evening. I get word an hour before the event on Thursday that my mother in NY has hours to live. It's not an event I really "have" to be at, but it is a once in a lifetime thing, If the only way the campaign can get me to be with my mother between the critical events on Thursday and Friday is to charter a plane, then the plane is a campaign expense.

The campaign pays for travel required to enable me to meet my obligations to the campaign, while meeting the other obligations I have taken on in my life.

[geek tragedy]

30. The law disagrees with you.

[jfern]

19. He gave a press conference in the Vatican. I think that counts as campaign.

[uponit7771]

3. Sanders straight up misrepresented his encounter with the pope, this was needless there was nothing

... to gain and a lot to lose

[DrDan]

4. awaiting SNL's version - I am quite confident it will be closer to the truth than any

BS-supporter version I've read here

[pat_k]

9. To what alleged misrepresentation do you refer?

If there is such a misrepresentation (and I'm not saying there might not be), I'm sure you can supply:

1. Knowledgeable authority confirming the exact circumstances of the encounter.

2, Direct quote from Sanders misrepresenting the confirmed circumstances.

[uponit7771]

16. Sanders camp said the pope and Sanders "meet" vs a simple greeting

[pat_k]

20. To "greet" one has to "meet," however briefly.

[uponit7771]

21. This is false, you can "greet" someone from afar

[pat_k]

22. So...

..the pope "greeted" bernie from afar?

Back to requirement one:

1. Knowledgeable authority confirming the exact circumstances of the encounter.

And still waiting on requirement two:

2, Direct quote from Sanders misrepresenting the confirmed circumstances.

Without both 1 and 2 there is no way to determine if 2 is a "misrepresentation" of 1.

[pangaia]

28. jesus on a stick...

[ViseGrip]

5. Bernie is real, and if this were Hillary...OMG. Get over it.

[uponit7771]

6. Bernie camp is "really" lying about proxy credibility and has done it multiple times before in

... this primary.

[IdaBriggs]

10. You mean like when the Hillary camp said Obama wants him out?

And got smacked down for lying within a matter of hours?

Methinks you are projecting.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Or when Obama went to Europe

(Germany to be exact) in 2008.

The reaction has been unreal

[IdaBriggs]

13. Thank heavens Bernie takes his campaign advice from them --

I can't even do that one with a straight face! They've been wrong about so much!

Did you see the one where HILLARY is now joining in the Arizona voter suppression lawsuit? After HOW MANY posts where her supporters were insisting NOTHING WAS WRONG IN ARIZONA BERNIE LOST SO QUIT CRYING FOUL?

Except for those pesky facts which prompted Hillary AND THE DNC to sue on behalf of the disenfranchised voters.

Even money says they only joined because Bernie pushed the issue/would have done it without them and made them look like fools.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Yes and Sanders joined the AZ D party lawsuit

Before the other two.

It was funny

[uponit7771]

14. Link and quote? tia

[IdaBriggs]

24. There were dozens of poutage threads

On the topic a few weeks ago right after the (if I recall correctly) the Illinois primary. It started with "Obama says" and was debunked hard by his press secretary the same day. I'm on my phone - can you google or search the site yourself? And if you can't, is there a reason for me to spend my time (your gratitude or something)?

[uponit7771]

25. typical

[IdaBriggs]

33. OMG I was at a freaking restaurant with my kids --

Oddly enough named "Freaking Good Burgers" - and you had to snark?



Five seconds of site search in GDP with Obama turned up the threads:

Obama Privately Tells Donors That Time Is Coming to Unite Behind Hillary Clinton
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511517088

followed by

Obama NEVER backed Clinton at private fundraiser (Bloomberg)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511519681

It went down the week of the Illinois primary, and those threads are from Thursday, March 17, 2016. Both were posted in various incarnations multiple times for several days. As I said, it was a poutage attack, quickly replaced by the next faux outrage.

You're welcome.

[SDjack]

7. The question is, did or did not Bernie endorse the Pope as a left wing progressive? I think

he did.

[mcar]

12. Then why could he use campaign funds to pay for it?

[athena]

35. The campaign funds also paid for nine of his family members to travel with him.

I'm not sure why Bernie's supporters should be paying for Bernie's four children and four grandchildren to get a free trip to the Vatican.

http://www.dailynewsbin.com/opinion/bernie-sanders-campaign-contributions-paid-for-his-family-vacation-to-rome/24482/