Sanders Voted Against Immunity For 7 Industries But Yes For Guns | What Gives?

Gabby Giffords to endorse Clinton amid gun feud with Sanders Politico

Former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords intends to endorse Hillary Clinton, as does her husband Mark. The couple have become leading gun control advocates after Gifford was shot in the head in a mass shooting in 2011. 

The endorsements come at a time when Hillary Clinton is stepping up her efforts to portray her Democratic primary challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders as significantly softer on guns than she is. 

"He often says, 'Well look, I'm from Vermont and oh, it's different, it's not like being in New York City,'" Clinton said on CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday, noting that his Vermont colleague Sen. Patrick Leahy had voted differently. "I think that the excuses and efforts by Senator Sanders to avoid responsibility for this vote — which the NRA hailed as the most important in 20 years — points up a clear difference, and it's a difference that Democratic voters in our primary can take into account."

Related: Why Mark and I Are Supporting Hillary Clinton Medium

Bernie Sanders Supported Gun Company Immunity But Opposed It for Other Industries Bloomberg Politics

On October 20. 2005, then Congressman Sanders voted against a bill that would have granted immunity to the fast-food industry. The next day he voted for immunity for the gun industry. In six other similar bills, Sanders voted against immunity. Guns are his only exception.

With regard to the Sanders explanation that he supports the gun lobby because he is from Vermont, Senator Leahy has experienced no such conflict.

This summer WaPo wrote a story that got NO interest in the liberal media. I hope they will do some investigative reporting on the exact nature of Bernie's relationship with the NRA.

Quote: "A few days before Election Day in 1990, the National Rifle Association sent a letter to its 12,000 members in Vermont, with an urgent message about the race for the state’s single House seat.

Vote for the socialist, the gun rights group said. It’s important.

“Bernie Sanders is a more honorable choice for Vermont sportsmen than ­Peter Smith,” wrote Wayne LaPierre, who was — and still is — a top official at the national NRA, backing Sanders over the Republican incumbent."

The NRA was punishing the Republican incumbent, who had turned against them on assault weapons.

"As a candidate in 1990, Sanders won over gun rights groups by promising to oppose one bill they hated — a measure that would establish a waiting period for handgun sales. In Congress, he kept that promise."

Prior to this support from the NRA, Bernie lost in six consecutive attempts, losing to Smith in 1988. Smith was the only incumbent the NRA targeted to retire from office in 1990.

The Hillary Clinton Double Standard The Nation

I like Bernie Sanders. In my calmer moments, I know it’s not fair to blame him for his annoying fanboys—the Bernie bros—who write off Hillary Clinton’s supporters as rich white women or party hacks and dismiss wanting to see a liberal, pro-choice Democratic woman in the White House as “identity politics.” I think it’s great that Bernie is giving Hillary a run for her money. He’s pushing her to the left, showing pundits and politicos that there’s more of a constituency for progressive politics than they think, and he may even help spark a grassroots movement that outlasts his campaign. Hillary supporters should be grateful to him as well: The better he debates, the cleverer she has to be; the more popular he becomes, the less her nomination will look like a “coronation.” It’s good for Hillary to have to work to win the primary. I hear Ted Cruz is very smart.

Katha Pollitt writes a provocative review of Doug Henwood's 'My Turn', saying that her friend "avoids dealing with the gendered attacks on Hillary -- but doesn't quite escape the pit itself. 

Hillary Headlines Jan. 10, 2015

Poll: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Deadlocked in Iowa and New Hampshire TIME

Donald Trump talks at a fourth-grade level. Maybe that's why the Fox News audience loves him Salon