Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager Jeff Weaver said Friday that Hillary Clinton’s resume qualifies her to be president but added that a person’s job history is not the only factor in picking the next commander in chief.
“In a narrow sense, does she have the resume for the job? Yes,” Weaver said when asked by CNN’s John Berman and Kate Balduan on “This Hour” whether her resume made Clinton qualified.
“There’s more than just a resume, there’s judgment,” he added.
Weaver responded to criticism the Vermont senator has faced after he said Clinton was not qualified to be president.
“There are a number of substantive issues the secretary has taken positions on over the years, including supporting the war in Iraq, including taking money from big companies, that call into question whether she should be the Democratic nominee,” Weaver told CNN.
Sanders told NBC on Friday, “I respect Hillary Clinton. We were colleagues in the Senate, and on her worst day, she would be an infinitely better president than either of the Republican candidates.”
Weaver did not apologize for the recent heightened rhetoric on the Democratic side and blamed it on the Clinton camp.
“What has been clear about this campaign is that Bernie Sanders has really set the agenda in terms of what the issues are, what the message is. But the Clinton campaign has set the tone,” he said.
Weaver cited a report by CNN’s Jeff Zeleny in which a Clinton insider said the campaign’s strategy in New York was going to be “disqualify him, defeat him and reunify the party later.”
“Bernie Sanders is a son of Brooklyn. He will campaign like a Brooklynite,” Weaver said. “If they want to bring it on that level, we’re going to certainly bring it back.”
Clinton herself referenced the controversy at a campaign event in Buffalo, New York, Friday afternoon.
“You may have heard Senator Sanders say I am unqualified to be president,” Clinton said to boos. “Seriously, I have been called a lot of things over the years, but unqualified has not been one of them.”
Clinton added that Sanders “finally acknowledged that he doesn’t really believe that” and that the back-and-forth is “all pretty silly.”