Senior Clinton Aide, Displaying Grace in Victory, On Bernie Sanders: “F*** Him”

Clinton won by a wide margin— and there was much eff-you high-fiving in the ballroom of the Sheraton New York. But Sanders’ defeat (accompanied, as always by the big crowds and even bigger torrent of online donations) was the bitterest one yet and deepened the already yawning fault lines between the Bernie stalwarts and a Clinton team increasingly itchy to see him gone. Not going to happen anytime soon, apparently: The tweet being incredulously digested at a Clinton victory party was an MSNBC report quoting Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver defiantly claiming his candidate would take the fight to the convention floor — even if Clinton secured an overwhelming lead among pledged delegates and supers.

“We kicked his ass tonight,” a senior Clinton aide told me Tuesday night. “I hope this convinces Bernie to tone it down. If not, f—- him.”

“Tone it down,” in this case, clearly means “accept the inevitable” and “join the coronation.” For reasons I wrote about earlier today, I hope Bernie does not accept this advice, and that he runs to the bitter end. Regardless of what you believe on that front, it’s interesting to see this type of attitude in victory for the Clinton campaign, when one of their hardest jobs in the general election will be to attract the vote of the young people who supported Sanders in overwhelming numbers—many of whom have already said they won’t vote in November.

There are ways for them to get this crucial vote, of course, but saying “fuck him” about their current candidate of choice? Probably not the best way to rebuild the bridge.