This could prove to be quite interesting and hopefully put an end to the perception that Bernie Sanders is the savior of the Democratic Party. In fact, if there’s even a small fire with all this smoke, Bernie could choose not to stand for reelection in 2018.
I think this story is particularly relevant because Bernie Sanders did focus on the high cost of education in his failed 2016 run. Yet, it seems the actions of his wife are the poster child of why college education costs so much in the United States these days.
Well, if true, I’d guess Trump fans would start loving Bernie! Hey, they think it’s awesome to vote for a wealthy guy who brags about not paying taxes.
I’ll admit that I didn’t read the entire article, but I didn’t see the part that says Bernie is under investigation. There is a mention of an ethics issue, but that would not involve the FBI. This looks like an investigation into actions taken by his wife, not him. I’ll happily accept correction if I’m wrong. Just quote the section that says Bernie is under investigation.
And I’ll be the first to say that if there is evidence for an investigation that there should be one, and if there is evidence of guilt that there should be a trial. Odd that this is now a controversial stance to take.
You’re correct, it’s his wife who’s the one who may or may not be in trouble and I would recommend reading the the whole article it’s quite good.
Here is the closest anything comes to potentially suggesting Bernie or any of his associates, other than obviously his wife, could get in legal trouble for this. Emphasis added by me.
The accusation is that she may have committed bank fraud by using some verbal commitments by some Burlington College alumni on donations they were going to make as collateral to secure a loan. The donations never materialized and the alumni in question deny ever making such promises. The school eventually defaulted on the loan, filed for bankruptcy and shut down.
Proving she engaging in fraud will be extremely hard but she come across as being at best, extremely incompetent. My mother was the Chair of an English department for a boarding school, involved in such fundraising and was stunned when she heard this. In fundraising you never count on such donations till the check clears.
Bernie has the need of only one thing right now: For the FBI director to state out loud in public that Sanders personally is not* currently*** the specific target of an investigation. That should do it. That’s what it takes today.
If he wants that, he needs to have a private dinner with the FBI director. C’mon, Bernie, get on it!
Or, Dale, he could do for his spouse what Bill did for his, and have a private plane conversation with the head of the Justice Department. Would that be cool?
I understand you loathe Sanders and support Clinton, but the degree to which Sanders’s spouse is being investigated, and the degree to which he has interfered with that investigation, isn’t even a pale shadow of the Clintons’ shenanigans–and the Clintons’ shenanigans weren’t especially bad themselves. You should let this one go.
Jumping Jesus Christ…
Looks like Bernie’s porcine plaything is heading to the pokey…
“In the four years since she had taken over, two dozen faculty and staff had left the tiny college. The Student Government Association in late 2008 described a “toxic and disruptive environment on campus.” Nearly half of the students and faculty members signed a petition demanding a meeting about the “crisis in leadership.”
“In a letter to the school’s academic affairs committee, Grill (a popular literature professor that Sanders fired) described what she termed Sanders’ “harassment and unethical treatment of other faculty and staff members, many of whom have since left the college disgruntled and angry.”
"Three vice presidents who served directly under Sanders had told the board they could not continue to work with her. “According to the staff and administration, she had become very difficult to deal with,” Lloyd says. “And she was not attending to fundraising.”
SHE WAS NOT ATTENDING TO FUNDRAISING?!?!? The fraudster that went out and obtained $10,000,000 worth of shaky and shady as fuck loans wasn’t attending to fundraising?!
Now, now. Our new friend just joined the board a few minutes ago, and being a brand-new guest who’s never been here before, probably hasn’t had the time to go over all of the rules of decorum in his haste to begin making belligerent posts.
Welcome new boyaren
I’m sure dalej42 appreciates this unsolicited support despite your using insulting language to the Sanderses from which he would refrain, however a contra view:
You’ll Never Believe This, but Republicans are Starting a Bernie Sanders Witch Hunt Paste 2017 June 23
Apparently, Mr. Brady Toensing, son of and partner with his mother, much respected DC lawyer Victoria, a pro-Republican commentator, seems to have a thing for Bernie…
*And the hilarious part is, Bernie’s whole involvement in this non-saga comes from a letter Toensing wrote to federal investigators, in which he said the following:
*
*“As a result of my [initial] complaint,” Toensing wrote, “I was recently approached and informed that Senator Bernard Sanders’s office improperly pressured People’s United Bank to approve the loan application submitted by the Senator’s wife, Ms. Sanders.”
*
*Translation: They have fuck-all. There is nothing here, and the entire purpose of this witch hunt is to smear a man who threatens Trump’s chances at re-election in 2020. It’s not going to stick, but you can bet the same Republicans who managed to work themselves into a lather over the birther movement or Benghazi will do the same here—get ready for conspiracy theories, manufactured evidence, and, who knows, maybe even a congressional hearing! This is the Republican playbook as it’s been executed for decades now, and nobody should expect anything different for a political opponent as threatening as Sanders. *
Claiming they “have fuck-all” and “there is nothing here” is a bit of a stretch. There certainly seems to be more than enough to justify investigating Sanders’ wife and she clearly was at best, extremely stupid and staggeringly incompetent and at worst engaging in fraud.
It certainly sounds like Jane Sanders’s ambition destroyed Burlington College. I don’t know whether making her a poster child for the dysfunction of education in this country is fair. But I know ambitious college presidents with that kind of self-important, “legacy-building” attitude have annoyed students and faculty at other institutions.
But hey, OP, you know what other politician’s wife destroyed an institution she entered and attempted to lead?
Eh, all I know is this would be more than enough for the Bernie Or Bust crowd to have used against HRC (i.e. a case primarily focusing on her spouse), or President Trump for that matter. While the evidence is thin, any evidence at all that the FBI is investigating a sitting U.S. Senator’s wife for bank fraud, and that said U.S. Senator might have used the influence of his office to help her procure the fraudulently obtained bank loan is a serious matter.
I’m not offering an opinion on whether bank fraud was committed, or Bernie used his office improperly, I’m just saying for any other politician just what we know now would be enough to cause serious questions and concerns to be asked. Bernie appears to be getting a pass from progressives, showing that many of the Bernie or Bust crowd to be unprincipled when they never would’ve looked the other way for such a potential scandal involving another politician.
Nice conspiracy theory, but it doesn’t make any damn sense. If I were advising Trump and/or the Republicans, I think I might point out that having an inside guy running around, attacking the Democratic Party at every opportunity, and reaching the ears of left-wing Millennials - who we have no chance of reaching - with the message of how corrupt and ‘corporate’ they are - well, maybe we should let that guy be.
