As he appeared on Thursday's New Day, liberal CNN political commentator and Hillary Clinton supporter Paul Begala hinted that being called a "Bolshevik" communist is resume enhancement for a Democratic presidential primary as he recalled that, what he referred to as the "very moderate Clinton economic team" from the Bill Clinton administration, used to deride Hillary Clinton and her staff as "the Bolsheviks."
Begala, who runs a superpac promoting Hillary Clinton's candidacy, made the comments to bolster her credentials against socialist Bernie Sanders as someone the left wing of his party should support.
After arguing that a competitive Democratic nominating process will be a good thing, Begala bragged:
So Hillary has, I think, as good a claim as Bernie to the populist economic message. I'm old enough to remember when the very moderate Clinton economic team used to call Hillary and her staff the Bolsheviks inside the White House. That was a derisive term. So Hillary will have -- she'll have to make that case.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Thursday, July 2, New Day on CNN:
JOHN KING: You cannot talk to the Clinton campaign, but you're running a pro-Hillary Clinton superpac. Are you going to have to spend money attacking Bernie Sanders?
PAUL BEGALA: No, no, it's certainly not in our plan. No. This is real, though. There's energy there. You know, there's enormous energy in my party on the populist left. Bernie Sanders is tapping into that.
KING: She saw the whole pro-Elizabeth Warren movement beforehand, the whole draft Warren movement. So how has she not been able to get out ahead of it?
BEGALA: Because you never -- I have said this from the beginning and I'll say it again -- you're never going to have a coronation in my party. Never. Never. Senator Sanders has tapped into something that is real. That's not just a one-hit wonder. That's not the last time he's going to have a rally with 10,000 people, okay? It is real. You know, I think it's actually a good thing in my party that we don't -- I'm all for Hillary, as you know, and work with the pac that's trying to elect her. But it's better for the party to have a tough primary. I was saying this from the beginning. You are right to ignore these national polls. We do not nominate the President nationally. You begin in Iowa. This guy has gone from -- what did you say, five to 33?
KING: Five to 33.
BEGALA: In a couple of weeks?
KING: In several -- in two months, in two months, eight weeks or so.
BEGALA: This is real. It doesn't mean it has to be negative. So Hillary has, I think, as good a claim as Bernie to the populist economic message. I'm old enough to remember when the very moderate Clinton economic team used to call Hillary and her staff the Bolsheviks inside the White House. That was a derisive term. So Hillary will have -- she'll have to make that case.
KING: She was the Bolshevik. She was also partially responsible for getting you and Mr. Carville into the campaign back in those days.
BEGALA: Yes, she was a great friend of mine, and she's been great to me.
