If you’re reading this, chances are you’re on Twitter, which means you probably noticed that #DemocraticWhores was a trending hashtag on the social-media platform. But… why? The assumption that the choice phrase is meant specifically as the trolls’ latest offense against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton isn’t entirely wrong, per se, but it skips what happened at rival Bernie Sanders‘ momentous New York rally on Wednesday. The Independent Vermont senator himself didn’t say anything nasty about his Democratic counterpart, but one of his preceding speakers did. And the further you dig into the culprit’s history, the weirder this hashtag gets.
The New York Times reported that about 27,000 people attended the rally at Washington Square Park, a “striking number” that outshines the 20,000 President Obama’s campaign aides indicated after the then-senator’s 2007 event at the same location. That’s roughly 50,000 ears, many of which heard speaker and health-care activist Dr. Paul Song use the descriptor “corporate Democratic whores” to label elected officials who “are beholden to big pharma and the private insurance industry instead of us.”
Here’s the full context of what Dr. Song said during this particular part of his speech:
“While I agree with Secretary Clinton that ‘Medicare-for-all’ will never happen if we have a president who never aspires for something greater than the status quo, ‘Medicare-for-all’ will never happen if we continue to elect corporate Democratic whores who are beholden to big pharma and the private insurance industry instead of us.”
Dr. Song was referencing Clinton and Sanders’ ongoing battle over healthcare reform, especially the latter’s oft-promoted “Medicare-for-all” program that he’d create from scratch if elected. Clinton has repeatedly called into question Sanders’ proposed system, arguing that the federal government should instead build on already existing health care reform and systems.
But what Clinton supporters and others are unhappy about has little to do with Dr. Song’s ideological quibbles, and everything to do with his use of the word “whore.”
@Shakestweetz yeah that's about Hillary no matter what he says now.
— Armando (@ArmandoNDK) April 14, 2016
Idk about u guys but I really don't think I can sit still over this #DemocraticWhores" comment at #BernieRally #Nah
— Dorothy Schomburg (@sadieark) April 14, 2016
https://twitter.com/fgsweetdog/status/720417077820059649
https://twitter.com/tracyealy1/status/720420951913988097
Around the same time that #DemocraticWhores began trending on Twitter, Dr. Song used his account to post an apology. However, instead of apologizing directly to Clinton, whom many assumed was the target of the phrase, he apologized to “some in Congress who are beholden to corporations and not us.”
https://twitter.com/paulysong/status/720416305699024898
Reporting for Today on NBC, Andrea Mitchell reported that a Clinton spokesperson said Dr. Song’s comment “should be disavowed by Sanders himself.” Shortly after Mitchell’s segment aired on the weekday morning program, the Sanders campaign issued a statement doing just that on the candidate’s official Twitter account, calling it “inappropriate” and “insensitive.”
Dr. Song's comment was inappropriate and insensitive. There's no room for language like that in our political discourse.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 14, 2016
Despite the apology and the disavowal, Dr. Song’s comments are sure to come up during the CNN Democratic Debate in Brooklyn on Thursday night. However the subject is approached will likely keep most of the focus on Clinton and Sanders and not Dr. Song, which is a shame considering his own personal connections to the former.
As an aside, Mitchell added that Dr. Song is married to journalist Lisa Ling, an outspoken Clinton supporter. Ling’s sister, Laura, and fellow reporter Euna Lee were arrested in North Korea in 2009 while filming a documentary. Their arrest and imprisonment became a minor international fiasco that, with the help of former President Bill Clinton, resulted in the Americans’ release.
In a Facebook post titled “Regret,” Ling wrote that despite the fact that she and her husband are “supporting different candidates in this Democratic primary,” she knew “for certain that he would never refer to ANY woman as a ‘whore'”:
“In calling out “corporate whores,” Paul was referring to those in Congress who have accepted money from the healthcare industry and big pharma, thus impacting their votes on legislation. Nevertheless, it was a very poor choice of words and Paul is extremely regretful for using it.”