'I didn't write them, but Bernie did': Warren slams Sanders over delegate rules

Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday accused Bernie Sanders of seeking an unfair "advantage" in the Democratic primary with his about-face on the question of how many delegates a candidate must amass before clinching the party's presidential nomination.

The remarks from the Massachusetts senator, aimed at her Vermont colleague, came during a CNN town hall in South Carolina, where Warren was asked by a Sanders supporter about her view that unless a candidate achieves a majority of delegates in the state primaries, the Democratic nominee should be picked at the convention.

"That was Bernie's position in 2016, that it should not got to the person who had a plurality. So, and remember, his last play was to superdelegates," Warren replied, referring to Sanders' failed 2016 efforts to force a contested Democratic convention. "So, the way I see this is you write the rules before you know where everybody stands, and then you stick with those rules."

Sanders has insisted that any candidate who arrives at the Democratic National Convention with a plurality of delegates be awarded the party's nomination, even though Democratic National Committee rules stipulate that the nominee must win a majority of delegates. The Vermont senator's position has sparked criticism from some who have noted that he took the exact opposite position when he ran for president in 2016 and lost to Hillary Clinton.

At last week's Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas, Sanders was the only White House hopeful who endorsed the idea that the candidate who amasses the most delegates before Democrats' July convention in Milwaukee should automatically become the party's pick to take on President Donald Trump in November.

The other candidates onstage — former Vice President Joe Biden; former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg; former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg; Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar; and Warren — all agreed a majority of the delegates is needed to secure the nomination, per the party's rules.

"For me, Bernie had a big hand in writing these rules. I didn't write them, but Bernie did, when we were putting together — they were putting together the 2016 platform for the Democratic convention," Warren said Wednesday.

"Those are the rules that he wanted to write and others wanted to write. Everybody got in the race thinking that was the set of rules," she continued. "I don't see how come you get to change it just because he now thinks there's an advantage to him for doing that."

Sanders' rivals have warned in recent weeks that after an impressive performance in the Iowa caucuses and first-place finishes in New Hampshire and Nevada, the senator could be poised to amass an insurmountable delegate lead after the slate of Super Tuesday state primaries next week.

Such a scenario has alarmed senior figures within the Democratic establishment and more moderate members of the party who remain uneasy with Sanders' progressive policy proposals and identification as a democratic socialist — as well as his potential effect on down-ballot races should he become the nominee.

The next Democratic state primary takes place Saturday in South Carolina, where Biden is hoping to revive his flagging campaign with a dominant showing and Sanders is positioned to likely come in second or third place.