--- title: Why Bernie Sanders Is Trolling Hillary Clinton on Twitter description: Fighting back in a different format. canonical: https://time.com/4179568/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-twitter/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-13T21:31:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:45.075Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why Bernie Sanders Is Trolling Hillary Clinton on Twitter og:description: A different strategy. og:url: https://time.com/4179568/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-twitter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39314933ad3bbafd/698878fa524fc0c88fdf6482/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-twitter-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: CBS News Democratic Presidential Debate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Bernie Sanders Is Trolling Hillary Clinton on Twitter twitter:description: A different strategy. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39314933ad3bbafd/698878fa524fc0c88fdf6482/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-twitter-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Bernie Sanders Is Trolling Hillary Clinton on Twitter > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Jan 13, 2016 9:31 PM UTC  Sen. Bernie Sanders and Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Democratic Presidential Debate in Des Moines, Iowa on Nov. 14, 2015. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Democratic Presidential Debate in Des Moines, Iowa on Nov. 14, 2015. Chris Usher—CBS/Getty Images by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Jan 13, 2016 9:31 PM UTC With the race for the Democratic nomination tightening in Iowa and New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders is taking heavy flak from Hillary Clinton for his healthcare proposal. His plan is expensive (some $15 trillion) and would likely require middle-class tax hikes, Clinton’s campaign has pointed out. It would erase all the hard-earned successes of the Affordable Care Act, Clinton says, and be at the whim of Republican governors who implement it. Now Sanders has taken to trolling Clinton on Twitter, using Team Clinton’s words against her in defense of his universal healthcare plan. The Sanders campaign posted on Wednesday an old photograph on Sanders’ account of the Vermont senator talking earnestly with then-First Lady Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s note to Sanders the bottom of the card says, “To Bernie Sanders with thanks for your commitment to real healthcare access for all Americans and best wishes — Hillary Rodham Clinton 1993” > [](https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/687317650658189312) Earlier this week, Sanders’ campaign retweeted an old tweet by John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair, who seemed to jokingly endorse single-payer healthcare in 2013. > [](https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/686643033337675776) Sanders says his ambitious single-payer plan would provide healthcare for all Americans, “as a right, not a privilege.” He has not yet outlined how he would pay for the plan, which is estimated to cost $15 trillion. Earlier versions of Sanders’ plan, which he has introduced as legislation in Congress, would raise taxes on middle-income earners and raise employer taxes, for a total of a nearly 9% tax increase. Sanders says that in his earlier plans, families will end up saving money because they will not have to pay for health insurance. Sanders’ policy advisor [told TIME last month](http://time.com/4156619/bernie-sanders-middle-class-tax-pledge/) that he will come up with another way to pay for the plan. **Read More:** [_Why Bernie Sanders’ Tax Pledge Matters_](http://time.com/4156619/bernie-sanders-middle-class-tax-pledge/) Clinton’s aides have cut into Sanders for months, but increased their criticism in recent weeks. They say he is avoiding outlining his plan because he does not want to say he will raise classes on the middle class. “The effort to avoid detailing the tax side of this healthcare plan is a way to obscure the fact that there is no way to do it without raising taxes on working families,” said Clinton senior policy advisor Jake Sullivan on a conference call with reporters Wednesday afternoon. Chelsea Clinton accused Sanders of wanting to dismantle Medicare and Medicaid and “strip millions and millions and millions of people of their health insurance.” In fact, Sanders’ plan would expand Medicare and provide all Americans healthcare coverage. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4179568/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-twitter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4179568/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-twitter/"},"headline":"Why Bernie Sanders Is Trolling Hillary Clinton on Twitter","datePublished":"2016-01-13T21:31:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:45.075Z","description":"Fighting back in a different format.","url":"https://time.com/4179568/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-twitter/","keywords":["Bernie Sanders","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39314933ad3bbafd/698878fa524fc0c88fdf6482/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-twitter-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39314933ad3bbafd/698878fa524fc0c88fdf6482/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-twitter-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"CBS News Democratic Presidential Debate","caption":"Sen. 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