--- title: Bernie Sanders Suggests Hillary Clinton Is Not Progressive description: "Some days, yes. Except when she announces that she is a proud moderate." canonical: https://time.com/4205149/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-progressive/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-02T22:25:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:43:50.023Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sanders Suggests Clinton Is Not a True Progressive og:description: "Some days, yes. Except when she announces that she is a proud moderate." og:url: https://time.com/4205149/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-progressive/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ac67287c6dfeb33/69887badab6d770ccd6a839a/timepol-iowa-keyssar-feb-1-gallery-051.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL-IOWA-KEYSSAR-FEB-1-gallery-05 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sanders Suggests Clinton Is Not a True Progressive twitter:description: "Some days, yes. Except when she announces that she is a proud moderate." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3ac67287c6dfeb33/69887badab6d770ccd6a839a/timepol-iowa-keyssar-feb-1-gallery-051.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sanders Suggests Clinton Is Not a True Progressive > 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 / Keene, N.H.](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell / Keene, N.H. Feb 2, 2016 10:25 PM UTC  Bernie Sanders speaks during a campaign rally and concert in Iowa City, Iowa on Jan. 30, 2016. Bernie Sanders speaks during a campaign rally and concert in Iowa City, Iowa on Jan. 30, 2016. Natalie Keyssar for TIME by [Sam Frizell / Keene, N.H.](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell / Keene, N.H. Feb 2, 2016 10:25 PM UTC In a race for the soul of the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton has worked to reassure liberals that she’s one of them, saying she is a “progressive who likes to get things done.” Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders questioned that claim on Tuesday while campaigning in Keene, N.H. When asked by a reporter if Clinton is a true progressive, Sanders said, “Some days, yes. Except when she announces that she is a proud moderate, and then I guess she is not a progressive.” “I think, frankly, it is hard to be a real progressive and to take on the establishment in a way that I think has to be taken on, when you come as dependent as she has through her super PAC and in other ways on Wall Street and drug-company money,” he continued. Clinton said in September while campaigning in Iowa that she “pleads guilty” to being a moderate. Meanwhile, during his remarks in Keene to an audience of over 1,100, Sanders, who calls himself a democratic socialist, said to cheers was “perhaps the most progressive member of the United States Senate.” The two candidates have laid out different proposals on health care, tackling student debt and climate change, with Sanders advocating for a more liberal approach, including single-payer health care and tuition-free public college. Clinton argues Sanders’ ideas are unattainable, instead calling for expanding on the Affordable Care Act and making college debt-free. Sanders narrowly lost to Clinton in the Iowa caucuses on Monday, conceding defeat by a fraction of percentage point. Clinton still holds by far the most likely path to the Democratic nomination, though Sanders is up in polls in New Hampshire, the next nominating contest.  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