--- title: 'Democratic Whores' Comment Criticized by Bernie Sanders description: Bernie Sanders criticized a surrogate on for using charged language at a rally in Washington Square Park in Manhattan the night before canonical: https://time.com/4293792/democratic-whores-bernie-sanders-paul-song/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-14T14:33:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T16:45:03.853Z article:section: Politics og:title: 'Democratic Whores' Comment Criticized by Bernie Sanders og:description: Bernie Sanders criticized a surrogate on for using charged language at a rally in Washington Square Park in Manhattan the night before og:url: https://time.com/4293792/democratic-whores-bernie-sanders-paul-song/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2839e232910120b7/69888f25f887dc6e5fe9576d/bernie-sander-criticizes-surrogate.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Bernie Sanders Holds Rally In New York's Washington Square Park og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Democratic Whores' Comment Criticized by Bernie Sanders twitter:description: Bernie Sanders criticized a surrogate on for using charged language at a rally in Washington Square Park in Manhattan the night before twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2839e232910120b7/69888f25f887dc6e5fe9576d/bernie-sander-criticizes-surrogate.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bernie Sanders Criticizes Surrogate for 'Democratic Whores' Remark by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Apr 14, 2016 2:33 PM UTC  Bernie Sanders speaks under the arch at historic Washington Square Park in New York City on April 13, 2016. Bernie Sanders speaks under the arch at historic Washington Square Park in New York City on April 13, 2016.Spencer Platt—Getty Images by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Apr 14, 2016 2:33 PM UTC Bernie Sanders [criticized a surrogate on Thursday morning](https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/720590717706506240) for using charged language at a rally in Washington Square Park in Manhattan the night before. Speaking in front of a crowd of some 27,000 people, according to campaign estimates, healthcare activist Dr. Paul Song said, “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.” Sanders was not at the Washington Square Park rally at the time that Song spoke, and arrived later to deliver his marquee speech. But he was quick on Thursday morning to disavow Song’s use of the word “whore.” > [](https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/720590717706506240) Song also apologized shortly after his speech, saying he was referring to “some in Congress” but not Hillary Clinton. The comment quickly rocketed to the top of Twitter’s trending list, under [the hashtag #DemocraticWhores](https://twitter.com/hashtag/democraticwhores?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Ehashtag). > [](https://twitter.com/paulysong/status/720416305699024898) Sanders’ surrogates have sometimes strayed off-script and gotten the Vermont senator in hot water. In February, ally Killer Mike said at a pro-Sanders rally “having a uterus doesn’t qualify you to be president,” prompting a backlash among women and Clinton supporters. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4293792/democratic-whores-bernie-sanders-paul-song/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4293792/democratic-whores-bernie-sanders-paul-song/"},"headline":"Bernie Sanders Criticizes Surrogate for 'Democratic Whores' Remark","datePublished":"2016-04-14T14:33:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:45:03.853Z","description":"The comment took off on Twitter","url":"https://time.com/4293792/democratic-whores-bernie-sanders-paul-song/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic","Bernie Sanders"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2839e232910120b7/69888f25f887dc6e5fe9576d/bernie-sander-criticizes-surrogate.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/blt2839e232910120b7/69888f25f887dc6e5fe9576d/bernie-sander-criticizes-surrogate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bernie Sanders Holds Rally In New York's Washington Square Park","caption":"Bernie Sanders speaks under the arch at historic Washington Square Park in New York City on April 13, 2016.","creditText":"Spencer Platt—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4293792/democratic-whores-bernie-sanders-paul-song/","name":"Bernie Sanders Criticizes Surrogate for 'Democratic Whores' Remark"}}]}] ```