This whole thing is so stupid and its a shame that CNN spent as much time as they did on it. As someone who is going to caucus in a few weeks, this is a huge nothing burger for me. Sanders is still my #1, Warren a close #2 and I will still give her my vote if Bernie is not viable at my location.
In my mind, they don't look like liars and they probably have slightly different recollections / interpretations of what was said 2 years ago. Here is my guess at what happened:
They meet and Sanders tells Warren that he thinks it will be very hard for a Woman to beat Trump because he will sink so low to attack any candidate. Or maybe he even said he thinks a woman will not be able to beat Trump in 2020. Either way, she walked out of the meeting with the opinion that Sanders thought a woman could not win in 2020. She moves on and it seems to not be a huge deal to her.
Two years later, the story comes out, leaked by Warren campaign. I'm not super versed on how it came out, so I will give Warren the benefit of the doubt and say that her staff leaked it to try and help her without her consent. I feel this may be true, because it took so long for her to issue a statement, and the statement was so short. Almost a "I don't really want to talk about this at all" statement. I got the same feeling from her response at the debate. Sanders completely denies it because maybe he didn't actually say a woman could not win in 2020. Maybe it was like I said earlier where he said it would be difficult. Or maybe it was 2 years ago and he does not remember his exact words but thinks that whatever he said, he surely did not mean that a woman could not possibly win. I think the statement he gave at the debate was good, but perhaps he also could have added something about not remembering the exact wording of his conversation but give assurance that he does not think now and did not think then that a woman could not win. And perhaps apologize if something he said had given her that feeling.
As for the "no handshake-gate," I'm guessing that has nothing to do with their conversation from 2 years ago, but that she is upset at his blanket denial in the debate.
Again, it seems like such a microscopic issue (trying to dissect a conversation form 2 years ago--that ended up having no real effect on anything it seems--with only second hand knowledge) I hope the talk about it ends soon. They are my top 2 choice and remain so.
