If you think today was a bad day for Bernie Sanders, wait until you see tomorrow’s New York Daily News front page.
Just hours after getting slammed for what many have called a “disaster” interview with the paper’s editorial board on Monday, Sanders is bracing for another hit, this time from the paper itself.
The Daily News, which has pushed the envelope in recents months with its bombastic and controversial covers, released an image of Wednesday’s front page with the headline: “Bernie’s Sandy Hook shame” plastered in big white letters.
The subhead — just as painful — reads: “Callously defends gunmakers against Newton kin lawsuit.”
According to the Daily News article, linked to the image, Sanders is “under blistering fire Tuesday for opposing efforts by families of Sandy Hook shooting victims to sue gun manufacturers.”
When asked if victims of a gun crime should be able to sue the manufacturer during an exclusive interview with the Daily News last week, Sanders said, “No, I don’t.”
The question specifically relates to whether or not victims’ families could sue the manufacturer, distributor and seller who provided the weapon that Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza used to massacre 20 students and and six school staffers.
The paper then goes on to quote Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy — a Clinton supporter — saying that the public doesn’t need “apologists for the NRA,” adding that Sanders “is dead wrong on guns.”
The fallout from the Daily News interview, conducted last week and released online Monday, seems to be gaining traction.
Earlier on Tuesday, Sanders came under fire for being unable to adequately explain how he would break up big banks, a central theme of his campaign.
The media seemed to have a field day with headlines ranging from Salon’s “That NYDN Bernie Interview Was Really Tough. Hillary Should Face One Too,” to The Washington Post’s “This New York Daily News interview was pretty close to a disaster for Bernie Sanders.”
This isn’t the first time The New York Daily News has pushed the boundaries with its controversial headlines. After the mass shootings in San Bernadino, California, in December of 2015, the paper published a cover that slammed Republican lawmakers, including several GOP presidential candidates for offering prayers while doing nothing to tighten gun control laws.
The headline read: “God Isn’t Fixing This,” while the subhead read: “As latest batch of innocent Americans are left lying in pools of blood, cowards who could truly gun scourge continue to hide behind meaningless platitudes.”
The cover also featured tweets from South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, all expressing their condolences and prayers.