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Bernie Sanders’ campaign tried on Thursday to distance the presidential candidate from a 1972 essay in which he wrote – among other things – a women “fantasizes being raped by three men simultaneously.”
Michael Briggs, Sanders’ newly minted campaign spokesman, said the article was a “dumb attempt at dark satire in an alternative publication” that “in no way reflects his views or record on women.”
“It was intended to attack gender stereotypes of the ‘70s, but it looks as stupid today as it was then,” Briggs told CNN.
The Vermont senator is currently pursuing the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.
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The 1972 essay, which was first revealed in a profile by Mother Jones, was published in the Vermont Freeman, an alternative newspaper from Sanders’ home state. It ran the same year that Sanders ran for governor of the state as a member of the anti-Vietnam War Liberty Union Party. He lost the race, but was elected mayor of Burlington in 1981.
“Have you looked at the Stag, Man, Hero, Tough magazines on the shelf of your local bookstores? Do you know why the newspapers with articles like ‘Girl, 12, raped by 14 men’ sell so well?” Sanders wrote. “To what in us are they appealing?”
The article also says that a man’s “typical fantasy” of a woman includes her “tied up” and “abused.”
Sanders analyzes the dynamics of sexuality and relationship between men and women, including a seemingly made up conversation between a couple about their deteriorating relationship.
“And they never again made love together (which they had each liked to do more than anything) or never ever saw each other one more time,” he wrote.
In the statement, Briggs said that the essay surfaced as a result of Sanders’ presidential ambitions.
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US Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at a campaign rally in Chicago in March 2019. Sanders, an independent from Vermont, is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress.
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Sanders, right, leads a sit-in organized by the Congress of Racial Equality in 1962. The demonstration was staged to oppose housing segregation at the University of Chicago. It was Chicago's first civil rights sit-in.
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Sanders takes the oath of office to become the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, in 1981. He ran as an independent and won the race by 10 votes.
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Sanders, right, tosses a baseball before a minor-league game in Vermont in 1984. US Sen. Patrick Leahy, center, was also on hand.
Photos: Former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders
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In 1987, Sanders and a group of Vermont musicians recorded a spoken-word folk album. "We Shall Overcome" was first released as a cassette that sold about 600 copies. When Sanders entered the US presidential race in 2015, the album surged in online sales. But at a CNN town hall, Sanders said, "It's the worst album ever recorded."
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Sanders reads mail at his campaign office in Burlington in 1990. He was running for the US House of Representatives after an unsuccessful bid in 1988.
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In 1990, Sanders defeated US Rep. Peter Smith in the race for Vermont's lone House seat. He won by 16 percentage points.
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Sanders sits next to President Bill Clinton in 1993 before the Congressional Progressive Caucus held a meeting at the White House. Sanders co-founded the caucus in 1991 and served as its first chairman.
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Barack Obama, then a US senator, endorses Sanders' Senate bid at a rally in Burlington in 2006.
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Sanders takes part in a swearing-in ceremony at the US Capitol in January 2007. He won his Senate seat with 65% of the vote.
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Sanders chats with Dr. John Matthew, director of The Health Center in Plainfield, Vermont, in May 2007. Sanders was in Plainfield to celebrate a new source of federal funding for The Health Center.
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Sanders speaks to reporters in 2010 about the Obama administration's push to extend Bush-era tax cuts. Three days later, Sanders held a filibuster against the reinstatement of the tax cuts. His speech, which lasted more than eight hours, was published in book form in 2011. It is called "The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class."
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Sanders and US Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, walk to a news conference on Capitol Hill in 2014. Sanders was chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
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In March 2015, Sanders speaks in front of letters and petitions asking Congress to reject proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
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In July 2015, two months after announcing he would be seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for President, Sanders spoke to nearly 10,000 supporters in Madison, Wisconsin. "Tonight we have made a little bit of history," he said. "You may know that some 25 candidates are running for President of the United States, but tonight we have more people at a meeting for a candidate for President of the United States than any other candidate has."
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Elaine Thompson/AP
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Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Sanders shakes hands with Hillary Clinton at a Democratic debate in Las Vegas in October 2015. The hand shake came after Sanders' take on the Clinton email scandal. "Let me say something that may not be great politics, but the secretary is right -- and that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about the damn emails," Sanders said. "Enough of the emails, let's talk about the real issues facing the United States of America."
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Sanders waves while walking in a Veterans Day parade in Lebanon, New Hampshire, in November 2015.
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Comedian Larry David and Sanders appear together on "Saturday Night Live" in February 2016. David had played Sanders in a series of sketches throughout the campaign season.
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Sanders and his wife, Jane, wave to the crowd during a primary night rally in Concord, New Hampshire, in February 2016. Sanders defeated Clinton in the New Hampshire primary with 60% of the vote, becoming the first Jewish candidate to win a presidential primary.
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JIM YOUNG/REUTERS/Newscom
Sanders speaks at a campaign rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in March 2016. He won the state's primary the next day, an upset that delivered a sharp blow to Clinton's hopes of quickly securing the nomination.
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Sanders speaks at a campaign event in New York's Washington Square Park in April 2016.
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Sanders endorses Clinton at a rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in July 2016.
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Sanders addresses delegates on the first day of the Democratic National Convention in July 2016.
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Sanders thanks supporters after winning re-election to the Senate in November 2018.
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“When Bernie got into this race, he understood that there would be efforts to distracts voters and the press from the real issues confronting the nation today,” the spokesman said. “He is determined to run a campaign that takes on the big problems facing the American people and not a campaign of salacious gossip and innuendo.”
Sanders formally announced his presidential campaign this week, a little less than a month after he announced his intentions to run for president and filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission.
After his first presidential rally in Vermont on Tuesday, he traveled to New Hampshire and will spend the next three days in Iowa for a series of town halls, speeches and small meet-and-greets.