Bernie Sanders Buys $600,000 Summer Home After Endorsing Clinton-Truth! & Unproven!
Summary of eRumor:
Bernie Sanders bought a $600,000 summer home weeks after endorsing Clinton, leading to speculation that he was paid for his support.
The Truth:
Reports that Bernie Sanders purchased a $600,000 summer home are true.
But allegations that he was able to purchase the summer home after Hillary Clinton paid for his endorsement are unproven.
Seven Days, an independent newspaper based in Vermont, confirmed that Sanders had purchased a $600,000 beachfront home on Lake Champlain on August 8th:
The Burlington resident last week plopped down nearly $600,000 on a lakefront camp in North Hero.
Sanders’ new crib has four bedrooms and 500 feet of Lake Champlain beachfront on the east side of the island — facing Vermont, not New York. The Bern will keep his home in Burlington and use the new camp seasonally.
Bernie’s new summer home has led to be criticism and speculation.
Critics have pointed out that the summer home appears to fly in the face of the outspoken senator’s stance against income inequality and his socialist worldview. We’re not going to weigh in on that argument because it’s based solely on personal opinions.
Others, however, have speculated that Sanders was able to purchase the $600,000 beachfront home because Hillary Clinton paid for his endorsement.
ETF News, for example, implied as much with a story appearing under the headline, “Bernie Sanders Bought a $600,000 Summer Home 3 Weeks After Endorsing Hillary Clinton,” that reports:
Hey, do you remember a few months back, when Bernie Sanders was regarded as the “honest” politician by both Democrats and Republicans, while we were telling everyone that he was an old socialist who wanted political power and cash, and no better than any other corrupt liar in office?
Well, it seems like that everyone is overdue for a reality check, because just three weeks after Bernie Sanders officially endorsed Hillary Clinton for President, the aging democratic socialist and “man of the people” bought himself a lakefront summer home that cost more than half a million dollars. This will be Sanders’ third home.
Gee, I wonder where all that money came from. Hmm.
However, those accusations don’t hold up. Sanders’ wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, told Seven Days that the couple was able to purchase the home because they’d sold a property in Maine that her family had held since the early 1900s:
“My family had a lake home in Maine since 1900, but we hadn’t had the time to go there in recent years — especially since my parents passed away,” she said. “We finally let go of it and that enabled us to buy a place in the islands — something I’ve always hoped for. ”
The Sanders also own a row house on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and a house in Burlington’s New North End.
Sanders reported that he and his wife held between $194,026-$741,030 in assets, mostly a combination of investment funds, in a 2015 financial form, Politico reports.
However, real estate holdings — like Jane O’Meara Sanders’ family property in Maine — are not included in financial disclosures, Bloomberg reports:
Candidates report assets’ value in ranges so broad that they can be virtually meaningless. Their homes, cars and federal retirement plans are generally off limits from public view. Nor are presidential contenders subject to rules that make members of Congress disclose stock transactions within 45 days and reveal who holds their mortgages. The deadline is flexible, too.
So, Jane O’Meara Sanders’ explanation that they purchased the beachfront home with money generated from the sale of the property in Maine don’t necessarily raise any red flags.