College Alumni Raise Doubts About Bernie Sanders Campaign Photo

Finally, Hillary's operation team finds something.

An activist, who Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says is him, speaks to students on the first day of a sit-in at the University of Chicago in 1962.

TIME magazine reports in an exclusive:

At a televised Democratic candidate forum Friday, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow showed Bernie Sanders a black-and-white photo of a man with his face turned away from the camera speaking before a civil rights protest. “This is you in 1962,” Maddow said to the Vermont senator. “Who is that handsome young guy with the dark hair?” joked Sanders. The audience laughed. There was just one problem: Four University of Chicago alumni who went to school with Sanders tell TIME they believe that the dramatic photo of Sanders, which his campaign has featured on its website and in a promotional video, is not in fact a photograph of Sanders...

The alumni say the man in the photo is actually Bruce Rappaport, a fellow student activist with a similar haircut, glasses and stature, who died in 2006. “I can certainly recognize it as Bruce Rappaport, partly because of the curvature of his spine, and I see that tall thin look from the side,” said Richard Schmitt, who was in the class of 1966 and lived near Rappaport in a campus dorm. “When I saw it, I said, ‘That’s Bruce Rappaport.”

Bruce Stark, who was roommates with Rappaport for two years and best Stark, who was well-aquatinted with Sanders and now supports his presidential bid. “My reaction is yes, that looks like Bruce.”

Two other alumni, Sally Cook, class of 1966, and Robin Kaufman, class of 1965, also said they believed the photo showed Rappaport. Since the image does not show the man’s face, the alumni conceded that it was difficult to say for certain the man is not Sanders..

Stark, who was well-aquatinted with Sanders and now supports his presidential bid. “My reaction is yes, that looks like Bruce.”

Two other alumni, Sally Cook, class of 1966, and Robin Kaufman, class of 1965, also said they believed the photo showed Rappaport. Since the image does not show the man’s face, the alumni conceded that it was difficult to say for certain the man is not Sanders.

 -RW