Supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) are denying that there is a coordinated campaign among them to discredit Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) ahead of a potential presidential primary battle between the two, according to NBC News.

NBC News reported increasing examples of Sanders supporters criticizing O’Rourke, who ran a tight race this year against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in traditionally red Texas.

{mosads}But with O’Rourke now considering a presidential run, Norman Solomon, who was a delegate for Sanders at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, told NBC News that Americans are seeing “underneath the superficial gloss of projections onto Beto.”

“I think this week can be understood as a kind of turning point, where — for the first time really — millions of Americans are seeing pieces that look underneath the superficial gloss of projections onto Beto,” Solomon said. 

“What we’re seeing is someone who’s a big step up for red-state Texas statewide and actually a big step down for where the majority of Democrats are nationwide. … If we buy the Beto package, we’re gonna have buyer’s remorse later on,” Solomon added.

David Sirota, a journalist who previously worked for Sanders, wrote in a tweet this month that only Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) had received more campaign donations from the oil and gas industry than O’Rourke during the 2018 cycle, NBC noted.

NBC pointed out that the tweet failed to recognize that O’Rourke refused donations from corporate PACs.

Something I didn’t know: Beto O’Rourke is the #2 recipient of oil/gas industry campaign cash in the entire Congress https://t.co/i5z3zHR03u pic.twitter.com/YYLJpg4uFG

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) December 2, 2018

Polls have shown O’Rourke and Sanders among the top contenders in a potential 2020 Democratic presidential primary, although neither has committed to running.

But Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for former President Obama, told NBC News that he doesn’t think “there’s much appetite among Democratic voters to relive some of the dumb Twitter fights that we saw in the 2016 primary.”

“There are plenty of progressives who might run — from Beto and Bernie to [Sen.] Kamala [Harris] and [Sen. Cory] Booker and others — and I think it’s more productive to focus our time and energy talking about why we support the candidates who inspire us,” he added.