Most obnoxious example of “whataboutism”

[Alben Barkley]

The third one is not a whataboutism. Sanders based his whole campaign on being consistently more righteous and ahead of everybody else throughout his career, always taking bold principled stands even when it was unpopular. His supporters frequently cited the crime bill as a criticism of both Biden and Hillary (who didn't even vote for it as she was not in office at the time) in explicit contrast to Bernie Sanders and his supposedly flawless record. It's not a whataboutism to point out this makes no sense because Sanders did in fact vote for the bill. Whataboutism is more like when you bring up something completely different when accused of something to say "We all have done bad things, so what's the difference?" Classic example being the Soviet Union bringing up racism in the US every time their atrocities were criticized. It's not the same as being called out for being a hypocrite who did exactly the same thing you are criticizing your opponents for and are claiming moral superiority over.