2020 candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Sunday rejected comparisons between one of his supporters shooting Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and the suspected gunman in the El Paso shooting who allegedly shared President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration stance.
Right before Sanders’ interview on “Face the Nation,” Scalise argued that blaming Trump and his racist rhetoric for the El Paso shooting is as wrong as blaming Sanders for his shooting in 2017.
CBS host Margaret Brennan later asked Sanders for his response to Scalise’s comment.
The Vermont senator said that his “non-violent” movement didn’t create a political climate that led James Hodgkinson, a former volunteer for Sanders’ 2016 campaign, to shoot up a Republican baseball practice and injure Scalise.
Whereas Trump, Sanders argued, “creates a climate where we are seeing a significant increase in hate crimes in this country.”
Law enforcement is currently investigating the shooting in El Paso, Texas as a hate crime after authorities found a possible connection between the suspected gunman and a hate-filled manifesto online that railed against a “Hispanic invasion–rhetoric that closely mirrored Trump’s own racist attacks against immigrants at the border.
Watch Sanders below:
Sanders says he didn't create the climate for Rep. Scalise's shooting, unlike Trump before the El Paso shooting. pic.twitter.com/P5Pmw671eJ
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) August 11, 2019
Agree, Sen Sanders DID NOT hurl hateful rhetoric nor dehumanized immigrants nor did he create a climate of hatred & violence…
We know who the INCITER-In-CHIEF is…and it definitely is NOT Sen, Sanders!
Absolutely right. Trump is not responsible for all the idiotic actions of his supporters.
He is responsible for the actions they are driven to by his rhetoric and incitement. He constantly demonizes non white people and simultaneously hints at taking his enemies out or committing other sorts of violence on them on a regular basis.
And the El Paso shooter was clearly and evidently driven by Trump’s rhetoric.
WTH. When I found myself on the receiving end of Sanders Bro. words and actions, it didn’t feel like a normal discussion of facts and opinions. Reading their comments on Twitter and their “I hate Hillary” rhetoric didn’t seem anywhere close to normal.
Excellent responses by Bernie here. I don’t agree with all of his opinions but I think there’s none of the inflammatory, hateful language in it that inspires unstable Trump admirers to stochastic violence. The attack at the ball field was truly random, where with El Paso you can draw a clear line from the rhetoric and mindset to the action. As much as you might disagree with Bernie I think it’s hard to argue he comes within miles of Trump’s vicious recklessness.
There was a lot of vitriol I remember myself. I think Bernie’s an intemperate, black-and-white thinker and he riled up a lot of fanboys to be the same way. But it wasn’t deliberately (IMHO) framed to fit with a violent white-supremacist mindset that a reasonable person would see already has caused terrorist incidents and other huge problems. The Bernie bro rhetoric was harmful, it caused problems, but I’m not aware of a pattern of physical violence from it.
I watched Face the Nation and saw Scalise make the thinly veiled comparison and it incensed me. Am glad that Bernie called it out for the BS it was/is.