Bernie Sanders called out Donald Trump appropriately – He is a liar
Donald Trump recently threatened Bernie Sanders. He sent out the following tweet.
The text of the tweet says, “Bernie Sanders lying when he says his disruptors aren’t told to go to my events. Be careful Bernie, or my supporters will go to yours!” The inference is clear. Donald Trump subsequently said Bernie Sanders is a communist in several interviews.
Bernie Sanders appeared on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Sanders could not be clearer. Sanders called out Trump as the liar that he is. He also called out his incitement of violence and racial angst. He believes Trump is nervous given the national polls showing Sanders solidly beating Trump.
Here is the text/transcript of the interview.
George Stephanopoulos: Donald Trump yesterday in Cleveland, as I said. He’s doubled down with a new Tweet this morning. And I want to get your response. He says, “Bernie Sanders is lying when he says his disrupters aren’t told to go to my events. Be careful, Bernie, or my supporters will go to yours.” Your response?
Bernie Sanders: Well, I think anybody who understands Mr. Trump’s campaign knows that he tells the truth very, very rarely and I’m afraid that on this occasion, he’s lying again. First of all, he calls me a communist. Obviously, that’s a lie. Then he says that our campaign is organizing disruptions of his rallies. That’s a lie. George, we have millions of supporters out there, and clearly, some of them were at that rally, along with many, many other protesters. But to say that we organized that, totally untrue. Uh, Mr. Trump, I think, is getting very nervous. He is catching onto the fact that the American people do not support a candidate like Trump, whose — whose verbiage, whose language, whose rhetoric incites violence. I mean we’ve all seen rhetoric — we’ve all seen some of the video of people at his rallies sucker punching people, of kicking people. And I would urge Mr. Trump, really, to tone it down, uh, to not incite violence on the part of his supporters.
George Stephanopoulos: You know, some of your — some Democrats are — are taking even stronger language than you’ve used this morning. Marsha Fudge — Congresswoman Marsha Fudge, the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, calling Donald Trump a racist. Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York this morning, uh, saying Mr. Trump behaves like a racist, speaks like a racist, of course Donald Trump is a racist.” Are they right?
Bernie Sanders: Well, look, this is a man, you will recall, a few years ago, who led the, uh, anti— who led the birther movement. That was a movement that tried to delegitimize the presidency of Barack Obama, trying to claim that the president was not born in this country. A funny thing, George, you know, my father was born in Poland. I’m the son of an immigrant. Nobody has asked me for my birth certificate. Were there strong racial overtones to try to challenge the legitimacy of President Obama? Of course there was. But I think what we are seeing in the Trump campaign is not only racist attacks, but what you’re seeing is attacks on Muslims, on women, on veterans. To attack Senator John McCain because he was a POW is crazy. To insult Mexicans, our neighbors to the south, calling Mexicans a rapist or — or criminals, this guy — there was a big debate in the United Kingdom parliament of whether or not he should even be allowed to enter the United Kingdom. This is a man who is dividing up his country in very serious ways, frightening ways. And I think what we are doing is getting — my campaign is getting nervous, I understand that, because the last national poll had us 18 points ahead of him. Some state polls had us even more ahead of him. So I think you’ve got a guy who is getting very, very nervous.