The “Bernie Bros” have received a strong warning from their preferred presidential candidate. On Tuesday at a CNN Town Hall in Nevada, 2020 hopeful Bernie Sanders said that he condemns the “vicious personal attacks” that are being made against people who support other candidates.
His disapproval came after a Las Vegas caretaker offered her support and then asked the Independent Senator from Vermont to condemn the “Bernie Bro” behavior for those who need to hear it.
“We are a campaign which believes in compassion, which believes in justice. So I don’t tolerate ugly attacks against anybody,” Sanders told Maria Carillo. “But let me just say this. Talk to the people in my campaign, often the African-American women in this campaign, talk to my wife about the kind of ugly attacks that have come in to us.”
Sanders went on to shift some of the blame to the internet which he referred to as “the Wild West,” and suggested that people are hiding behind screen names to say terrible things with little to no oversight. “Somebody could say, ‘hey, I’m Anderson Cooper’ and zippo, say some ugly things, and right now that cannot be stopped,” Sanders added.
Right now the current frontrunner says he wants to take the focus off of the nasty things his supporters may be saying and hone in on the “important issues facing the American people.”
“We’ve got millions of supporters out there,” Sanders began to explain. “We’ve got millions and millions of supporters and I dare say, 99.9 percent are people who would never, ever do that.”
In the last week, a number of 2020 hopefuls have spoken out against “Bernie Bro” behavior which has been characterized as “ugly,” “misogynistic,” and “divisive.” Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg launched an ad on Monday that addresses it. Former VP Joe Biden urged Sanders to “take accountability” for the behavior of his supporters. And in an interview with NBC News, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said that she was “particularly worried” about the attacks that Sanders supporters waged against the women in leadership at the culinary union.
“That is not how we build an inclusive Democratic Party.” Warren cautioned. “We do not build on a foundation of hate.”