A protester at a Bernie Sanders campaign rally last night socked the crowd as he pulled out a huge flag with a swastika on it.
Sanders was speaking in Phoenix, Arizona ahead of the primary on 17 March. He began speaking to cheers from the crowd befor a man appears to wave a Nazi flag. The crowd collectively boos him, and Sanders reacts:
Whoever it was, I think they’re a little outnumbered tonight
It's a good quip, but betrays a disturbing casualness to the encounter. Sanders is Jewish, something which he has spoken about on the campaign trail. The idea that he would be faced with antisemitic imagery with enough regularity to not appear to be at all shocked is devastating.
Especially so given that Sanders's has family members who were murdered in the holocaust.
A white supremacist rasied the Nazi flag at Bernie Rally Bernie Sanders is a Jewish man whose family was slaughter… https://t.co/qIyjEBMu4w— StanceGrounded (@StanceGrounded) 1583479029
The only silver lining was the attitude of the crowd, which not only booed the man but also managed to wrestly the flag out of his hands.
The only before and after that matters. https://t.co/Ndfv2hadg4— Imraan Siddiqi (@Imraan Siddiqi) 1583470084
People are understandably upset by this turn of events.
A white supremacist rasied the Nazi flag at Bernie Rally Bernie Sanders is a Jewish man whose family was slaughter… https://t.co/qIyjEBMu4w— StanceGrounded (@StanceGrounded) 1583479029
And there are calls for increased security for presidential nomination candidates.
please get both Bernie & Biden Secret Service protection ASAP. https://t.co/zuZOvFMdSF— Jesse Lehrich (@Jesse Lehrich) 1583465630
Sanders has not spoken out further on this, and continues to use Twitter to shade Biden instead.
Get real, Joe. One of us has a history of not only fighting cuts to Social Security but working to expand benefits.… https://t.co/DxFKPcjbLC— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1583457340