Bernie Sanders came to the defense of Sarah Sanders (no relation) after the White House press secretary was booted out of a Virginia restaurant for her politics. Some Democrats are refusing to back down, however.
After the most recent recent flare-up of liberal hostility towards the Trump administration and its staff, Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) joined some Republicans in calling for civility and told MSNBC on Wednesday that Democrats need to take out their anger in a “constructive way.”
The left’s anger over Trump’s ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policy spilled out onto the streets over the past week. In addition to Sarah Sanders being asked to leave the Red Hen restaurant in Lexington, a mob heckled and spat on Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in a movie theater; protesters chased Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen out of a restaurant in Washington; a dead animal carcass was left outside a DHS official’s home; and ‘Antifa’ groups published the names, addresses, and children’s names of over 9,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Twitter.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California) threw fuel on the fire over the weekend, when she called for more public harassment of the Trump team.
"If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere," said Waters, a committed anti-Trumper who has called for the President’s impeachment dozens of times.
"I’m not a great fan of shouting down people or being rude to people," said Senator Sanders, distancing himself from Waters’ rhetoric. “As I’ve said before, yeah, I think people have the right to go into a restaurant and have dinner.”
As an example of constructive change, Sanders pointed to the primary election victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York on Tuesday. The 28-year-old socialist ousted the incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley, an establishment Democrat who had not faced a challenger from the left in 14 years.
Many on the left have angrily rejected calls for civility, however. Daily Show host Trevor Noah said that such calls are meaningless, as they “come from those in a position of privilege.”
Simran Singh, a New York University professor and ‘anti-racist activist’ chimed in on Twitter, arguing that ‘civility’ itself is a “racially coded” concept, and “a power play by those who feel that white supremacy is under threat.”
In a separate Twitter rant on Monday, a writer for ‘Full Frontal with Samantha Bee’ made a similar tweet, saying: “Civility is a tool of white supremacy. Ok cool. Byeeeeee!”
Earlier this month, Bee stepped into the limelight after vulgar comments about the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump.
Among much of the #Resistance, Senator Sanders’ comments appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
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