Rachel Maddow and Elizabeth Warren Spent 7 Solid Minutes Dragging Bernie Over Abusive Supporters
Former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren spent a huge chunk of her first interview since dropping out of the Democratic primary race ripping Sen. Bernie Sanders and his supporters for abusive behavior online.
On Thursday night’s edition of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, host Rachel Maddow devoted almost her entire show to interviewing Senator Warren in her Cambridge home, and while Warren continued to beg off making any endorsement in the race, she spent a good long time lambasting Sanders and his supporters.
“There have been some really untoward attacks by Senator Sanders supporters, not by him himself, against you particularly online,” Maddow said, citing online behavior like the flood of snake emojis that greeted Warren following a debate in January.
Maddow noted that Sanders “condemned” the behavior in her Wednesday night interview with him, and asked if the abuse “rose to your level of consciousness, if you were aware that was going on, if you have any reaction to that, or to his comments about it last night?”
“You know, it’s not just about me,” Warren replied. “It’s a real problem with this online bullying and sort of organized nastiness, and I’m not just talking about ‘Oh, you said mean things,’ I’m talking about some really ugly stuff that went on.”
Warren referenced the Nevada Culinary Workers Union distributing literature opposing Sanders’ health care plan, and said “some of the Bernie supporters online took exception to it and they didn’t just take exception,” then described the abuse that followed.
“They actually published the phone numbers and home addresses of the two women, the executive director and the communications director, women of color, immigrant women, and really put them in fear for their families,” Warren said, and noted “that wasn’t the first time it happened.”
“Working Families Party, two women there, women of color, who were attacked right after they endorsed me,” Warren noted, and said, “We are responsible for the people who claim to be our supporters, and do really threatening ugly dangerous things to other candidates.”
“And it’s a particular problem with Sanders supporters?” Maddow asked.
“It is, and I mean it just is. It’s just a factual question, and it is,” Warren replied, emphatically.
“Have you ever talked to Senator Sanders about that?” Maddow asked.
“I have,” Warren replied, and when asked what the conversation was like, said “It was short. But yeah, we’ve talked about it. But I think it’s a real problem.”
“Does he not share your view that he is responsible for the behavior of his supporters?” Maddow asked, but Warren replied, “I shouldn’t speak for him. It’s something he should speak for himself on.”
Warren and Maddow spent several more minutes discussing the issue, and Warren suggested “creative solutions” like a dedicated mechanism for campaigns to flag and reject such abuse on a case-by-case basis.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.
