Sen. Bernard Sanders on Sunday called GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump a “pathological liar” who is using minority groups as a scapegoat for America’s problems.
Mr. Sanders, Vermont independent vying for the 2016 Democratic nomination, said Mr. Trump is blaming Muslims and Mexicans for economic problems that are caused by income equality and greed on Wall Street — the types of things that Mr. Sanders talks about in his own campaign.
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Mr. Sanders’ looked dazed by host George Stephanopoulos’ interview with Mr. Trump moments earlier, in which the real estate mogul doubled down on claims that thousands of New Jersey Muslims celebrated the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“I think you have a pathological liar there. I think much of what he says are lies or gross distortions of reality,” Mr. Sanders said.
He said Mr. Trump, who kicked off his campaign this year by saying Mexico is sending rapists and other criminals into the U.S., is playing on the fears and anxieties of Americans, rather than rooting out real problems.
Turning to his own primary race, Mr. Sanders said he has fired or suspended staff members who illicitly accessed campaign files maintained by his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, because of a computer glitch at the Democratic National Committee.
But he criticized the DNC for how it handled the incident, saying some details of the breach had been leaked to the media before his own campaign had been briefed.
“This is actually fairly complicated stuff,” he told Mr. Stephanopoulos.
The DNC reinstated Mr. Sanders’ access to the party’s voter data early Saturday, a day and a half after it suspended the campaign’s access and accused it of looking at Mrs. Clinton’s proprietary data files and even trying to download it.
Mr. Sanders said the issue could have been settled in a private meeting, rather than in an ugly public fight that prompted him to sue the DNC late Thursday.
Mrs. Clinton’s chief spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri, told ABC that Mr. Sanders’ apology was gracious but that the breach was a serious one that must be investigated.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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