Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernard Sanders on Monday said that GOP rival Ben Carson’s support for overturning Roe vs. Wade to make abortion illegal was emblematic of the Republican Party’s “extreme right-wing agenda.”
Mr. Sanders, a Vermont independent and avowed socialist, delivered his assessment of Mr. Carson and Republicans on ABC’s “The View.”
Joy Behar, a co-host of the daytime talk show, came to the defense of the GOP. “They’re not all like that,” she said.
“Too many of them really are. I mean, you just heard Ben Carson’s statement,” Mr. Sanders said of the retired neurosurgeon who is a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.
“He’s on the fringe, I think,” Ms. Behar said.
“I’m afraid not,” Mr. Sanders responded.
Mr. Carson said Sunday that he would “love” to see overturned the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling that made abortion legal nationwide.
He said he opposed abortion for unwanted pregnancies, including in cases of rape and incest, but could understand reasons for an exception in the rare case when a mother’s life was at risk.
“I’m a reasonable person and if people can come up with a reasonable explanation of why they would like to kill a baby, I’ll listen,” Mr. Carson said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Mr. Sanders explained the Republican agenda for the audience of “The View.”
“These are guys who basically believe, this is their agenda more or less: huge tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this county; cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, federal aid to education; virtually all of them are against a woman’s right to chose; very few of them support gay rights, the right of gay people to marry,” he said. “That is their agenda, their extreme right-wing agenda.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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