Campaign rhetoric from 2016 came back to haunt Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders this week during a run-in with Info Wars’ Alex Jones in Los Angeles International Airport.
One of America’s most famous socialists looked stunned and confused on Monday as the face of Info Wars interrogated him on past comments about poor white people. A perturbed aide to the lawmaker unsuccessfully attempted to run interference during the spectacle, which was broadcast on YouTube later in the day.
“Well if it isn’t old Bernie Sanders,” Mr. Jones said before the aide interjected, “Dude, no. Come on. Not right now.”
“Why did you say white people didn’t know what it was like to be poor?” Mr. Jones asked as the senator scurried away. “Bernie. Where you running, bro? … You run from proletariat like that when you’re a ruling class Commie? Huh?”
Mr. Sanders made headlines in March 2016’s CNN Democratic debate when he told voters that white people were oblivious to the realities of poverty.
“When you’re white, you don’t know what it’s like to be living in a ghetto,” the independent senator said. “You don’t know what it’s like to be poor. You don’t know what it’s like to be hassled when you walk down the street or you get dragged out of a car.”
The comment was in response to a question from CNN’s Don Lemon regarding “racial blind spots.”
Mr. Sanders did damage control the next day.
“What I meant to say is when you talk about ghettos traditionally, what you’re talking about is African-American communities,” he said, NBC News reported March 7, 2016. “I think many white people are not aware of the kinds of pressures and the kind of police oppression that sometimes takes place within the African-American community.”
Mr. Jones’ confrontation with the senator garnered tens-of-thousands of YouTube videos within hours of publication.
“Dimensions collided today in LAX airport where humble water filter salesman and gay frog activist Alex Jones confronted socialist demagogue Bernie Sanders,” the Info Wars host wrote.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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