Donald Trump Calls Bernie Sanders “Weak” for Sharing Stage With Black Activists

<a href=http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Social-Conservatives-Iowa/199f7a92e3e54327a8c8f38e027ea1c3/10/0>Justin Hayworth</a>/AP

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At a press conference in Birch Run, Michigan, on Tuesday, Donald Trump weighed in on the widely discussed interruption of an appearance by Sen. Bernie Sanders by two black activists last Saturday.

“That showed such weakness,” Trump said. “The way he was taken away by two young women—the microphone—they just took the whole place over.”

Sanders was campaigning in Seattle when he was interrupted by activists who took control of the stage and the microphone and demanded that people who care about Black Lives Matter also hold the Vermont senator “specifically accountable for his actions.” Sanders left the stage without delivering his planned speech.

This is the second time that Black Lives Matter activists have disrupted a Sanders event. Sanders was first disrupted at a Netroots Nation conference in mid-July, as was fellow Democrat Martin O’Malley.

Trump, however, promised that such a spectacle would never occur at any of his events, even hinting that he would resort to violence if necessary.

“That will never happen with me,” Trump said. “I don’t know if I’ll do the fighting myself or if others will, but that was a disgrace.”

 

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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