Politics
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who's endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders, agreed with hosts of The View who argued that Sanders should "do more" to reign in his supporters' behavior online.
- Conservative host Meghan McCain described the harassment she and others have faced from "Bernie Bros" as "disgusting and vitriolic."
- Ocasio-Cortez said Sanders "works very hard" to counteract the online vitriol, but she agreed when host Whoopi Goldberg said Sanders has "got to stand up and say it every day if he needs to."
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently said Sanders "has a lot of questions to answer" about his supporters' behavior online.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez agreed with the hosts of "The View" who argued that Sen. Bernie Sanders, the 2020 Democratic frontrunner, should "do more" to condemn his online supporters who harass others.
Conservative host Meghan McCain broached the topic during Ocasio-Cortez's Tuesday interview, describing the harassment she and others have been subjected to by so-called "Bernie Bros" as "disgusting and vitriolic." The freshman congresswoman endorsed Sanders last fall and has since regularly campaigned with him.
"The one thing that connects women on the left and women on the right ... is the abuse that we have all been subjected to by the Bernie bros," McCain said. "It is by far the most violent, most misogynistic, the most sexist, the most harmful."
McCain added, "You're an extremely powerful woman, how do you feel that he's attached to this deeply misogynistic and I would go so far as to say violent sector of people?"
Ocasio-Cortez agreed with McCain that online hate is disproportionately targeted at women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community.
"I think that to a certain extent we have to always reject hate, reject vitriol, and denounce that kind of behavior," the congresswoman said.
But she argued that Sanders "works very hard" to counteract his online supporters' attacks and said the campaign sends out "messaging emails."
When Ocasio-Cortez began to explain how she was degraded and threatened on a secret Facebook page run by US Border Patrol agents, host Whoopi Goldberg cut her off to insist that Sanders has to more forcefully condemn online harassment in his name.
"He's gotta do more," Goldberg said. "He's got to stand up and say it every day if he needs to."
Ocasio-Cortez nodded, "Yeah, for sure."
Some of Sanders' online supporters received new attention recently, after they allegedly released private information about some female leaders of Nevada's Culinary Workers Union Local 226.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a fellow progressive 2020 candidate, said Sanders "has a lot of questions to answer" about his fans' behavior.
"I've said before that we are all responsible for what our supporters do and I think Bernie has a lot of questions to answer here, and I am particularly worried about what happened in the attacks on members of the culinary union, particularly on the women in leadership," Warren said.
She added, "That is not how we build an inclusive Democratic Party and it is now how we [beat] Donald Trump - we do not build on a foundation of hate."