Nazi flag at Sanders rally sparks outcry
WASHINGTON – The display of a Nazi flag by a man at a Bernie Sanders campaign rally in Arizona drew condemnation from Jewish American groups and his main rival in the Democratic presidential primary on Friday amid ongoing worries about Democratic candidates’ security at public events.
Images of a flag depicting the Nazi swastika symbol that was briefly displayed at Sanders’ Thursday night rally in Phoenix began circulating online after the incident. The moment also elicited warnings about anti-semitism directed at the Jewish Sanders, who has talked about members of his father’s family being “wiped out” by the Holocaust.
“Good people, regardless of how they vote, should call this out in no uncertain terms,” Anti-defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in an interview, adding that “I worry we’ll see more of this” given the antisemitism that emerged, particularly online, during the 2016 campaign.
The American Jewish Committee tweeted in response to reports of the
Sanders rally display that “Nazi flags are symbols of pure hate and have no place anywhere in America, much less in a rally for a Jewish presidential candidate.” The Anti-defamation League on Friday identified a white supremacist with a history of anti-semitic and anti-islamic harassment as the perpetrator of the incident, citing a social media post in which the man takes credit for the display.
Sanders’ chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, former Vice President Joe Biden, tweeted that regardless of “who you’re supporting, attacks like this against a man who could be the first Jewish President are disgusting and beyond the pale.”
Sanders told reporters on Friday that the incident doesn’t raise “a question of whether I feel unsafe,” but of the bigger impact of anti-semitism in the public square. “It is horrific. It is beyond disgusting that, in the United States of America, there are people who would” display Nazi symbolism, Sanders said.
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