Sen Sanders: VA shooter 'apparently volunteered on my presidential campaign': ' I am sickened..."

[kpete]

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[retrowire]

1. But Bernie or Busters don't FUCKING LISTEN TO BERNIE.

You hear that Bernie or Busters?! When he said vote Hillary, that's what you should have done.

When he denounced violence, you should've pulled back.

Bernie is a fucking brilliant person and any of you acting this way in his name are just a bunch fucking idiots.

Just leave. Just get the fuck out of the game because you're fucking everything up.

Thanks for Trump, thanks for an apparent new breed of radical leftists you sorry fucking assholes.

[Bucky]

9. This one lunatic does not represent the Bernie movement

Don't be daft. That's the kind of idiotic smear I'd expect from Sean Hannity.

[Tarc]

16. The person you're replying to said "Bernie or Busters"

Not all Bernie followers. The "BoBs" were a lunatic subset who refused to support the eventual Democratic Party nominee.

[KPN]

21. You be wrong.

How many times do I have to say here at DU that I was a Bernie or Buster but voted for Hillary when it got right down to it. Broad generalizations like yours are way off base. We are not all mentally ill, irrational and consumed with anger. And I don't appreciate or even respect your comment.

[marylandblue]

32. Then you are not a BoB in my book, because you didn't bust

And thank you for your vote😊

[lunamagica]

34. If you voted for her, then obviously you are not a "Bernie or Buster".

[Tarc]

45. "I was a Bernie or Buster but voted for Hillary"

That is a contradiction in terms; if you voted for her, you weren't one.

Logic 101.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

125. +1

[frankieallen]

47. you were not a bernie or buster if you voted for Hillary, why would you want to be associated

with those nut cases?

[Foamfollower]

48. If you voted for Hillary, you didn't "Bust"

The Bernie or Buster who did the shooting voted Stein.

He is fully representative of the BoB movement. Nuts and idiots all.

[JTFrog]

90. Herp derp. nt

[KPN]

116. OK, I stupidly used myself as an example. Posts 74 and 77 said it better.

[Tarheel_Dem]

104. Could you possibly be wrong? I don't think that word means what you think it means.

[BainsBane]

107. I thought Bust meant not voting for Hillary in the GE?

[Gore1FL]

74. Likewise, not all of the "Bernie or Bust" are deranged gunmen either. nt

[mythology]

77. But even among that limited subset, one did this

It's still such a statistically rare occurrence as to effectively be 0 even in that subset. Stein got 1,449,370 votes. Less than 1 in a million of Stein or Bernie or Busters supporters.

[shanti]

86. Thank you for that

Anything to refight the primaries, it seems. Trump has brought the crazies from all sides out of the woodwork.

[retrowire]

42. Smear? Bullshit

Bernie or Busters =/= Bernie supporters. I never said they did.

I'm for Bernie, these all or nothing idiots are fucking everything up.

[kcr]

60. Apparently some are confused by what a BoBer even is.

You would think the "or Bust" part would make it clear.

[Gore1FL]

75. The "bust" part doesn't imply "active shooter" however. nt

[zentrum]

81. Well said. Thanks.

[retrowire]

89. Plz note that I wasn't talking about the Bernie movement in my post. Nt

[zentrum]

123. Right. You were

......talking about not categorizing an entire group (any group) based on one crazy person. It was a good point.

[Trial_By_Fire]

10. The shooter was a disgruntled republican...

Even republicans wanted to vote for Sanders...

Sanders is not 'fucking up everything' - it would be wise to consider Sanders an asset
to the Dem party and to the people of the US.

[bettyellen]

15. Wait- you're holding this guy up as a good example? Just stop.

[Trial_By_Fire]

19. Reading comprehension....

I see you read what you want to read in for what I wrote.

To even think that I 'hold up the shooter as a good example' is absolutely disgusting.

[bettyellen]

26. He was GOP and you said "Even republicans wanted to vote for Sanders"

So I ask you, why are you using this man as an example of anything? Just stop.

[Trial_By_Fire]

30. This was to prove that republicans would have voted for Sanders...

You just don't like the message...please just stop....

[bettyellen]

38. Prove by directly using this man as an example. Very poor example.

If anything he's an example of why we have to renounce ginning up blind hatred.

[kcr]

53. Look. You're the one who thought it would be genius to use this guy as an example n/t

[bettyellen]

55. Nope- I literally responded to you using him as an example.

[kcr]

63. I meant to respond to trial by fire

Which I think I did, but I butted into the thread, and it wouldn't be the first time I screwed that up.

[bettyellen]

68. Oops. It happens. I think the only thing we need to think about is this channeling of anger thing-

gun laws. If this guy was a domestic abuser it sucks he gets to keep his guns.

[retrowire]

43. WHEN DID I SAY BERNIE IS FUCKING THINGS UP?

When? As you said to another... Reading comprehension.

[cwydro]

52. Dude...

Seriously.

Chill.

[Trial_By_Fire]

54. "Just leave. Just get the fuck out of the game because you're fucking everything up."

Your choice of words leads one to the assumption I had to make...

[retrowire]

61. And all the sentences before that were referring to Bernie or Busters.

Therefore, the subject matter of that sentence is in reference to those preceding it.

[mcar]

117. You were very clear

you were referring to BoBers, not Bernie.

[LanternWaste]

98. His accurate use of the Object of the Preposition precludes "the assumption I had to make"

His accurate use of the Object of the Preposition precludes "the assumption I had to make".

A simple, middle-school grammar lesson you appear to need.

[Trial_By_Fire]

106. "A simple, middle-school grammar lesson you appear to need."

Maybe you need to analyze your own sentence yoda...

[tiredtoo]

83. You must be one of those Russian trolls.

Do you get paid by Putin or Trump?

[QC]

110. Da. n/t

[KPN]

17. Hey! Ease the hell up man.

I was a Bernie or Buster and voted for Hillary. WTF?

[lunamagica]

40. By its very definition, if you voted for her, you are not a Bernie or Buster

[retrowire]

49. As everyone keeps telling you

If you voted for Hillary then you didn't go bust.

You're like me and didn't take the risk of giving everything to Trump and the Republicans.

[KPN]

115. As long as folks here don't equate current support for Bernie

as the equivalent. Frankly, it's sometimes difficult to tell.

[58Sunliner]

41. Whhaaatt?? There have always been some radical leftists.

Don't confuse extremism with the everyday. Unless you are talking about repubs.

[cwydro]

46. Hmm.

Interesting

[retrowire]

72. You should apologize. Nt

[ananda]

87. All I know is that Sanders would never incite violence..

.. the way 45 and the Reeps have!

Sanders is a good man who thinks well about people, and doesn't cave
to corporate interests.

[JI7]

2. the guy was probably one of those that booed if sanders said anything

About voting Hillary or other democrats

[NCTraveler]

3. This has nothing to do with Sanders outside of imagery.

There are no shared values between them. Unfortunately, in politics, image is damn near everything. Truly sorry Sanders is attached to this in any way.

[KPN]

22. THIS&

[Arazi]

70. Yup eom

[Heartstrings]

102. Thank you........nt

[Baclava]

118. Agreed - but the image is already out there, it doesn't look good

[NCTraveler]

119. Not sure why you added the "but"...

Seems pretty clear you agree with me.

[asiliveandbreathe]

4. Bernie demonstrates all that is good in a man - bernie cannot be held

accountable for the actions of the gunman, the person who IS responsible is the gunman...

- yet - he stepped up without political rhetoric....sets an example for how this situation should be handled....

Be well all!

[mvd]

6. That's a good statement

And he was a lone nut. Nuts can be supporters of anyone. I am a Bernie supporter and despise violence. I am all for resisting, protesting, and even civil disobedience when needed. But violence is certainly not the answer.

[All-In]

29. George Washington Said The Same Thing

Right?

[Snotcicles]

59. A lone whack-job managed to slip through the Sanders supporter extreme vetting process. nt

[bettyellen]

7. Well, it's good he's owning this guy. HRC was castigated enough for not winning him over.

[Bucky]

11. What? You're trying to tie him to Clinton?

Do you have any reason to believe Clinton had any contact this guy at all?

[bettyellen]

14. No, I'm tying him into the mythical WWC rust belt voter who was interviewed and studied endlessly

Since November. The ones Hillary should have tried just a little harder to reach.

This guy should be a symbol of how their blind anger led them astray.

[Bucky]

18. Hes mentally unhinged lunatic. He represents no one

You should resist the petty urge to politicize a tragedy. It's small-minded. It's something I'd expect from Sean Hannity. You should aspire to be better

[leftstreet]

20. +1

an excellent reminder

[demmiblue]

25. +1

[bettyellen]

31. This man's actions were political- his social media was hatefully political. That's not on me.

He was influenced by hate campaigns just as any other terrorist. I'm not forgetting the hateful rhetoric that helped spawn this. No one should.

[JTFrog]

120. + 1 nt

[bettyellen]

121. On my last nerve with the "lock em up" w no trial and "I hate" crap....

And HRC got this crap from every side. I remember "progressive" folks disparaging the Women's march becasue they weren't blocking traffic or getting arrested. Fuck that. I'm sick of people playing at tough guy. Get over yourselves.

[JTFrog]

122. Amen sister. nt

[dansolo]

126. The point is that he is a perfect example of a 'deplorable'

Before this incident, this is exactly the type of person that Bernie has been criticizing the Democrats for not trying harder to appeal to. I think that is the point some people are trying to make.

[bettyellen]

127. Last year taught me that if you're going to be angry - be a WWC man, otherwise no one cares! In

Fact they'll treat you as hysterical or dangerous.

And yet this guy and his ilk has been normalized.

[melman]

111. Ugly

Ugly post. And entirely predictable.

[bettyellen]

112. You don't think blind anger was a factor in what happened last November? As a woman,

The hatred was palpable. Count yourself lucky if it wasn't directed at you. And yet we're told (over and over agains) HRC should have won them over.

[BainsBane]

92. No. He had never Hillary stuff on his FB

I saw it this morning.

[bettyellen]

113. I saw #neverhillary and something similar

[joshcryer]

28. I fail to see any good in this.

[bettyellen]

35. I'm hoping it tamps down the hateful rhetoric we saw all last year.

I don't care where it comes from, it was repulsive all last year.

I was shocked by people complaining the women's march wasn't violent or angry enough. Those women didn't care enough to get arrested. I'm over that bullshit, locking up everyone. Done with listening to that crap.

[joshcryer]

58. That is neither here nor there.

This is literally nothing you can take away from this that is positive. It cannot be spun positively.

[bettyellen]

67. Like it or not, tragedies can effect the national discourse. It should have when Giffords was shot-

Don't you think? Or Sandy Hook.

I'm sorry but after six months of "lock her up" and "killary" being normalized I do think some people need to rethink their behavior. It's felt way too volatile for too long, this testosterone overdose is killing discourse.

[LanternWaste]

100. You place great faith in your prophetic abilities to realize all possible consequences.

"This is literally nothing you can take away from this that is positive..."

You place great faith in your prophetic abilities to realize all possible consequences of any given action.

I've often seen it called 'magic thinking', but I'm certain you'll rationalize it as something else.

[joshcryer]

114. Convince me otherwise.

I'm open to some convincing.

I think it is a futile path.

And I certainly don't expect it from you, since you appear to make things personal with people.

[58Sunliner]

44. LOL.

[Txbluedog]

8. Unfortunately loons come in all shapes and sizes

I am sure right wing pols and media will make a meal out of this nugget. However, this does not reflect in any way, shape or form on Senator Sanders or even the Democrats

[Willie Pep]

103. Yeah that is true.

I think people have trouble accepting that anyone can snap and become violent so we wait with bated breath to see the race, religion and political orientation of mass shooters so that we can create a narrative that makes sense to us and assign blame accordingly. This rarely happens with violence that is related to criminal subcultures or domestic disputes where it is assumed that the violence is because of wars over turf or interpersonal problems between the perpetrator and the victim. It is usually these senseless mass shootings that cause us to make up our own self-serving narratives because they are so bizarre.

Not that politically-motivated violence is impossible but there are usually underlying issues at play as well. This country has a big problem when it comes to people taking their frustrations out on other people.

[still_one]

12. and a lot of David Duke types volunteered on trump's presidential campaign. While no doubt the

media will try to exploit this to incite those who lack critical thinking skills to jump to the wrong conclusions, the fact is that this was a lone gunman, with obvious mental issues

[kentuck]

13. Bernie is probably one of the most peaceful Senators in Washington.

And his followers are not the violent type. Bernie has preached non-violence all his life. There is no need to try to make this something that it is not.

[dae]

71. Exactly, thank you!

[SammyWinstonJack]

91. This Bernie supporter thanks you.

[stonecutter357]

23. WOW Sen Sanders: VA shooter 'apparently volunteered on my presidential campaign':

[vkkv]

24. The TORCHES and PITCHFORKS are coming out.

I'm not condoning the shooting, only observing that society reflects the times.

Obviously the guy flipped out, but what does it say?

[GetRidOfThem]

27. We must all remain sane....

You can have radical wingnuts on both side of the equation. They miss that no matter how angry you are, you have to remain sane.

This guy James Hodgkinson, if everything that is being reported is true, had completely lost his marbles. We have to make sure that he does not damage what we all stand for.

So I am not in any way going to accept his actions, and I am not going to yell at negative reports as "fake news" if they are from reliable sources. If Sanders admits he had volunteered for him, I think we can forget about this being a planted fake story.

What I do fear is escalation and counter-punches...

[elleng]

37. Yes, thanks.

Sanity is more and more a difficult commodity to find these 'days.'

[nikibatts]

33. Wonder if he attended last week's conference on "Our Revolution?"

[All-In]

36. Millions Spoke Out

And they were ignored, and Republican scum passed their Trump death care bill. Some are bound to take matters into their own hands when the will of 83% of the people is ignored. I don't support violence but some see no other option and this I can understand.

Now onto cutting a trillion from Medicaid to free up billionaire tax cuts.

[LanternWaste]

39. More accurately, 'some choose to see no other option'.

"but some see no other option..."

More accurately, 'some choose to see no other option'.

[All-In]

50. Some Folks Have Their Chooser Busted

But we gotta cut mental health funding cuz billionaires are not rich enough.

[Fait Accompli]

51. There's a very disturbing reactionary, unhinged trend among certain Bernie supporters

Guys like Jimmy Dore, Michael Tracey, etc. come to mind. I think their support of Bernie is really just a vehicle for their deep-seated hatred and other psychological issues. Very sad to see it come to this sort of conclusion.

[All-In]

56. And Maybe

Some Bernie Supporters / or other Americans don't like watching their kids die because they can't afford medical care.

It's not about Bernie.

It's about good and evil, and right and wrong.

Has nothing to do with Bernie Supporters.

[nini]

62. I can't comment on this without getting banned

So I will behave.

[airmid]

80. I don't dare being a newbie

[nini]

97. you are wise

[TNLib]

64. He has a pretty sketchy record with the NRA

if they really care they'll all start supporting sensible gun laws and push hard for them. I hope this event has a silver lining and they start seeing this as a public safety issue.

[bettyellen]

69. And the NRA is one donor that's been treated as sacrosanct. It's a corporation but I guess they have

The right address- not Wall st.

[QC]

95. The NRA rates him D-.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jan/20/bernie-s/bernie-sanders-nra-report-card-d-minus-most-recent/

[bettyellen]

108. He voted against he Brady bill five different times, has gotten up to a C from the NRA

And sided w them when it was politically expedient.

Like many issues he wanted to avoid last year, his campaign manager responded to gun rights questions with the old "leave it to the states" answer.

Sensible gun control was something he really did not want to touch. That's because he was going for the WWC dudes.

[elmac]

65. A repug Congressman from IL said in an interview

that he blamed all the political talk that repug policies are killing ameriKans. Get ready for Dems to be too polite to fight these fascist pigs and repugs using this to push through their murderous policies.

[LovingA2andMI]

73. FIRST, THANK YOU BERNIE....

For coming out and saying without any hesitation this person volunteered for your campaign, unfortunately.

In retrospect, so did we, and we are beyond sick to death of the level of violence allowed in this country by the abundance of guns, propped up by the horrible NRA.

Furthermore, maybe, just maybe a moment of reflection should take place now to see the unstable level of political discourse in our country at this moment in time. It is almost like certain individuals (and they know who they are) cannot manage to turn on the filter and realize regardless of political party, people are human and humans can agree to disagree, respectfully.

Sadly, this level of virtual and many times complete disrespect for a fellow human being starts directly at the TOP with Donald J. Trump. The Saying is that "S**t Goes Down Hill" and when the individual who is "leading" (and the air quotes are on purpose) the highest elected office in the United States, communicates on a daily basis like a three-year-old whose parents have not taught to child how to be respectful towards anyone that disagrees with them -- sadly, incidents like today is the end result.

The state of unrest in our Country will not end until those who claim they are "Leaders" take a stand. Unfortunately, Trump has not given many any reason to believe he can do so, or frankly way too many others in the Republican Party at this point.

[Pinkflamingo]

76. Sorry Bernie, if you should happen to read this, but mental illness is everywhere.

Even though the vast majority of people with mental illness are nonviolent, some are. That's why we need to keep mental health care coverage for everyone.

[WinkyDink]

78. Non-violence is the answer? Great! Now somebody needs to tell the Iraqi civilian dead.

[rocktivity]

79. Apparently?

Was he successful at volunteering or wasn't he?


rocktivity

[emulatorloo]

82. Thank you Senator Sanders for this statement.

[left-of-center2012]

84. Let's not use this as an excuse to attack Bernie.

Let's not stoop that low,
please.

[SammyWinstonJack]

94. +1000000!

[athena]

105. As someone who is still angry at Bernie, I agree.

That was a very good statement he released. It should be a reminder to all liberals that we are all on the same side and that we should not let our occasional disagreements confuse us about that fact.

[AlexSFCA]

85. PR nightmare

[Lordquinton]

88. Thanks Bernie for speaking out

And continuing to be the champion we need!

[BainsBane]

93. That's a nice statement. nt

[democrank]

96. Bernie Sanders has spoken out against violence....all violence....for years.

Neither he nor his supporters bear any responsibility for this awful crime. Those vindictively stating otherwise should be ashamed.

[hrmjustin]

99. Good for Bernie. I imagine this is hard on him and a lot of emotions.

[LanternWaste]

101. Sanders is far too civilized and decent a man...

Sanders is far too civilized and decent a man to ever call for second amendment remedies, so I have few doubts he truly and sincerely is appalled by this.

[enid602]

109. Bern

Hopefully bern can calm down the rest of them so they don't cause additional harm.