Independent Senator Bernie Sanders called Donald Trump harshly in an interview published Tuesday, but said the permanent suspension of the former Republican president’s Twitter account doesn’t suit him.
“Look, with Trump you have a former president who is racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, a pathological liar, an authoritarian, someone who does not believe in the rule of law. This is bad news, ”said Sanders, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.
The senator made his remarks on the podcast “The Ezra Klein Show” of the New York Times when Klein asked him if there is “truth in the criticism that liberals have become too censorious.”
But if you are asking me, am I particularly comfortable that the then president of the United States was unable to express his views on Twitter? I’m not comfortable with that, ”added Sanders.
Two days after the assault on the Capitol on January 6, Twitter permanently suspended Trump from its platform. The network argued that its decision was due to the “risk of further incitement to violence.” He also said that Trump’s latest posts “violated the company’s policy against glorifying violence.”
Twitter’s CFO also told CNBC that Trump will not be allowed to return to Twitter even if he runs for election again and wins.
Bernie Sanders questions that “a handful of people” have so much power
Sanders, who had previously labeled Trump a “racist,” said the former president was “directly responsible” for the “chaos” of January 6. He also assured that Trump “would go down in history as the worst and most dangerous president in history.”
During his interview on the podcast, Sanders argued that social media platforms should not be used to spread hate speech and conspiracy theories. He also said that the internet should not be used for “authoritarian and insurrectionary purposes.”
Sanders said he doesn’t know how to find balance. “But it is an issue we have to think about,” he added.
He also added that, while in this case Trump was banned, “tomorrow it could be someone else who has a very different point of view.”
So I don’t like giving a bunch of tech people that much power. But the devil is obviously in the details and it’s something we’re going to have to think long and hard about, and it’s how First Amendment rights are preserved without leading this country to a thought of the big lie and conspiracy theories, “he said.