Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Sunday that the assassination attempt on former President Trump will not affect President Biden’s chances of winning the Democratic nomination.
“No, I don’t think so,” Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” when asked by host Kristen Welker whether the shooting would affect the debate over Biden’s eligibility to serve as president. “I think President Biden is the leading candidate that the Democratic Party has.”
Sanders was originally scheduled to join the show to discuss a New York Times op-ed in which he urged Democrats to stop calling for Biden to withdraw from the election and to end what he called “circular firing squads.”
The senator strongly condemned the assassination attempt that took place at a Trump campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday night.
In the interview, Welker reminded Sanders of the 2017 shooting of Republican Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana at a baseball practice by one of his campaign volunteers.
“Democracy isn’t about radical rhetoric,” Sanders responded. “Democracy is about having serious discussions about where we are as a nation and how we move forward.”
“Politics has to be boring in a way,” he added.
President Biden condemned the shooting at the Trump rally late Saturday.
“Look, there is no place for this kind of violence in America. This is sick. This is sick,” Biden said in a statement.
Updated 12:27pm
