VICTOR JOECKS: Sanders campaign workers want to ‘guillotine the rich,’ send Republicans to gulags
If you think Bernie Sanders is radical, wait until you hear what his campaign workers say in private.
Over the past three weeks, the indispensable Project Veritas has released a series of undercover videos from inside the Sanders’ campaign. These videos show what paid staffers say when only “true believers” are around. It’s terrifying.
“If Bernie doesn’t get the nomination or it goes to a second round at the DNC Convention, f—ing Milwaukee will burn,” Kyle Jurek, a paid field organizer for the Sander’s campaign in Iowa, said in one video.
Jurek isn’t just making a prediction. He wants in on the action. “I’m ready to throw down now. I don’t want to have to wait for f—ing DNC,” he said on tape. He then envisions walking “into that MSNBC studios, drag those mother——s out by their hair and light them on fire in the streets.”
Incredibly, Jurek may not be the most violently minded Sanders employee that Project Veritas got on tape.
“I’ll straight up get armed,” Martin Weissgerber, a Sanders field organizer in South Carolina, said when talking about what he’d do if Sanders doesn’t become president. “I want to learn how to shoot, and go train. I’m ready for the f—ing revolution, bro.”
He then adds, “Guillotine the rich.”
He’s willing to show a little more compassion to Republicans. “What will help is when we send all Republicans to ‘re-education camps’, ” he said, referring to gulags. “Can you imagine Mitch McConnell? Lindsey Graham?”
“After we abolish landlords, we don’t have to kill them,” Mason Baird, a Sanders field organizer in South Carolina, said in another video. “That’s my feeling. I think that’s damaging to the soul … but there were plenty of excesses in 1917 (Russian Revolution) that I would hope to avoid.”
“It’s unfortunate that we have to make plans for extreme action, but like I said, they’re not going to give it to us even if Bernie is elected,” fellow South Carolina organizer Daniel Taylor said.
Imagine if tapes came out showing Trump campaign employees gleefully envisioning killing and imprisoning their political opponents. It’d be front-page news with 24/7 coverage. Pundits would pontificate about how President Donald Trump’s rhetorical excesses enabled and emboldened a culture of hate within his campaign. The staffers would be fired immediately. The press would ferociously seek out other examples of Trump campaign staffers behaving badly. An incident like this could dog the president for months.
But when it’s Sanders’ employees fantasizing about killing and imprisoning their political foes, the press couldn’t care less. A search of The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC’s websites for the terms “Project Veritas” and “Sanders” returned no results about the videos.
It would be one thing if the Sanders campaign immediately disavowed these employees or even their statements. But when a reporter from Project Veritas tried to ask the Sanders campaign about the videos, the campaign called the police. Still nothing from the same press that has a conniption fit every time Trump mentions “fake news.”
After the first video came out, Sanders’ employees started locking their Twitter accounts. This is one cover-up the media aren’t interested in.
It appears these revolutionaries are still paid Sanders employees, too. The Sanders campaign refused to comment when I asked in an email if Sanders condemned his employees’ statements.
Sanders has talked about revolution for decades. He should clarify what exactly that entails.
“Do you want to fight against the revolution?” Jurek said. “You’re going to die for it mother——.”
Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Listen to him discuss his columns each Monday at 10 a.m. with Kevin Wall on 790 Talk Now. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on Twitter.