The descent of the Democratic Party into political extremes can be measured by moments like this. First it became mainstream in New York City politics to champion the cause of Oscar Lopez Rivera, a key figure in a terrorist group that had casually massacred New Yorkers and maimed NYPD officers. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito backed it. And her colleagues, who have backed her on everything from a 5 cent bag tax on working families to purging horses from Central Park at the behest of a powerful donor, tagged along. Now this is going mainstream with Bernie Sanders championing a terrorist.
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders Monday urged President Obama to grant clemency to an unrepentant convicted Puerto Rican terrorist who has been imprisoned in the U.S. for more than 34 years.
Sanders, who dropped the bombshell during a town hall in San Juan, P.R., said Oscar López Rivera, 73, deserves freedom.
“Oscar López Rivera is one of the longest-serving political prisoners in history — 34 years, longer than Nelson Mandela,” Sanders said to thunderous applause.
“We are talking about a Vietnam War veteran who was awarded a Bronze Star. I say to President Obama — let him out!”
Sanders promised that if Obama doesn’t release López Rivera, “I will pardon him” if elected president.
Here's what Bernie Sanders is endorsing.
Lopez Rivera conspired to transport explosives with intent to destroy federal government property and committed other related crimes — or that the FALN was deemed responsible for a reign of terror that killed six people and injured 130 others in at least 114 bombings.
They includes the 1975 bombing of historic Fraunces Tavern in the city’s Financial District, which left four people dead and wounded more than 50 others, and a New Year’s Eve 1982 bombing at Police Headquarters that maimed three NYPD cops who tried to defuse the explosives.
On January 24, 1975, a ten-pound dynamite bomb planted by the FALN at Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan exploded, killing his father, 33-year-old Frank Connor.
In 2011, Joe Connor attended a parole hearing for López Rivera in Terre Haute, Indiana. He and the other survivors of the FALN’s murder spree offered López Rivera “multiple opportunities” to express remorse. He rebuffed all of them.
This is what Bernie Sanders supports. It's what his supporters support. Remember that every time you see a cutesy meme or Larry David on SNL. This is what Bernie Sanders is.