Bernie Sanders seems to be on a courageous campaign to alienate everyone who didn't vote for him. He's declared war on the Jewish community. And now there's this bizarre development.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) opposes the Justice Department’s decision to seek the death penalty in the case of Dylann Roof, the accused killer of nine parishioners at a church in South Carolina last year.
The Democratic presidential candidate has long been an opponent of capital punishment, arguing that it doesn’t fit with America’s moral values or deter crime. And though the circumstances of the Roof case have prompted cries for severe punishment, his campaign reiterated his position in an email to The Huffington Post.
“Sen. Sanders opposes the death penalty,” Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs wrote. “He believes those who are convicted of the most horrible crimes should be imprisoned for the rest of their lives without the possibility of parole.”
The baffling thing here is why issue a statement? Opposing the death penalty for Roof is consistent. Issuing a statement is a political grab for attention. And Bernie Sanders just seems to court bad attention. Who, besides Bernie, is really opposed to the death penalty for a killer who murdered 9 people in a church? So is Bernie just trying to stick it to black people? Who knows.
But it reminds me of the time when every Democratic candidate for governor in Massachusetts opposed the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. As did the actual governor at the time. Charlie Baker, the Republican candidate, who was for it, won.
Despite all the concern trolling from the press, it all went through because most people have more sanity and common sense than the average leftist. And that goes double for Bernie Sanders.