Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t count Sen. Bernie Sanders as a fan of Twitter\u2019s move to permanently suspend former President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n
In an interview with Ezra Klein on Klein\u2019s New York Times podcast, Sanders (I-Vt.) railed against Trump, but said he had reservations about Twitter banning Trump. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou have a former president in Trump, who is a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, a pathological liar, an authoritarian, somebody who doesn\u2019t believe in the rule of law. This is a bad news guy,\u201d Sanders said when asked if liberals have become ” too censorious,” according to a transcript of the interview. \u201cBut if you\u2019re asking me, do I feel particularly comfortable that the president, the then-president of the United States could not express his views on Twitter? I don\u2019t feel comfortable about it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sanders, a progressive senator who has been a frequent critic of big tech and corporations, said that he isn\u2019t sure what the right answer is on how to protect \u201cFirst Amendment rights without moving this country into a big lie mentality and conspiracy theories.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cSo how do you balance that? I don\u2019t know, but it is an issue that we have got to be thinking about,” Sanders said, according to the transcript. “Because of anybody who thinks yesterday it was Donald Trump who was banned and tomorrow it could be somebody else who has a very different point of view. So I don\u2019t like giving that much power to a handful of high tech people, but the devil is obviously in the details, and it\u2019s something we\u2019re going to have to think long and hard on.\u201d <\/p>\n
Twitter permanently suspended Trump\u2019s personal account<\/a> after the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, citing \u201cthe risk of further incitement of violence\u201d after Trump repeatedly peddled false claims that the election was stolen from him. Trump allies have slammed Twitter for the move to ban the former president, with some arguing it was “censorship,” but few Democrats have questioned the move. In wake of the insurrection, moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) applauded Twitter for its move and others argued it was overdue<\/a>. <\/p>\n Sanders has previously called for big tech companies like Facebook and Amazon to be broken up<\/a>. Sanders himself has a prolific Twitter following, with more than 15 million followers on his personal account. <\/p>\n