Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., doesn’t have time for your silly questions, especially if it’s about his hair.
The 2016 Democratic presidential candidate and self-professed socialist appeared annoyed at the end of an otherwise serious New York Times Magazine interview with Ana Marie Cox when she asked him questions about his coif.
“Do you think it’s fair that Hillary’s hair gets a lot more scrutiny than yours does?” she asked. Sanders didn’t seem to understand that this could be the question.
“Hillary’s hair gets more scrutiny than my hair?” he said. She confirmed the question, but he said, “Is that what you’re asking?”
“Yeah,” Cox said. Sanders appeared unimpressed with the line of questioning.
“Okay, Ana, I don’t mean to be rude here. I am running for president of the United States on serious issues, okay? Do you have serious questions?” he asked.
Cox defended her position, explaining that there’s a method to the madness.
“I can defend that as a serious question. There is a gendered reason —” she started to say.
“When the media worries about what Hillary’s hair looks like or what my hair looks like, that’s a real problem,” he responded. “We have millions of people who are struggling to keep their heads above water, who want to know what candidates can do to improve their lives, and the media will very often spend more time worrying about hair than the fact that we’re the only major country on earth that doesn’t guarantee health care to all people.”
Cox added one more thought, explaining the reason for her question.
“It’s also true that the media pays more attention to what female candidates look like than it does to what male candidates look like,” she said.
“That may be. That may be, and it’s absolutely wrong,” Sanders responded.
Sanders currently trails Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton 54 percent to 22 percent, according to a Real Clear Politics polling average.
