President Trump said he plans to attack Sen. Bernie Sanders during a potential general election face-off by bringing up the Vermont independent saying the Boston Marathon bomber should be able to vote.
“He said prisoners, in prison, have the right to vote. They said, ‘Does that include the Boston maniac that’s scheduled to die?'” the president said Saturday during the Conservative Political Action Conference. “He said, ‘Yes, he would get the right to vote.’ Do you believe that?”
Trump then joked that Sanders now has time to devise a defense to this line of attack.
“That’s too bad. Too early. I’ve got to wait until two months before the vote, right?” Trump added. “It’s true. It’s OK for him to vote. It’s fine. He killed many people. Badly maimed and wounded many people and he’s got the right to vote. Can you believe it? This is where we’ve come?”
It was back in April, at a CNN town hall, that Sanders said “terrible people” such as the Boston Marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and felons convicted of sexual assault should be allowed to vote.
“If somebody commits a serious crime, sexual assault, murder, they’re going to be punished,” he said. “They may be in jail for 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, their whole lives. That’s what happens when you commit a serious crime. But I think the right to vote is inherent to our democracy. Yes, even for terrible people.”
The senator later reaffirmed his support for the measure in the face of backlash from both Republicans and Democrats. Sanders is now the front-runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination after three early contests.
