Elizabeth Warren attacks Bernie Sanders supporters over ‘organised online bullying’

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Former Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren has spoken out about the abuse she and others have received from supporters of Bernie Sanders, describing it as “organised nastiness” and calling on all candidates to find new ways to stop it.

In an interview on the same day she dropped out of the presidential contest, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow brought up the fact that Mr Sanders has previously had to apologise for and condemn behaviour by certain of his supporters, including towards Ms Warren herself.

Asked to what extent she was aware of the level of antipathy levelled at her during the primary by some Sanders supporters online, Ms Warren said the problem affected many more people than just the candidates.

“It’s not just about me,” said Ms Warren. “I think there’s a real problem with this online bullying and sort of organised nastiness. And I’m not just talking about ‘who said mean things’, I’m talking about some really ugly stuff that went on.”

Describing events in Nevada after a union there took exception to Mr Sanders’s healthcare plans, Ms Warren said that some Sanders supporters went well beyond vigorous disagreement.

“You can be clever and find clever ways to be kind of mean sometimes, okay, I get that part too.

“But they actually published the phone numbers and home addresses of two women, the executive director and the communications director – women of colour, immigrant women – and really put them in fear for their families.

“These are tough women, tough women who’ve run labour organising campaigns and really earned their jobs in their union – I mean the hard way – and yet said for the first time, because of this onslaught of online threats that they felt really under attack.”

Ever since Mr Sanders ran in the Democratic primary against Hillary Clinton in 2016, certain elements among his millions of supporters have gained a reputation for highly aggressive online and offline behaviour.

Their targets have included personal attacks on not just Sanders’s political opponents but on the supporters of other candidates and journalists who produce unflattering coverage.

While Mr Sanders has several times reiterated that he disowns any unpleasant or threatening behaviour conducted in his name, he has also suggested that some of the unpleasant online activity attributed to his supporters might in fact be attributable to foreign election interference.

Expounding on what she thinks needs to be done, Ms Warren suggested a more intensive approach by candidates and their campaigns.

“Has the time come for us to just start to try to think more creatively about how to do this?

“Do you set up something, for example, from the campaign, that every single day answers back to this with the authority of that person’s campaign, “And says: ‘We’re not doing this, I’m flagging these, we don’t like this, we don’t want this, we don’t want any part of this, we condemn it, how many times do I have to say this?’”

With Ms Warren now out of the running, the Democratic primary is now a two-man race between Mr Sanders and Joe Biden, who is currently the prohibitive frontrunner after winning the majority of states and delegates on Super Tuesday.