Senator Bernie Sanders and former president Donald Trump may have found common ground in an unlikely space: Twitter.
In an appearance on the New York Times podcast The Ezra Klein Show on Tuesday, Sanders expressed his concerns with Twitter’s decision to permanently ban Trump from using its platform.
“Look, you have a racist, sexist, xenophobe, pathological liar, an authoritarian, somebody who doesn’t believe in the rule of law. This is a bad news guy,” Sanders told the Times columnist. “But if you’re asking me do I feel particularly comfortable that the then-president of the United States could not express his views on Twitter? I don’t feel comfortable about that.”
The Vermont senator argued that, while social media platforms should not allow the spread of hate speech and conspiracy theories, he does not like “giving that much power to a handful of high tech people.”
Twitter kicked Trump off the platform in January days after insurrectionists breached the U.S. Capitol, saying the decision was “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” and that the then-president’s last posts “violated the company’s policy against glorification of violence.”
In February, Twitter CFO Ned Segal said Trump will not be allowed back on the social media platform even if he runs again. “The way our policies work, when you’re removed from the platform, you’re removed from the platform, whether you’re a commentator, you’re a CFO, or you are a former or current public official,” Segal told CNBC’s Squawk Box.
