Former Vice President Joe Biden came to the support of rival Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders today after a protester unfurled a Nazi flag and shouted anti-Jewish slurs at one of Sanders’s campaign rallies.
I don’t care who you’re supporting, attacks like this against a man who could be the first Jewish President are disgusting and beyond the pale. Hatred and bigotry have no place in America — and it’s up to all of us to root out these evils wherever they’re found. https://t.co/Q1Pz3hRUDS
— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) March 6, 2020
A man identified as a white supremacist by the Anti-Defamation League was removed from a Sanders campaign rally in Phoenix on Thursday after unveiling a flag with a swastika and shouting obscenities and other slurs.
Sanders said after the fact that “whoever it was, I think they’re a little outnumbered tonight.”
The Vermont senator is the son of Polish immigrants who fled the Holocaust in Europe.
“Good people, regardless of how they vote, should call this out in no uncertain terms,” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told NBC News.
Mike Casca, a spokesman for the Sanders campaign, said today that “the senator is aware of the flag with the swastika on and is disturbed by it.”
Sanders surrogate Brianna Westbrook said, “It was absolutely wild. I never thought I would have seen a swastika at a political event. It’s gross.”
While an attendee, Ron Mack, said that “Sterkeson never put his arm down. Everybody was in disbelief.”
The Anti-Defamation League identified the white supremacist as Robert Sterkeson of Glendale, Arizona, who on multiple occasions has posted video of himself harassing Muslim and Jewish targets.
WARNING: awful, derogatory language. ⚠️ Man just Kicked out of #BernieSanders rally. The guy in white shirt got into it with Bernie supporter, calls him N-word. Unclear what led to this. @SenSanders #Arizona #BernieForPresident #BernieRally pic.twitter.com/xr8Fe5Lqzd
— Nicole Grigg (@NicoleSGrigg) March 6, 2020
On Oct. 27, 2018, the day a white supremacist murdered 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue complex in Pittsburgh, Sterkeson unfurled a Nazi flag at a Jewish National Fund conference in the Phoenix area shouting anti-Semitic epithets while someone filmed him.
“Flying the swastika at Jewish National Fund conference on the same day as the synagogue shooting! #RobertBowersDidNothingWrong,” Sterkeson said at the time on social media.
On his YouTube channel, Sterkeson refers to himself as a 2024 Presidential candidate. Sterkeson writes, “Sick of Clown World? Help me get the nuclear codes.” He then provides links to his BitCoin account. The majority of the videos on Sterkeson’s page are of him playing various video games. Sterkeson calls himself the “Commander in Chief” on a now-deleted LinkedIn page. The profile photo on that Linked-In page showed Sterkeson with an assault rifle.
On a separate account, Sterkeson writes, “Islam is the cancer. NUKES are the answer!” In his most recent video, Sterkeson posts and comments on a series of racist memes taking aim at African-Americans, the LGBTQ community, rapper Cardi B, and Jewish people.
Sterkeson makes no mention of the Bernie Sanders rally.
He spends the latter half of his show putting a racist angle on various news stories.