04-17-2019, 11:23 PM
Bernie Sanders triggers Trump as he seeks to win over his voters
Quote:At a Fox News town hall in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Monday night, Sanders mused to the moderators that President Donald Trump, who "watches your network a bit," might be tuned in for the festivities.
The morning after and again on Tuesday night, Trump confirmed Sanders' well-founded suspicion with a series of snappish tweets, alleging the network had "stuffed" the room, which applauded many of the Vermont independent's answers, "with Bernie supporters," after initially -- about 10 hours earlier -- calling it "so weird to watch Crazy Bernie on Fox News."
Indeed, the sight of any Democrat -- much less a democratic socialist running for the party's presidential nomination -- in a venue so closely aligned with the Trump administration, is an unusual one. Sanders' decision to tread those uneven boards upset more than a few liberals commentators, who worried that his presence alone might gift the network some undeserved credibility. For Trump, though, the notes of aggravation in his tweets pointed to a broader new conflict: Here, for the first time, one of the candidates vying to deny him a second term had stood up on his stage, in front of an audience Trump views as his own, and delivered an unflinching case against him.