© Amanda Sabga/AFP/GettySenator Elizabeth Warren said Thursday that candidates are "responsible" for their supporters who engage in online bullying.
Warren's comments came during a discussion about Senator Bernie Sanders' difficulties with a culinary union in Nevada. When the labor group Unite Here printed up flyers against Sanders' Medicare for All plan in February, alleged supporters of the Vermont senator posted threats and personal information of the group's leadership online.
Union officials reported a number of threats via email, telephone and social media after the literature, which claimed Sanders' health plan would "end Culinary healthcare," was made public.
Secretary-Treasurer of the Nevada Culinary Workers Union (NCWU) Geoconda Arguello-Kline said in a February statement that "Senator Sanders' supporters have viciously attacked the Culinary Union and working families in Nevada simply because our union has provided facts on what certain healthcare proposals might do to take away the system of care we have built over 8 decades."
In response, Sanders condemned the behavior. "Anybody making personal attacks against anybody else in my name is not part of our movement," Sanders told PBS NewsHour in February. "We don't want them. And I'm not so sure, to be honest with you, that they are necessarily part of our movement."
While Warren agreed with Sanders, she also implied some of the responsibility for such behavior lay with the candidates themselves.
"I think there's a real problem with online bullying and this sort of organized nastiness," Warren said. "I'm talking about some really ugly stuff that went on. We are responsible for the people who claim to be our supporters and do really threatening, ugly, dangerous things to other candidates."
Warren said she had discussed the problem with Sanders but the conversation was "short."
"I shouldn't speak for him," Warren said. "It's something he should speak for himself on."
When asked by Maddow whether she would accept a vice president role, Warren declined to offer a definitive answer.
"I've been running for president," she replied, "because I'm ready to be president. So I've got to kind of rework."
While she tacitly agreed that being vice-president was a good job, Warren added that "the job of senator is a good job. As a matter of fact, the job of teacher is a good job."
Warren also declined to endorse one of the remaining Democratic candidates for the presidency. "I had a lot I needed to do today," the senator said. "I'll get up tomorrow morning and think about that question."
Newsweek reached out to Warren for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Comment: Other than condemning supporter's misbehavior, what can anyone reasonably do? Bernie called out the 'Bernie Bros.' for their abusive actions. Does Warren think he should go to Culinary Union and start busting heads?
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