Symone Sanders, a Democratic strategist and former press secretary for Bernie Sanders, appeared on CNN Wednesday evening to discuss the Chicago torture video which led to the arrest of four black teens on charges ranging from kidnapping to assault. In the thirty minute video, which was uploaded to Facebook by one of the kidnappers, a mentally-impaired white male can be seen with his mouth taped shut and his arms tied together, being beaten and forced to drink water from a toilet amid shouts of "f--- white people!" and "f--- Trump!" from his kidnappers.
During her CNN interview with Don Lemon, Sanders refused to admit that the attack was a hate crime, insisting that it was up to the Chicago Police Department to make that determination. After admitting that the video was "sickening" Sanders said, "We cannot callously go about classifying things as a hate crime."
Sanders appears to exonerate kidnappers
Sanders then speculated that the four black teens -- two male and two female -- who allegedly kidnapped and tortured their victim acted out of anger from statements made by Donald Trump, which, according to Sanders, makes the brutal assault "politically motivated" and therefore not a hate crime.
When Lemon pressed Sanders for a further explanation, she again insisted that the attack was not a hate crime.
"Hate crimes are because of a person’s racial ethnicity, their religion, their gender, their disability," she explained, adding that if somebody does "something bad" to you because of your political beliefs, it is not a hate crime.
Sanders has a history of making racially charged statements
Symone Sanders has a history of making outrageous on-air statements regarding race.
In November, after a video emerged from Chicago showing a black mob dragging a white man out of a car and beating him for supposedly being a Trump supporter -- and then stealing the car -- Sanders appeared on CNN's "At This Hour" and apparently mocked the carjacking victim. During the segment she was asked by former Navy SEAL Carl Higbie what she would say to assailants who dragged the man out of the car and beat him. “Oh my goodness, poor white people. Please, oh my — stop it, Carl," replied Sanders.
