Sanders says Trump assassination attempt will not impact Biden’s candidacy

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Sunday that the assassination attempt on former President Trump will not impact President Biden’s chances of securing the Democratic nomination.

“No, I don’t,” he told host Kristen Welker on NBC News’s “Meet the Press” when asked if the shooting would impact the debate around Biden’s fitness for office. “I think President Biden is the strongest candidate the Democrats have.”

Sanders was originally slated to join the program to discuss his New York Times op-ed urging Democrats to halt calls for Biden to drop out of the race, and to end what he described as a “circular firing squad.” 

The senator strongly condemned the assassination attempt, which took place at a Trump campaign rally Saturday evening in Pennsylvania. 

Welker during the interview reminded Sanders that a volunteer on his campaign shot Republican Rep. Steve Scalise (La.) at a baseball practice in 2017.

“What democracy is about, is not radical rhetoric,” Sanders responded. “What it is about is a serious discussion of where we are as a nation and how we go forward.”

“Politics should be kind of boring, you know?” he added.

President Biden late Saturday condemned the shooting at the Trump rally.

“Look, there’s no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick. It’s sick,” Biden said in a statement.

Updated at 12:27 p.m. EDT