Bernie Sanders tends to inspire overzealous support from his fans, who reportedly take this devotion to extremes at times. There’s little chance of him taking the Democratic nomination, but he will continue to push towards a contested convention. Yet the Bern’s fans, for better or worse, will stick with him, just like all those superdelegates will continue to hang with Hillary Clinton. If anything, Sanders won’t achieve his primary goal, but he will leave a lasting impact (and a super-left-leaning one) on the Democratic party.
Naturally, Bern has detractors in spades, too. Those include Geraldo Rivera and his hot mic, and now Newt Gingrich is slamming the Vermont senator. The former House Speaker has drawn plenty of recent attention due to speculation that he could become Trump’s VP candidate. Gingrich hasn’t exactly shut down these rumors and says he’d “obviously have to listen carefully if he called.” Well, Gingrich may not have time for this prospective Trump phone chat. He’s a busy guy who doesn’t even have time to stand in TSA lines. No one has time for that, so Gingrich could have stopped there in this tweet and been fine. Instead, he blamed “Sanders socialist bureaucracy.”
I have a day trip to Atlanta tomorrow and just received Delta warning tsa could take 2-3 hours.Sanders socialist bureaucracy fails again.
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) May 18, 2016
The heated subject of politics can cause opinions to obscure facts, but Gingrich appears to have forgotten that George W. Bush created the TSA after 9/11. Further — and as Twitter reminded Gingrich — Bernie Sanders voted against the Homeland Security Act of 2002.
.@newtgingrich Do facts even matter? Strict TSA regs came from the Homeland Sec. Act of '02; Sanders voted against it, you were for it.
— alex kasprak (@alexkasprak) May 18, 2016
John Legend brought the hot fire with his reaction and urged Gingrich to start telling the truth and stop saying “stupid” things.
why do you say such stupid things? Everyone knows it's not true. You're not running for office. You can tell the truth now.
— John Legend (@johnlegend) May 18, 2016
Many of the other tweets also called out Gingrich’s apparent lack of memory regarding the (now overwhelming) TSA’s inception.
https://twitter.com/jonathanrobles/status/732764127051931648
.@newtgingrich pic.twitter.com/PMn2CCrpHw
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) May 18, 2016
Later, Gingrich provided an update that his TSA PreCheck went speedily at Reagan International Airport. Perhaps this comment was sincere, or maybe he simply enjoys airports that are named after conservative presidents.
TSA pre worked perfectly at Reagan this morning.took less than five minutes. On to Atlanta.
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) May 18, 2016