CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - Vermont Senator and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was in Cambridge on Tuesday looking to energize his base in Massachusetts.
During his stay, Sanders faced some backlash over an answer he gave Monday at a CNN Town Hall event in Manchester regarding a felon’s right to vote.
Anne Carlstein, a student at Harvard University, asked Sanders about his position on this topic asking him if he would support the enfranchisement of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev.
Sanders responded saying, “I think the right to vote is inherent to our democracy. Yes, even for terrible people.”
Carlstein said she was surprised by the answer she got.
“I respect that he answered it. I think that he took a stand and that’s commendable,” she said. “I don’t necessarily agree with it.”
Carlstein said she asked the question because she thinks it is important to press candidates on the important issues.
“I was trying to think about stances that the candidates had taken recently. Maybe on topics that people aren’t as aware about,” she said. “I think it is certainly an important issue.”
The answer caught the attention of former transit officer and survivor Dic Donohue, who was wounded in the 2013 shootout with the Tsarnaev brothers days after the Boston Marathon bombings.
“All I have to say today is it would be nice to talk to Bernie Sanders in person since he will be in my home state,” Donohue said via Twitter. “We can talk about his comments from last night and more. I don’t live too far from Cambridge.”
Sanders supporters are split on the issue.
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