Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says his call for people to stop “shouting” about gun control was not a sexist attack aimed at fellow Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
{mosads}Sanders said Clinton was “misapplying” what he said about the need for reasoned debate on guns in the wake of several mass shootings.
“All that I can say is I am very proud of my record on women’s issues,” Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “I certainly do not have a problem with women speaking out. And I think what the secretary is doing there is taking words and misapplying them.”
“What I was saying is if we are going to make some progress on dealing with these horrific massacres that we are seeing, is that people have got to start all over this country talking to each other,” he added.
Clinton said she was told to stop “shouting about gun violence,” quoting Sanders at the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner on Saturday.
“Well, first of all, I’m not shouting. It’s just when women talk some people think we’re shouting,” Clinton said.
Sanders said the comment was not aimed at women.
“What I was talking about very clearly is that all across this country, we’ve got people shouting at each other, we’ve got to calm it down,” he said.
The Vermont senator said charges of sexism are “just not the case” and “wrong.”