Jane Sanders reacts to Mike Bloomberg's 'Bernie Bro' attacks

Sanders campaign has argued stereotype is not representative of Vermont senator's true levels of support

After Mike Bloomberg’s campaign attacked supporters of Bernie Sanders’s for alleged aggressive behaviour, the wife of the Vermont senator has reacted against the New York billionaire’s comments.

“Fact is we have 2.5 million supporters on Twitter and some of them, maybe a very small number of them, are negative and speak out in ways, we tell them over and over again we don’t want your support if you are going to be disrespectful,” Ms Sanders told ABC7.

“We want you to be respectful and engage in ideas,” she continued.

The comments come amid frequent attacks on the Sanders campaign for having supporters that are derogatorily called “Bernie Bros”, and who some in the Democratic Party have attempted to paint as representative of the broader support Mr Sanders has attracted since his improbable 2016 run against Hillary Clinton.

Mr Sanders and his supporters, meanwhile, have argued that the stereotype is narrow and inaccurate, and that the “Bernie Bro” stereotype is outdated.

While the candidate himself recognised that his base of support may have been “too white” in 2016, the campaign’s base is now considerably more diverse. Polls have shown, for instance, that young women make up more of his support than young men. And, polls have also shown his campaign to be more popular with people of colour than white people.

But, those very online and seemingly angry supporters were attacked with renewed vigour over the past week by Mr Bloomberg and his campaign, which tweeted a video highlighting various negative messages from Twitter accounts unaffiliated with the Vermonter’s campaign, including many that appeared to be threatening other candidates.

“We need to unite to defeat Trump in November. This type of ‘energy’ is not going to get us there,” Mr Bloomberg’s tweet read.

That attack was posted in response to comments tweeted by Mr Sanders’s account, which featured the democratic socialist claiming that Mr Bloomberg wouldn’t be able to attract the kind of enthusiasm to his campaign in spite of his money.

“The simple truth is that Mayor Bloomberg, with all his money, will not create the kind of excitement and energy we need to defeat Donald Trump,” the tweet read.