Bernie Sanders expressed his dismay Friday after an agitator waved a Nazi banner at one of his campaign rallies, calling the incident "beyond disgusting."
The 78-year-old Vermont senator, who is Jewish, said he was stunned by the stunt at the campaign stop in Phoenix on Thursday night.
When audience members spotted the Swastika-adorned flag flying in the rafters, they broke out in jeers, and the banner was clawed from protester's hands moments before Sanders spun around and looked up into the crowd. The man was booted from the event.
"It is horrific _ it is beyond to disgusting _ to see that in the United States of America there are people who would show the emblem of Hitler," Sanders told reporters Friday. "I was shocked to learn about that later."
The American Jewish Committee decried the unsettling episode.
"Nazi flags are symbols of pure hate and have no place anywhere in America, much less in a rally for a Jewish presidential candidate," the New York-based advocacy group tweeted.
The presidential hopeful is looking for a turnaround after falling behind Joe Biden in the Democratic primary delegate count.
