The first debate in an early voting state featured six contenders, including Sanders. Despite over 9 hours elapsing between the release of the video showing Kyle Jurek, an Iowa field organizer for the Sanders campaign, espousing the radical views and the beginning of the debate, moderators didn’t ask Sanders about the explosive footage.
CNN didn’t respond to a request for comment about why moderators didn’t ask Sanders about Jurek’s statements.
The video, released by undercover reporting group Project Veritas, showed Jurek saying that “cities [will] burn” if Trump is reelected. He also said that violence could erupt as early as mid-July, when the Democratic National Convention will take place in Milwaukee, if Sanders doesn’t win the Democratic presidential nomination.
“If Bernie doesn’t get the nomination or it goes to a second round at the DNC convention, [expletive] Milwaukee will burn,” Jurek said, saying at one point that the senator’s supporters like him have “nothing else left to lose” if “they [expletive] take Bernie from us.”
He also mused about throwing Trump supporters in “gulags”—forced labor camps—for “reeducation” and opined that Sanders’s “free education” plans are a part of such a “reeducation” effort.
Top Iowa officials for the campaign have locked their Twitter accounts in the wake of the release, including Iowa Co-Field Director Brooke Adams, who once described Jurek as a “top tier organizer.”
According to Polk County, Iowa, jail records, Jurek, 38, was arrested on Sept. 27, 2019 for possession of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of a prescription drug, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
On Jan. 7, Jurek was arrested again. According to jail records, he was charged with operating while intoxicated, possession of drug paraphernalia, failure to provide proof of financial liability (no accident), and violation of probation (1985).
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