Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) snapped at a radio host Wednesday after she identified him as having dual citizenship with Israel.
In an interview Wednesday on "The Diane Rehm Show" on WAMU, the Jewish politician and candidate for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination barked at host Rehm for regurgitating unverified rumors.
“No I do not have dual citizenship with Israel," he retorted in audio shared by Mediaite. "I’m an American. I don’t know where that question came from. I am an American citizen, and I have visited Israel on a couple of occasions. No, I’m an American citizen, period.”
Rehm, whose show is heard nationally on NPR stations, apologized and explained that she saw him identified as an Israeli citizen on a "list" she had.
Jewish Journal noted that a comment posted to an anti-Semite Facebook group includes Sanders on a list of members of Congress with Israeli citizenship.
“That’s some of the nonsense that goes on in the Internet," Sanders said. "But that is absolutely not true ... I get offended a little bit by that comment, and I know it’s been on the Internet. I am obviously an American citizen and I do not have any dual citizenship.”
Off air later, Rehm apologized in writing and confirmed that she picked up the false information from a Facebook comment.
"On today's show I made a mistake," she said in a statement, Politico reported. "Rather than asking Senator and Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders whether he had dual U.S./Israeli citizenship, as I had read in a comment on Facebook, I stated it as fact ... I want to apologize as well to all our listeners for having made an erroneous statement. I am sorry for the mistake. However, I am glad to play a role in putting this rumor to rest."
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