CNN’s Mark McKinnon Praises Bernie Sanders’ ‘Humanity’ For Response to Veteran Who Threatened Suicide at Town Hall

CNN political analyst Mark McKinnon praised 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders for his empathetic response to a distraught veteran who threatened to kill himself over his medical debts during a campaign town hall.

“Super-emotional human moment out there that magnifies the issue” of the costs of healthcare, McKinnon said. “Also gave Sanders an opportunity to show humanity, which he doesn’t do very often. I mean, he’s just this policy-driven guy but he handled that the right way: ‘I got you. Let’s do it quietly and alone.’ He didn’t try and take advantage of the moment for himself publicly on TV. And took it away quietly. Which is the right way. It was a great moment for him.”

Earlier in the evening at a Sanders campaign event in Carson City, Nevada, a man identifying himself as a veteran suffering from Huntington’s disease became very emotional while telling the candidate how he had lost his healthcare coverage over an administrative mistake. “Now they’re saying that I didn’t re-sign or do something,” he told Sanders. “I’m going to kill myself.”

“Stop it, you’re not going to kill yourself,” Bernie responded, and after another back-and-forth he asked the man to stay to the end of the town hall so the two could talk in private. CNN video later showed Sanders and his wife, Jane, having a long, one-on-one conversation with the man, who appeared much calmer.

“You hear people talk about polling and this is what Americans want and preexisting conditions and on and on,” host Don Lemon noted. “This is real life…and death. Possibly death. It’s a real life-or-death issue and how people feel about health care.”

Former Clinton White House press secretary Joe Lockhart agreed.

“All of the Democrats on that [debate] stage. They may have policy differences, but they are committed to making sure this [veteran] gets taken care of. What had they don’t say enough is the Republicans are in court now, Donald Trump’s Justice Department to take away preexisting conditions. To strip ObamaCare of the individual mandate,” Lockhart pointed out. “I think that is a much more powerful argument. People aren’t going to sit at their kitchen table and talk about my plan versus your plan. What the Democrats should focus more on is what Sanders did today. And talk about how this right of healthcare and coverage is under attack. Obamacare, if Republicans are elected in 2020, will go away.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.