In response to what one observer described as “anti-American baiting” by a New York Times reporter over the weekend, Sen. Bernie Sanders refused to shy away from his record of opposition to Reagan-backed death squads and coup plotters in Nicaragua throughout the 1980s.

During an interview published in the print edition of the Times on Sunday, journalist Sydney Ember repeatedly asked Sanders about supposed anti-American chants that rang out during a rally he attended in Managua in 1985, when the Reagan administration was funneling arms and money to the right-wing Contras in support of their brutal and deadly effort to topple the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

“The United States at that time—I don’t know how much you know about this—was actively supporting the Contras to overthrow the government,” Sanders told Ember, who co-authored a Times story last week detailing Sanders’s foreign policy positions during his tenure as mayor of Burlington, Vermont.

“Of course there was anti-American sentiment there,” Sanders said. “This was a war being funded by the United States against the people of Nicaragua. People were being killed in that war.”

When Ember continued the same line of questioning, asking Sanders whether he “would have stayed at the rally” had he heard the “anti-American” chants from the crowd, Sanders responded, “I think Sydney, with all due respect, you don’t understand a word that I’m saying.”

“I strongly oppose U.S. policy, which overthrows governments, especially democratically elected governments, around the world,” said Sanders. “So this issue is not so much Nicaragua or the government of Nicaragua. The issue was, should the United States continue a policy of overthrowing governments in Latin America and Central America? I believed then that it was wrong, and I believe today it is wrong. That’s why I do not believe the United States should overthrow the government of Venezuela.”

“Let me just say this: I plead guilty to, throughout my adult life, doing everything that I can to prevent war and destruction,” Sanders said. “That is my view, and I make no apologies for it.”

(Read the exchange between Sanders and Ember below.)

While some characterized Sanders’s sharp responses as “rude” and unbecoming of a presidential candidate, others argued the Vermont senator’s replies were perfectly appropriate given the severity of the issue under discussion and the quality of the questions.

“Reagan backed a vicious anti-Sandinista war that would leave ~60,000 dead. The CIA helped contras lay underwater mines in Nicaraguan ports. But Sanders is the rude one for objecting to ‘anti-American’ baiting?” tweeted Sarah Lazare, web editor for In These Times. “It is not right-wing or ‘like Trump’ to object to NYT’s pro-war bias.”

Author and climate activist Naomi Klein tweeted that while she thought Sanders “should have been more patient and polite,” his angry responses were understandable.

“I certainly get why he had smoke coming out of his ears,” Klein wrote. “My blood pressure soared just reading it.”

Do you seriously think that was a legitimate line of questioning? Anti-Yankee chants are standard fare at protests in LatAm and the Middle East, for very good reasons (U.S.-backed coups, death squads, invasions…) Any U.S. person standing in solidarity needs to grow up and deal. https://t.co/Vzff2eY5Jx — Naomi Klein (@NaomiAKlein) May 19, 2019

BTW, I also think Bernie should have been more patient and polite, because that is what is expected of candidates. But I certainly get why he had smoke coming out of his ears. My blood pressure soared just reading it. — Naomi Klein (@NaomiAKlein) May 19, 2019

Read part of exchange from the Times: