Story highlights Bernie Sanders was in Baltimore on Tuesday and focusing his campaign stop on jobs

An aide for the Vermont senator told the press not to ask about ISIS

(CNN) Bernie Sanders defended not talking about ISIS on Tuesday, moments after his national press secretary walked into a press conference and asked reporters not to ask questions about the terrorist group.

Symone Sanders, Sanders' spokeswoman, walked into a press conference room shortly before the senator wrapped up a roundtable on urban poverty and Black Lives Matters. After outlining the topics that the group spoke about, Symone Sanders said, "Don't ask about ISIS today."

Press aides regularly outline the topic of meetings, but it is unusual for them to outline what questions reporters can and can't ask.

The refrain came at an inopportune time for Sanders, too. After inspiring the terrorist attacks abroad and more recently in the U.S. in San Bernardino , ISIS has dramatically altered the 2016 campaign to be more focused on foreign policy and terror.

And Sanders has been forced to defend the fact that his campaign routinely focuses solely on economic issues, including framing questions about foreign policy, terrorism and other issues as a by-product of economic inequality.

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