National Rifle Association (NRA) Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre on Friday tore into Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 Biden's fiscal program: What is the likely market impact? McConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security MORE (I-Vt.), calling him a "political predator" who lied to young people.

"Bernie Sanders was not a movement, as a fawning media called his campaign," LaPierre said before a cheering crowd at the NRA's Leadership Forum in Atlanta. "Bernie is a political predator of young voters who were lied to by school teachers and college professors."

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"Stood up for his message of big government socialism. Free, free, free for me. No one told the truth about how all that free stuff was going to be paid for. It was all one big fat lie. And the media, they were in on the lie from the start, because it fit their agenda."



The NRA has had a fairly amicable relationship with Sanders in the past. Sanders early in his career voted against laws pushing background checks and waiting times for gun-buyers.

But during his presidential campaign last year, Sanders sought to distance himself from the NRA and increased his calls for stricter gun control.