Sen. Bernie Sanders said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" that rhetoric he has seen from Republican surrogates about Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate race is overt racism, according to a CBS News video of the interview. CBS News reported that Sanders said he finds the rhetoric "frankly disgusting and should appall every decent American."
CBS News described the Michigan Senate race as closely watched. Its summary identifies El-Sayed as the Democratic nominee but does not name the Republican surrogates Sanders had in mind or quote the specific remarks he was referring to. The summary also does not say whether any Republican official or campaign responded to his comments.
According to the CBS News summary, Sanders described the rhetoric in general terms as material he has observed, and the summary does not include examples of it. No transcript of the exchange was part of the source material for this report, so the full context of his remarks cannot be established from the summary alone.
Based on the CBS News summary, the central fact is that Sanders, speaking on the program, characterized Republican surrogate rhetoric about El-Sayed as overt racism. Details beyond that, including the identities of the speakers and the specific statements being criticized, would require the full interview, which was not available for this report.
Sources: CBS News: Sen. Bernie Sanders says GOP rhetoric about El-Sayed "should appall every decent American".