Bernie Sanders spokeswoman instructs reporters not to ask about ISIS

The spokeswoman for Democratic presidential candidate Bernard Sanders instructed reporters Tuesday to avoid asking the senator about the Islamic State terrorist group following his roundtable discussion on urban poverty and the Black Lives Matter movement.

CNN reported that Symone Sanders, Mr. Sanders’ national press secretary, walked into a press conference shortly before the senator wrapped up the roundtable discussion and told reporters: “Don’t ask about ISIS today.”

Mr. Sanders later defended the unusual request.

“Of course I will talk about ISIS, but today what we are talking about is a community, in which, half of the people don’t have jobs,” he told CNN, referring to the terrorist group by an acronym.

He added, “You want to ask me about ISIS? We will talk about ISIS. But what I said, and let me repeat, you can agree with me or not, what I have said is that obviously ISIS and terrorism are a huge national issue that we have got to address, but so is poverty, so is unemployment, so is education, so is health care, so is the need to protect working families. And I will continue to talk about those issues.”