Bill Clinton brutally takes down Bernie Sanders

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

With Bernie Sanders leading the polls in the hours before the crucial New Hampshire primary, former President Bill Clinton stepped up to bat for Hillary — with some harsh words directed at the Vermont senator and his supporters.

Speaking for approximately an hour in Milford, New Hampshire, on Sunday, Bill Clinton slammed Sanders by calling him sexist, inaccurate, dishonest, hypocritical, and likened an incident in which Sanders' staffers received Clinton's voter data as being akin to grand theft, The New York Times reports:

...Mr. Clinton's most pointed remarks may have been when he took aim at Sanders supporters who, he said, use misogynistic language in attacking Mrs. Clinton. He told the story of a female "progressive" blogger who defended Mrs. Clinton online through a pseudonym because, he said, the vitriol from Mr. Sanders' backers was so unrelenting."She and other people who have gone online to defend Hillary, to explain why they supported her, have been subject to vicious trolling and attacks that are literally too profane often, not to mention sexist, to repeat." Mr. Clinton, growing more demonstrative, added that the liberal journalist Joan Walsh had faced what he called "unbelievable personal attacks" for writing positively about Mrs. Clinton. [The New York Times]

Bill Clinton isn't the first to level searing criticism at Sanders' fans; they were also skewered by feminist icons Gloria Steinem and Madeleine Albright over the weekend.

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Sanders has called for his supporters to knock it off: "Anybody who is supporting me that is doing the sexist things — we don't want them," Sanders told CNN Sunday.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.