Bernie Sanders calls Donald Trump ‘a pathological liar’

Bernie Sanders, left, and Donald Trump exchanged harsh words Sunday. (Photos: Jim Cole, Matt York/AP)

Donald Trump accused Bernie Sanders of lying about him during Saturday’s Democratic debate in New Hampshire. Sanders’ response? Trump is “pathological.”

At the debate, the independent Vermont senator said, “Somebody like Trump comes along and says, ‘I know the answers. The answer is that all of the Mexicans, they’re criminals and rapists. We hate all the Muslims, because all of the Muslims are terrorists.’”

On Sunday, the Republican frontrunner fired back.

“Bernie Sanders lied,” Trump said on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” “I mean he, he went out and said things that never took place. I didn’t say that about Mexicans. I have great relationships with the Hispanics. And I didn’t say what he said. You know, they make up things in the world of politics. They’re all talk and no action. They’re politicians.”

Appearing after Trump on “This Week,” Sanders responded in kind, calling the current leader in the race for the GOP nomination “a pathological liar.”

“I tell you, it really is rather extraordinary,” Sanders said. “I think — and I say this straightforwardly — I think you have a pathological liar there.”

Sanders pointed to Trump’s claim that he saw “thousands and thousands” of people in New Jersey celebrating the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11 as evidence of his pathology.

“I think much of what he says are lies or gross distortions of reality,” Sanders said. “He’s been saying over and over again that he saw on television, as I understand it, thousands of people in New Jersey celebrating 9/11 right after the destruction of the Twin Towers. Either that’s true or it’s not true. And what I understand, there have been a lot of research, they archive what goes on television. You’re a TV guy, right? Everything [that was said] was going to be archived. Either it is true [or] it is not true. Nobody has seen a tape of thousands of people celebrating the destruction of the Twin Towers in New Jersey. It doesn’t exist. And he keeps claiming it. That’s called pathological lying.”

Sanders accused Trump of fear mongering.

“What somebody like a Donald Trump is doing is playing on the fears and anxieties of the American people,” he said. “And people are afraid. They’re afraid of terrorism, rightfully so. They’re anxious about an economy in which the middle class is disappearing, missing massive levels of income and wealth inequality. People are worried about the future for the kids. These are legitimate fears.”

Sanders added: “So instead of having a rational discussion about how we rebuild the middle class, how we deal with Wall Street, how we have a tax system in which the wealthy and powerful start paying their fair share of taxes, what Trump is saying is, 'It’s all the Muslims’ fault. It’s all the Mexicans’ fault.’”