The veteran UK television star joked to Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the only explanation for this “madness” was if Mr Sanders was really a “sleeper cell”, to which Mr Carlson responded, “I’m starting to think that.” Mr Morgan blasted: “You have all these candidates last night, led by Bernie Sanders, all basically now standing there saying ‘here’s a great idea to win over middle america, the heartland that got away from us in that last election. We’re going to really campaign that the Boston marathon bomber should be allowed to vote.’
“What part of that does not scream to the democratic leadership ‘this is madness!
“This is a way to get Trump reelected.’
“Maybe they’re all sleeper cells, Tucker. Maybe they’re all Republicans in disguise.”
Mr Carlson replied: “I’m starting to think that.
“Tsarnaev should be voting – presumably for them… it’s unbelievable.”
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is the Chechen terrorist who bombed the Boston Marathon in 2013, along with his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
The bombings killed three people and injured approximately 280 others.
On Monday night, at a CNN town hall event, Bernie Sanders told an audience: “This is a democracy and we have got to expand that democracy, and I believe every single person does have the right to vote.”
Mr Sanders was specifically asked if Dzhokhar Tsarnaev or other felons, like those convicted of sexual assault, should be able to vote.
He answered: “Yes, even for terrible people, because once you start chipping away and you say, ‘Well, that guy committed a terrible crime, not going to let him vote. Well, that person did that. Not going to let that person vote,’ you’re running down a slippery slope.
“So I believe people commit crimes and they paid the price and they have the right to vote.
“I believe even if they’re in jail they’re paying their price to society but that should not take away their inherent American right to participate in our democracy.”
Later on Monday, Sen. Kamala Harris in her own CNN town hall said that she is open to allowing currently incarcerated people to vote, giving a noncommittal answer to Sanders’ proposal.
CNN’s Don Lemon asked: “People who are convicted, in prison, like the Boston Marathon bomber, on death row, people who are convicted of sexual assault, they should be able to vote?”
Ms Harris said, “I think we should have that conversation.”
“I agree that the right to vote is one of the very important components of citizenship. And it is something that people should not be stripped of needlessly, which is why I have been a long been an advocate of making sure people formally incarcerated are not denied the right to vote.
“In some states they’re permanently deprived of the right to vote.”
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg unequivocally said felons should not be allowed to vote while serving their sentences.
“No,” he said during his CNN town hall on Monday. “I do believe that when you are, when you have served your sentence, then part of being restored to society is that you are part of the political life of this nation again and one of the things that needs to be restored is your right to vote.”
He went on to say losing the right to vote is part of the punishment when someone is convicted of a crime.
“You lose your freedom and I think during that freedom it does not make sense to have an exception for it the right to vote.”