NEW YORK: Former US President Bill Clinton jumped headlong into the democratic primary race in support of his wife Hillary Rodham, lashing out at what he termed “sexist” and “profane” attacks on her by the supporters and proponents of her rival Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed “socialist”.

The former president who is popular with Democratic voters accused Mr Sanders’ supporters of harassing those who didn’t back his campaign or disagreed with his policies.

Speaking in New Hampshire on Sunday, Mr Clinton criticised the Sanders’ supporters who, he said, subjected people who backed his wife to “vicious trolling”.

With just hours to go before voting starts in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton is trailing Sanders in the state, with the latest CNN polls average showing the Vermont senator up 14 percentage points.

Mr Clinton described a blogger who wrote a favourable column about his wife but was compelled to post it under a pseudonym out of fear of blowback from Sanders’ proponents.

“She and other people who have gone online to defend Hillary and explain — just 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,” he said.

And Clinton slammed Mr Sanders and his backers for derisively labelling opponents as part of the “establishment”.

“The online campaign is, ‘anybody who doesn’t agree with me is a tool of the establishment,’” Mr Clinton argued.

The former president went on, “When you’re making a revolution, you can’t be too careful about the facts,” drawing laughs. “You’re just for me or against me”.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2016