In a Q&A session for students at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia on Wednesday night Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders responded to a question from student Remaz Abdelgader who described herself as “an American Muslim student who aspires to change this world” and complained about the “rhetoric that’s going on in the media”.

Mr Sanders hugged her - to applause from the crowd - and said: “Let me be very personal here if I might. I’m Jewish. My father’s family died in concentration camps. I will do everything that I can to rid this country of the ugly stain of racism which has existed for far too many years.”

He went on to say that racism, along with sexism and homophobia have long been used to divide workers: “They played one group off against another. The rich got richer while everybody else was fighting each other. Our job is to build a nation in which we all stand together as one people."