Black Twitter was calling Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders “black” on Sunday, and it's not because of his civil rights pedigree. The Times' Dexter Thomas takes a look at the hubbub surrounding the Vermont senator.

Amanda Renteria ran for Congress in 2014 and was trounced. The Times' Evan Halper looks at how Renteria, now Hillary Rodham Clinton's political director, learned from her midterm defeat, and how she hopes to use her experience to help propel Clinton to victory in 2016.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on Sunday called Donald Trump's comments about Sen. John McCain an insult to "all men and women" who have served in the military.

"He's saying somehow if you're captured in battle you're less worthy of honors than someone who isn't. It's not just absurd, it's offensive," said Rubio while on CNN's “State of the Union.” "It's a disqualifer as commander-in-chief."

While speaking at a Republican gathering in Iowa on Saturday, Trump, who has surged to the top of recent national polls in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, took aim at Arizona's senior senator, saying “he's not a war hero.” McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, was a prisoner of war for nearly six years in North Vietnam during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

“He's not a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured,” Trump said at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa.

In recent days, McCain has highlighted Trump's rally in Phoenix last weekend in which he said the real-estate mogul was firing up "crazies" within the Republican party.

Rubio, along with several Republicans vying for party's 2016 presidential nomination, were less forceful in their denunciations of Trump after he made inflammatory comments about Mexican immigrants -- calling them rapists and drug runners -- at his campaign kickoff last month.

When pressed as to why he's now vocally denouncing Trump's remarks, though he seemed more tentative when it came to Mexican immigrants, Rubio said he had spoken out.

"We have to remember this is a man who has spent his life saying outrageous things, so early in his campaign when he said something outrageous, people kind of said just ignore it and move on ,” said Rubio. “Now, as this has gone forward and he's become a more covered candidate and people have paid more attention to him , it's required people to be more forceful on some of these offensive things he's said.”

A day after Donald Trump mocked Sen. John McCain's war record as a POW in Vietnam, the real-estate mogul continued to face immense backlash from both Republicans and Democrats.

In a series of tweets Sunday, Trump did not back down from his comments.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont found themselves face-to-face with protesters Saturday, led by supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement. The Times' Nigel Duara reports on the controversy.