Senator Bernie Sanders is continuing to ruffle feathers in the Democratic party, doubling down on why he believes Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump.
The independent from Vermont, who just won another term in the Senate, appeared on CNN’s State of the Union with host Dana Bash to restate his case.
Sanders, 83, listed off his usual laundry list of policies that he thinks Harris either didn’t emphasize or support at all.
These stances include raising the minimum wage, raising taxes on the ultra-wealthy, moving to a universal health care system and expanding social security.
During the interview, Bash pointed out: ‘But what the voters supported is a man who would never do any of what you just said. I mean, not even close.’
‘But what that man named Donald Trump did do is he said, “I feel your pain. I know that you’re hurting, and I have an explanation,”‘ argued the two-time presidential candidate, once in 2016 and again in 2020.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders joined Dana Bash on CNN to explain further why he thinks the Democratic party
Sanders said Donald Trump spoke to Americans’ fears, even though he thinks the soon-to-be president’s solutions are ‘bogus’
However, Sanders called Trump’s explanation ‘bogus,’ adding that the millions of people who came across the border during President Joe Biden’s tenure aren’t the culprit for Americans’ economic woes.
‘The cause of the problem right now is that we have a small number of people on top who have enormous economic and political power,’ Sanders said.
Sanders released his initial statement on the election results shortly before Harris’ concession speech on Wednesday.
‘It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party, which has abandoned working class people, would find that the working class has abandoned them,’ he wrote.
‘While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change,’ he continued. ‘And they’re right.’
Sanders said that it was the white working class who first turned on Democrats, but that they had now been joined by black and Latino workers.
One exit poll showed Trump more than doubling his support with black voters in the crucial swing state of Wisconsin.
Sanders, a two-time presidential candidate himself, released his damning assessment of the Democratic party shortly before Kamala Harris delivered her concession speech
Sanders’ statement drew the ire of top leaders in the Democratic party, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and outgoing DNC Chair Jaime Harrison
Sanders’ scathing critique of the Democrats caught the attention of party leaders, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
‘With all due respect, and I have a great deal of respect for him [Sanders], for what he stands for, but I don’t respect him saying that the Democratic Party has abandoned the working class families. That’s where we are,’ Pelosi told The New York Times’ ‘The Interview Podcast’ on Saturday.
She continued: ‘Under President Biden, you see the rescue package, money in the pockets of people, the shots in the arm, children in school safely, working people back to work. What did Trump do when he was president? One bill that gave a tax cut to the richest people in America.’
Pelosi was referring to the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill passed in 2021 that included $1,400 stimulus checks for Americans.
Pelosi instead blamed cultural issues for Harris’ loss, as well as Biden’s refusal to drop out of the race sooner.
‘Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,’ Pelosi told the Times.
Jaime Harrison, the outgoing Chair of the Democratic National Committee, also disagreed with Sanders, calling his assessment of the party ‘straight up BS.’
‘Biden was the most-pro worker President of my life time- saved Union pensions, created millions of good paying jobs and even marched in a picket line,’ Harrison wrote on X. ‘There are a lot of post election takes and this one ain’t a good one.’
