Sen. Bernie Sanders responded to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after she said she didn’t “respect” his criticism of the Democratic Party for ignoring the working class.
The Vermont independent appeared on CNN’s State of the Union and NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday to explain why he thinks Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump.
Sanders, 83, talked about his usual list of policies that he believes Harris didn’t emphasize or support at all.
These positions include raising the minimum wage, raising taxes on the ultra-rich, moving to a universal health care system, and expanding social security.
During the NBC interview, Meet the Press host Kristen Welker played a clip of Pelosi telling The New York Times ‘The Interview Podcast’ on Saturday, ‘I don’t respect that (Sanders) says the Democratic Party has abandoned working-class families. That’s where we are.’
Sen. Bernie Sanders responded to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after she said she didn’t “respect” his criticism of the Democratic Party for ignoring the working class.
‘I don’t respect that (Sanders) says the Democratic Party has abandoned working-class families,’ Pelosi told the New York Times on ‘The Interview Podcast’
‘Nancy is a friend of mine,’ Sanders responded on air.
“But here’s the reality: In the Senate, over the last two years, we haven’t even introduced legislation to raise the minimum wage to a living wage even though some 20 million people in this country work for less than $15 a day. year. hour.’
Sanders’ criticism was also challenged at the State of the Union, where host Dana Bash noted, “But what voters supported is a man who would never do anything you just said.” I mean, not even close.
“But what that man named Donald Trump did was say: ‘I feel your pain. I know you are suffering and I have an explanation,'” argued the two-time presidential candidate, once in 2016 and again in 2020.
Sanders, a two-time presidential candidate, released his damning assessment of the Democratic Party shortly before Kamala Harris gave her concession speech.
Sanders said Donald Trump spoke to Americans’ fears, even though he believes the future president’s solutions are “false.”
However, Sanders called Trump’s explanation “false,” adding that the millions of people who crossed the border under President Joe Biden are not to blame for Americans’ economic woes.
“The cause of the problem right now is that we have a small number of people at the top who have enormous economic and political power,” Sanders said.
“Look, the workers of this country are extremely angry,” Sanders added to Welker.
‘They have the right to be angry in the richest country in the history of the world. Today, those at the top are doing phenomenally well, while 60 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Millions of families fear that their children will have to have a lower standard of living than them.’
Sanders issued his opening statement on the election results shortly before Harris’ concession speech on Wednesday.
“It should be no surprise that a Democratic Party, which has abandoned the working class, finds that the working class has abandoned them,” he wrote.
“While Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change,” he continued. “And they are right.”
Sanders, who just won another term in the Senate, said it was the white working class that first turned against Democrats, but now they had been joined by black and Latino workers.
Sanders’ statement drew the ire of top Democratic Party leaders, including outgoing Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison.
An exit poll showed Trump more than doubling his support among black voters in the crucial swing state of Wisconsin.
Sanders’ scathing criticism of Democrats caught the attention of party leaders, including Pelosi.
“Under President Biden, you see the rescue package, money in people’s pockets, shots in the arm, kids in school safe and sound, workers going back to work,” Pelosi added in her appearance on the podcast. ‘What did Trump do when he was president? A 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 leave the race early.
“If the president had come out earlier, it’s possible there would have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi told the Times.
Jaime Harrison, outgoing chairman of the Democratic National Committee, also disagreed with Sanders, calling his assessment of the party “pure nonsense.”
“Biden was the most pro-labor president of my lifetime: He saved union pensions, created millions of good-paying jobs, and even picketed,” Harrison wrote in good.