Sanders doubles down on his criticism of Democrats, fires back at Pelosi's pushback

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent who won a fourth six-year term last week, doubled down on his claim that the Democratic Party' lacks appeal to the working class, and responded to pushback from Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. 

In appearances on CNN’s "State of the Union" and NBC’s "Meet the Press," Sanders was pressed about his statement, released after President-elect Trump decisively defeated Vice President Harris in the 2024 presidential election. 

"Look, the working people of this country are extremely angry," Sanders told NBC's Kristen Welker. "They have a right to be angry in the richest country in the history of the world. Today, the people on top are doing phenomenally well, while 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Millions of families worry that their kids have actually got to have a lower standard of living than they do." 

"You got the top 1% owning more wealth than the bottom 90%. We're the only major country not to guarantee health care to all of our people. Twenty-five percent of our seniors are trying to live on $50,000 a year or less. We have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth. And the gap between the people at the top and everybody else is getting wider and wider. And then, of course, that on top of all of that, we've got a corrupt campaign finance system which allows billionaires to buy elections. So if you're an average worker out there, you're saying, 'Hey, I'm working longer and longer hours, go nowhere in a hurry, worried about my kids.' And yet the people on top, 'I've never had it so good.'" 

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The left-wing lawmaker, who is listed as a member of the Senate Democratic caucus, said 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." 

Pelosi shot back against the criticism of her party on Saturday, telling The New York Times' "The Interview" podcast that while she has "a great deal of respect" for Sanders, "I don't respect him saying that the Democratic Party has abandoned the working class families." 

"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," Pelosi said. "What did Trump do when he was president? One bill that gave a tax cut to the richest people in America."

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Welker played the podcast clip on NBC and asked Sanders to respond. 

"Nancy is a friend of mine," Sanders said. "But here is the reality. In the Senate in the last two years, we have not even brought forth legislation to raise the minimum wage to a living wage despite the fact that some 20 million people in this country are working for less than $15 an hour." The progressive senator listed his grievances with the Democratically controlled Senate, saying that in the past two years the chamber failed to pass legislation to make it easier for workers to join unions. He also claimed that the Senate has not been talking about benefit pension plans "so that our elderly can retire with security," and that Democrats are "not talking about lifting the cap on Social Security so that we can extend the solvency of Social Security and raise benefits."

"Bottom line, if you're a working person out there, do you really think that the Democratic Party is going to the max, taking on powerful special interests and fighting for you? I think the overwhelming answer is no," Sanders said.

Arguing that Biden had followed through on his promise to be the most progressive president in terms of domestic policy, Sanders lodged a dig at Trump regarding the Republican's success in reaching working-class voters.