Bernie Sanders claims the American working class told Kamala Harris ‘screw you’ because she wasn’t populist enough with her economic policy.
The independent senator from Vermont, who at 83 won likely his last reelection campaign, argued this was why Harris lost the election.
A self-identified socialist, Sanders said the campaign spent too much time trying to woo the political center and should have moved left.
Sanders argued Harris should have promised more Medicare benefits and a higher minimum wage, and bashed Wall Street and rich people.
Bernie Sanders claims Kamala Harris lost because she wasn’t populist enough with her economic policy and messaging
‘The status quo is working very, very well for the people on top but it’s not working well for working people, and the Democratic Party has become far too much a defender of the status quo,’ he told the Washington Post.
‘You have to acknowledge the pain and the reality of people’s lives, or people will say, “Screw you”.’
Sanders, like other Democratic critics, argued Harris’ policies were too watered down to resonate with enough Americans.
‘We tried hard to do this — to have this campaign focus or emphasize an economic agenda that speaks to the need of the working class in this country,’ he said.
He did praise her steadfast defense of abortion, and attacks on Donald Trump’s fitness for office and his threat to democracy.
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on stage as she concedes the election, at Howard University
Exit polls show Trump made gains with nearly every voting bloc he lost in the 2020 election and put together a coalition of multi-ethnic working-class voters
Sanders’ critique was more measured than his scathing first response to the election result on Wednesday morning.
‘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 said.
Sanders said it was the white working class who first turned on Democrats, but they had been joined by black and Hispanic workers.
‘While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change,’ he wrote. ‘And they’re right.’
Sanders also specifically referred to the struggle of young people, facing a working environment threatened with the rise of artificial intelligence and robotics.
‘Today, despite an explosion in technology and worker productivity, many young people will have a worse standard of living than their parents,’ he said.
The former presidential candidate also condemned the billions of dollars sent by the Biden-Harris Administration to the Israeli Government to fund the war in Gaza, leading to a ‘humanitarian disaster.’
Sanders unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party nomination in 2016 and 2020 (pictured at a debate with Biden and Harris in June 2019)
Sanders also condemned the ‘big money interests’ and ‘well paid consultants’ that he claimed controlled the Democratic Party, claiming they refused to learn the lessons of past campaigns.
‘Do they have any idea as to how we can take on the increasingly powerful oligarchy which has so much economic and political power?’ He asked. ‘Probably not.’
He vowed to participate in ‘some very serious political discussions’ and concluded by urging his supporters to ‘stay tuned’.
The statement immediately sparked speculation that Sanders was considering running again for president, however he would be 87 in 2028.
Exit polls show Trump made gains with nearly every voting bloc he lost in the 2020 election and put together a coalition of multi-ethnic working-class voters.
Harris did worse on Tuesday than Biden in the 2020 contest among key voting groups including women, the working class and Hispanics.
The exit polls also suggested voters trusted Trump more to fix the economy.
