Bernie Sanders Admits Democrats Failed Working-Class Voters, and Says Workers Lost Faith 'Not Unjustifiably'
On MS NOW, the Vermont independent blamed bad trade deals and broken promises for pushing workers toward Trump. The RNC says Democrats abandoned working families.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Saturday that Democrats let down working Americans on the economy, and that this helped drive voters to Donald Trump.
Asked on MS NOW what the party got wrong, Sanders said Democrats "failed working-class people on economic issues." He gave his party credit on civil rights, women's rights, gay rights and the environment, "but in terms of working-class issues, no, I don't think they've done a good job."
He pointed to the party's history of promises that never arrived. Workers "heard the Democrats say, 'Oh, we're going to do this, we're going to do that, and we're going to help you.' And they didn't," he said. He singled out trade agreements he called terrible for costing the country millions of good manufacturing jobs. In his words, workers lost faith in the Democratic Party, "and not unjustifiably."
Fox notes this is not new for Sanders. After Trump's 2024 win he said a party that had "abandoned working-class people" should not be surprised that the working class abandoned it, first white workers and now Latino and Black workers too.
The Republican reply. RNC spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre told Fox News Digital that Democrats "can no longer claim to be the working class party," citing higher taxes, jobs shipped overseas and damage to American industry. She said the party is more interested in appeasing its far-left base.
Fox adds numbers from its 2024 Voter Analysis. Trump beat Kamala Harris 53% to 45% among voters with household incomes of $50,000 to $99,999, while Harris won those earning $100,000 or more, 53% to 46%. Trump also won voters who said they were falling behind financially by 29 points, and about 40% of voters named inflation as the top factor in their vote, backing Trump by nearly two to one.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., appeared in the same MS NOW special and defended Sanders's approach. She said widening inequality and a shrinking middle class have made class a bigger factor in politics, and that his focus on corporate lobbying and working-class issues is gaining ground across party lines.
Two things to keep straight. Sanders is criticizing his own side from the left, so he is not endorsing Trump's economic record, and his remedy is a more progressive agenda, not a Republican one. And Fox's voter figures describe 2024, not today's mood.