Politics

Bernie Sanders Made an interesting Point about Enthusiasm for Donald Trump

December 3rd 2016

During an interview with Rolling Stone, Senator Bernie Sanders had words of praise for a surprising recipient: President-elect Donald Trump. Sanders said that he didn’t initially recognize Trump as a force to be reckoned with, but eventually realized that the two presidential candidates both garnered large crowds at rallies that created a ton of energy.

“What I believed and he believed is that the central part of your campaign should be rallies,” Sanders said.

He continued:

“When I started seeing him bring these large turnouts of working-class people, I knew that that was real, you know? What politics passes for now is somebody goes on Meet the Press and they do well: "Oh, this guy is brilliant, wonderful." No one cares about Meet the Press. But that you can go out and bring out many, many thousands of people who are supporting your campaign – that is real stuff. When I began to see that, I said, "This guy is a real candidate." Who could do it? Jeb Bush couldn't do that. Marco Rubio couldn't do it. [Trump] was clearly striking a nerve and a chord that other candidates weren't.”

While he didn't address the fact that many Trump rallies turned violent, throughout the interview, Sanders makes the point that connecting with people directly is more important than the embrace of the establishment or the coverage of large media outlets, like Meet the Press. Trump, of course, received few endorsements from newspapers or politicians compared to Hillary Clinton.

Sanders, who received little media attention while having the largest rallies, polled best out of all three candidates during the primary season. His comments were part of a larger argument for the Democratic Party to become more grassroots and get in touch with working-class voters after they have, according to him, “lost 900 seats in state legislatures throughout the country in the last eight years”

“Maybe it might be time to reassess,” Sanders said told Rolling Stone.

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