Cnn
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Senator Bernie Sanders gave a wholesale rejection of the president Donald TrumpWednesday evening, the climbing of commercial wars and the combative approach to foreign policy urging Americans to remember their common humanity.
“We don’t have to hate China. We don’t have to hate others. Let’s like a way to work together,” said the Vermont independent in a CNN town hall, a few hours after Trump raised his prices on Beijing at 125% in the midst of a trade battle inflamed by the president.
“The objective must be to break these barriers which separate us as human beings – come together as a Americans and meet worldwide as human beings,” said Sanders.
In the town hall moderate by Anderson Cooper of CNN, Sanders answered questions from the public members on Trump’s prices for Trump’s prices, administration cuts on federal workforce, democratic fighting young people and more Latin American voters. His answers sought to resolve anxieties through the parties of the parties.
“People on the whole are decent human beings who want the best for their children,” he said.
Sanders, 83, returned to several of the same themes He underlined since the launch of his first presidential race in 2015.
But he did it with a new rotation – highlighting Elon Musk’s expenses for the 2024 elections and his role of reducing the budget at Trump’s White House as a totem for what he described as a “horrible drift towards oligarchy and authoritarianism”.
Here are four points to remember from city hall:
Sanders, a supporter of certain prices, strikes Trump’s trade policy
Sanders is part of a handful of politicians on the left who have long criticized the free trade agreements and the sustained prices. But he also struck the way Trump carried out his recent pricing push.
A republican voter from Virginia asked Sanders how he would assess the effectiveness of tariff strategies in the protection of American jobs and the alternatives he would support. The Vermont Independent said that it had helped to carry out the effort against previous trade agreements, including the North American free trade agreement, to “prevent the decimation of communities in all this country”.
“What these commercial agreements, in essence, said to American companies:” Hey, no problem. You can throw American workers on the street. You can go to Mexico, you can go to China and hire people for under an hour, “said Sanders.” And I thought it was a horrible idea. It was a horrible idea. ”
Sanders said the prices “selectively used” are a good idea.
“But to arbitrarily, from nowhere, to propose a price that they cannot even justify or explain to almost all countries of the earth are absolutely counterproductive,” he said.
Cooper questioned Sanders about the white house’s assertions that Apple iPhones could be made in America, despite Economists’ assessments The fact that we made phones would cost thousands of others. Sanders said it didn’t know if it would be realistic to make aircraft in the United States, but stressed that Trump’s pricing policies would lead to workers’ immediate prejudices through higher costs.
Sanders sees a binary American choice: wake up or “ bow to our new king ”
Sanders warned that Trump represents a threat to democracy, describing several of the actions of the president targeting those who opposed him or which have served obstacles to his political objectives such as stages towards authoritarianism.
He stressed what he described as intimidation attempts: targeting the media with prosecution, law firms with decrees, universities with threats of funding and judges that govern against him with dismissal.
When he was asked if he thought that Trump is seriously looking for a third term – which is prohibited by the Constitution, although Trump recently said that there were methods “through which he could do it – Sanders said:” Yes, I do it. “”
“What he wants is power and wealth for his oligarch friends. So nothing would surprise me about Trump,” said Sanders.
The president’s actions add up, told Sanders, to Trump seeking to put aside the constitutional separation of the powers of America in favor of a system in which “a guy assumes all the power”.
“This is not what people fought and died to create in this country,” he said.
Sanders said he hoped that “the American people wake up” and said the president endangered democracy in a way that goes beyond political ideology.
“It is whether or not we remain a free society,” he said. “Or are we all tied up before our new king, President Trump?” This is not the kind of nation I think we want to become. ”
Sanders makes musk the new face of the oligarchy
Throughout his four decades in politics, Sanders rejected the disproportionate influence of the rich of the Americans in central politics to his message. These warnings have not changed, but the target did it.
Sanders is one of the many left -wing leaders who have targeted Tesla Musk and the efforts of her government ministry to reduce the size of the federal government.
Throughout the night, Musk served as a replacement for Sanders’ warnings on the American oligarchy, the rich operating American workers and the need for a reform of campaign financing.
After a voter asked Sanders what his message is his message to the federal workers concerned about Doge’s cuts, Sanders said that the idea that Musk was going around his “chainsaw”, a reference to the appearance of Musk during a conservative rally earlier this year, is “scandalous”. He also warned that Musk could harm workers in the private sector even more broadly.
“If Musk can do this to federal employees, some of which are in unions … What do you think he will do when artificial intelligence and robotics come for your work?” Said Sanders. “They don’t care about you. If that’s what they can do with federal employees, think about what they can do with private sector. ”
Sanders said that even if the government should approach bureaucracy, he didn’t think Musk was able to do so.
“Do I tell you that the administration of veterans is the most effective organization in the world?” No, this is not the case, “said Sanders, former president of the Senate committee on the affairs of veterans. “But you are not just – with a chainsaw, if you wish – eliminate 83,000 people, then say:” Oh, that will have no impact on the quality of the care that our veterans receive. “”
And while Sanders called for what he has long criticized as a “corrupt campaign financing system” in America, he stressed the role of Musk in the 2024 presidential election and his threats to finance the primaries.
“When you talk about people who lose confidence in the American political system, it is justified,” said Sanders. “The average American says:” Yes, I got a vote, and Musk can spend hundreds of millions of dollars. Is it a democracy? Why should I vote? “”
Sanders seeks to “rally the American people”, as a question of democratic leadership.
While the furious Liberals have sought ways to express their opposition to Trump, Sanders is among the few national figures that have sought to respond to the bell – attracting considerable crowds to the gatherings across the country this winter and in the spring.
But Sanders is almost 10 years older than it was when his “political revolution” formed during the 2016 democratic primary. And it is not clear which will follow him-as head of the progressive movement, and as the voice channel anti-top fury as the mid-term elections of 2026.
Sanders, an independent who caucus with the Democrats, did not answer these questions directly on Wednesday evening. He recognized the divisions within the Democratic Party on how to take Trump and pleaded for a combative approach.
“In the Democratic Caucus of the Chamber and the Senate, you have people with different political persuasions,” he said. “We are some of us who, from the first day, have understood that we must get up and rally the American people to fight against this horrible program, which, in the end, is really to give massive tax alternatives to the higher 1%.”
Sanders has checked the name of another Democrat: New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who appeared during gatherings next to him in recent weeks.
He said he was trying to “rally the American people to tell their members of the Congress, guess what?” You want to be re -elected, you are not going to vote to give tax reductions to billionaires and reduce the programs that workers people need. ”