Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, the socialist from Vermont, said President Obama failed to negotiate with Republicans. In an interview with CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday, Sanders said the Republicans never wanted to negotiate and Obama abandoned those who supported him.
“I will be able to deliver in Washington and I will be able to win the election in November, because we are going to be bringing more people into the process,” Sanders said, vowing to take his message even to conservative states. “We are not only going to blue states John but to red states. We are going to from Alabama to Mississippi. We are going to go to conservative states, and we are going to talk about poverty in this country.”
Sanders said that the reason Republicans did so well last election is because “63 percent of the American people didn’t vote,” a claim disputed in detail by PPD’s senior political analyst Richard D. Baris.
“We have been hearing that claim since the Democrats got trounced in 2014, and it simply isn’t accurate,” Baris said. “Turnout was down across the nation from 2012 but up from 2010 in states with competitive races where the money and effort to increase engagement was allocated. Even if Democrats had their 2012 electorate, they still would have lost Colorado, Iowa and every other competitive Senate seat. Demographics are demographics, and Republicans increased their margin with each bloc across the board.”
Still, when pressed why the message sounded just like then-Sen. Barack Obama’s message, who has failed to push much of the 2016 candidates’ agenda items, Sanders had some harsh words for the president.
“Here is the mistake that Barack Obama made, though I am friends with Barack Obama and we disagree on a lot of issues,” Sanders said. “Barack Obama said to the millions ‘hey, thank you for electing me, I’ll take it from here.”
