“Mr. Trump, we have a list of everything you said, and we are going to hold you to account,” Sanders said Wednesday evening to students at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Sanders warned, however, that any policy Trump pushed that would promote xenophobia or religious intolerance would be strictly opposed.
“We are not going backwards in terms of bigotry, we are going to go forward in creating a non-discriminatory society,” Sanders declared, to cheers.
Sanders began his speech by pointing to Trump’s previous words on the struggles of the working poor, which overlapped significantly with what Sanders discussed in his quixotic presidential bid. (Sanders eventually lost to Hillary Clinton, and he campaigned feverishly for her in the closing days of the campaign.)
“They see an explosion in technology, they see the wealthiest in this country becoming phenomenally richer, they see large corporations enjoying record-breaking profits and yet they are working not at one job, they are working at two jobs, they are working at three jobs,” Sanders said.
“That is the reality that Mr. Trump perceived to be true,” the junior senator continued. “And he said, ‘I hear you are hurting. And I hear and understand you are worried about the future of your kids. And I — alone — can do something about it.’ People voted for him.”
Sanders said he would work to keep Trump accountable on a handful of specific campaign promises, including raising the federal minimum wage, offering paid maternity leave and enriching safety net programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
The Vermont senator said Trump needs to “read a little bit about science” and focus on battling climate change. Sanders frequently hit Trump on the campaign trail for saying global warming was “a hoax created in China.”
Sanders called on Trump to “rescind the appointment” of Steve Bannon to a top strategic post in the White House. Bannon, the former chief of Brietbart News, has in the past expressed anti-Semitic sentiments, and Breitbart has stoked what many describe as a white nationalist movement.
Wednesday’s speech will likely be just the beginning of Sanders’ bully pulpit offensive against Trump. Early Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer appointed Sanders to a new leadership role in the party — chair of outreach.
“We’ll unite our caucus and speak to the blue-collar worker in West Virginia and Michigan as well as the people who live along the coasts,” Schumer said in a Wednesday press conference. “We can unite the disparate factions of our party and country. Our whole leadership team is emblematic of that. Our team is ideologically and geographically diverse.”
