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Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said that Americans want the Democratic Party to address working class needs and do more than merely “resist” President Donald Trump.

Sanders believes the Democratic Party has not had an agenda that “speaks to the needs of the working class” for the past several years, he told HuffPost an interview published Tuesday. The senator caucuses with the Democrats and sought the party’s presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020.

“The American people, I think, not only want resistance to Trump, but I think they want what the Democratic Party in the last many years has not given them, and that is an agenda that speaks to the needs of the working class, because it’s not good enough,” Sanders told HuffPost.

“Oh, well, you know, Trump is a terrible guy,” Sanders added, imitating the president’s detractors. “Fine. You know, the majority of American people understand that. What’s your alternative? Why did Trump get elected? What do you have to say to a worker today who’s making 14 bucks an hour, who can’t afford health care? Tell me what you have to say. What do you have to say to kids who would like to go to college, who can’t afford to go to college?”

The Democratic Party has been grappling with tanking approval ratings among voters and a growing number of reports of political infighting in the months following the November 2024 election. Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin notably acknowledged in February that he believes Americans view the Republican Party as the party of the working class and see the Democratic Party as the “party of the elites.”

Similarly, NBC News political analyst John Heilemann said in a November 2024 episode of his podcast that the Democrats’ “big fucking problem” for the 2028 presidential election cycle is that the GOP is now viewed as the working class party.

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