Sanders says Trump should apologize for harsh campaign talk
Sen. Bernie Sanders told reporters on Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump is “a very smart person” who should apologize for harsh campaign-trail talk aimed at minorities and women. Sanders also said he hopes “very, very, very much” that Trump does not follow through on threats to jail Hillary Clinton.
“That would completely, I think, divide this country. It would be an outrage. And I would hope very, very, very much that Mr. Trump understands that that is not something that he should do,” the Vermont lawmaker said at a breakfast organized by the Christian Science Monitor.
Sanders also pressed Trump to give up his skepticism of climate change, push for a higher federal minimum wages, and follow up on promises to defend entitlements and confront corporations, notably the pharmaceutical industry. Democrats will work with the Trump administration if he does, Sanders said.
“During the campaign, he said a lot, and we will find out soon enough about whether what he said was sincere,” Sanders said. “Our job is to hold him accountable and we intend to do that.”
But the independent senator, who battled Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, again insisted that Trump must rescind his pick of former Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon as top White House adviser and renounce campaign rhetoric seen as denigrating women and minorities.
“I happen to think that Donald Trump is a very smart person,” Sanders said. “The American people would be very anxious to hear him say, ‘Look, I said terrible things, I apologize, OK? I am not going to be a president leading a racist, or a sexist, or a homophobic, or Islamophobic administration.”
And Sanders urged Trump to back away from the view, stated on Twitter, that climate change is a hoax propounded by China.
“Donald Trump is nobody’s fool, he is a smart guy, and I would hope very much that he recognizes that that point of view that he has is way out of touch with what the scientific community believes,” the senator said. “Climate change is not a hoax.”
Sanders further called the epidemic of “fake news” on the Internet, and notably spread over Facebook, “scary stuff” for democracy. On Thursday morning, the Washington Post published an interview with one fake-news writer who took credit for pushing Trump over the edge in the election.
“There are millions and millions of people who are getting their information from fake news, from people who have a very prejudiced, non-fact-based-reality point of view,” he said, calling that development “frightening.”
But Sanders had tough criticism for establishment “corporate media,” which he accused of overly focusing on political “gossip,” and at one point lost his temper upon being asked who should be the Democratic presidential standard-bearer in 2020.
“This is incredible, and I have to say this, with all due respect: Are we already? We haven’t inaugurated this president, and we’re talking about 2020? Because it’s easy to write about?” he said, raising his voice. “I don’t mean to be rude but the American people are tired of that. They really are. They would like to hear serious discussion on serious issues. ‘Who’s running in 2020 or 2090?’ … I’ve got to tell you, people are turning off their TVs. They are tired of, you know, all of that stuff.”
