U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders says Trump channels voter anger toward minorities, compares tactic to targeting Jews in Germany

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders said President Donald Trump has recognized widespread anger among Americans but is directing that anger toward immigrants, transgender people, Black Americans and foreign countries rather than addressing economic pressures.

Sanders made the remarks in an extended interview with journalist Michele Norris for the MS NOW special “Long Game: The Bernie Sanders Effect,” which aired Saturday night, October 17, ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.

“Trump understands that the American people are angry, and he has given them a way to express their anger in exactly the wrong ways,” Sanders said. He argued that Trump, as a billionaire, ultimately represents other billionaires despite presenting himself as a voice for economically frustrated voters.

Sanders said Trump tells people struggling with healthcare, housing and prescription costs that undocumented immigrants, transgender people, Black Americans, Canadians or Mexicans are responsible for their problems.

“Every day there’s a new person that we are supposed to hate,” Sanders said. He described the approach as something demagogues have historically done by identifying an enemy, adding: “That’s what they did to the Jews in Germany, right? Come up with an enemy.”

Sanders also criticized the Democratic Party’s record with working-class voters. He said Democrats had spent years promising to help them but supported trade agreements that, in his view, cost the United States millions of well-paying manufacturing jobs.

“They lost faith in the Democratic Party, and not unjustifiably,” Sanders said.