Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Saturday that the Democratic Party itself is to blame for driving working-class voters toward President Donald Trump, pointing squarely at decades of bad economic policy.
Asked in an interview on MS NOW what Democrats did wrong, Sanders didn’t dodge. “What I think what Trump did, again — this gets back to my view — that the Democratic Party failed working-class people on economic issues,” he said.
Sanders gave the party credit on social issues but drew a hard line on economics. “I think they have a lot to be proud of in terms of fighting for civil rights, for women’s rights, for gay rights, for environmental stuff, but in terms of working-class issues, no, I don’t think they’ve done a good job,” he said.
He blamed broken promises and trade deals for gutting American manufacturing and pushing voters away from the party for good reason. “What they did is for years, they heard the Democrats say, ‘Oh, we’re going to do this, we’re going to do that, and we’re going to help you.’ And they didn’t. And it’s true. Democrats pushed through terrible trade deals, which cost us millions of good-paying manufacturing jobs, et cetera, et cetera. They lost faith in the Democratic Party, and not unjustifiably. All right?” Sanders said.
Republican National Committee national press secretary Natalie Baldassarre seized on the comments when contacted by Fox News Digital, arguing Democrats have forfeited any claim to be the party of workers. “Democrats can no longer claim to be the working class party when they hammer Americans with higher taxes, ship jobs overseas, and kill off the industries that make our country thrive. Democrats’ only interest is appeasing their far-left base that wants to destroy our country from the inside out, and working families pay the price,” she said.
The numbers back up the discontent Sanders is describing. A 2024 Fox News Voter Analysis found Trump beat Kamala Harris 53% to 45% among households earning between $50,000 and $99,999, while Harris won those earning $100,000 or more, 53% to 46%. Trump carried voters who said they were falling behind financially by 29 points, and roughly 40% of voters named inflation their top issue — a group that broke for Trump by nearly two to one.
This isn’t a new position for Sanders. After Trump’s 2024 win, he was blunter still: “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working-class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well,” he said at the time. “While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right.”
One Democratic voice echoed the same diagnosis, pointing to the widening gap between rich and working-class Americans and the disappearance of a stable middle class. “I think that this has allowed the salience of class to really emerge in our politics,” she said, adding that Sanders’ longtime message on corporate lobbying and working-class fights “have started to gain ground with more and more everyday Americans across party lines as well.”
