Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders refused to answer repeated questions on the legitimacy of Trump’s presidency during a Sunday morning appearance on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
“Are John Lewis and Cory Booker right to say that Donald Trump won’t be a legitimate president?” Stephanopoulos asked Sanders.
“Well what Corey Booker and John Lewis are right about is to talk about the racist past of Donald Trump,” Sanders responded. “We all remember that Trump was on the leader of the so-called birther movement, trying to de-legitimatize the presidency of our first African American president Barack Obama, which is an outrage.”
“Attacking Hollywood actresses, for criticizing him, I mean, what world is this guy living in?” Sanders asked incredulously, referring to Trump’s response to actress Meryl Streep’s comments at the Golden Globes last week, where she disparaged the president-elect and took a shot at football and mixed-martial arts.
Sanders said that his job was to “protect the middle class and working families of this country from the devastating ideas that Trump has proposed,” as Stephanopoulos interrupted him yet again.
“Do you think Donald Trump will be a legitimate president?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“Well, I think he’s going to be inaugurated this week; I have great concerns, and apparently Republicans do as well; and there’s going to be an investigation about the role Russian hacking played in getting him elected,” Sanders said.
“Do I think Russians supported him? Do I think they tried to get him elected? Do I think they worked against Clinton? I do, and that has to be investigated, but right now what my job is –,” Sanders said, drawing another Stephanopoulos interruption about the president-elect’s legitimacy.
Sanders instead deflected the question, saying that he wanted Trump to send out a tweet that promised he would not make cuts to medicaid, medicare and social security.
Then Stephanopoulos asked FBI Director James Comey.
“I think Comey acted in an outrageous way during the campaign” Sanders said. “Clearly his behavior was unacceptable.”
“Should he [Comey] step down?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“I think he should take a hard look at what he has done, and it would not be bad for the American people if he did,” Sanders said.
Sanders confirmed to Stephanopoulos that he would be in attendance at Trump’s inauguration Friday.
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