Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said Friday night that the Democratic Party abandoned the working class in favor of “beautiful people,” indirectly referencing Hollywood and corporate donations.
“You say like they abandoned their cause to the beautiful people,” HBO host Bill Maher said to Sanders during “Real Time with Bill Maher.” “Who are the beautiful people?” (RELATED: ‘In Two Seconds, I Could Get Canceled’: Bill Maher Rips Liberal Audiences On CNN)
“Hey, Bill,” Sanders said, gesturing to Maher. “You look really beautiful tonight here in L.A. Here’s the point, the point that I was making is that when FDR was president, when Truman was President, even when JFK was president, you go out on the street, and you say to people which party represents the working class in America. Most people, I think, agree, would have said the Democratic Party. Today, you go out on the street, that is not the sentiment, In fact, the Republican party probably has more adherents than the Democrats.”
#StartTheClock: Tonight’s episode of #RealTime with @BillMaher feat. @BernieSanders, @rustyrockets & @jheil is now on @HBO and @HBOMax!
Watch the conversation continue after the show on #RTOvertime at 11:30pm ET on @CNN Tonight! pic.twitter.com/v9CYjc683v
— Real Time with Bill Maher (@RealTimers) March 4, 2023
NBC noted in the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections that white working-class voters and Hispanic voters were trending Republican, particularly in Florida, where Ron DeSantis defeated then-Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist, who served one term as governor from 2007-2011 as a Republican, in a landslide.
During the 2016 election, former President Bill Clinton mocked concerns of working-class voters over immigration and the effects that environmental policy had on coal mining.
Sanders claimed Democrats had sought corporate donations to match the Republican Party over the last 30 years. Following the 2016 election, Sanders claimed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost because working-class voters didn’t think she would “stand with working people.”
“I think it is fair to say that the working class of this country didn’t believe that she [Clinton] was prepared to stand up and fight for them,” he said in a November 2016 appearance on “The View.” “Even if her policies were.”
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