Sanders: Trump attacking San Juan mayor is 'unspeakable'

[TomCADem]

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN)Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday rebuked President Donald Trump's decision to attack the mayor of San Juan on Twitter as Puerto Rico continues to struggle after being hit by back-to-back hurricanes. "It is unspeakable," Sanders told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."

Sanders drew a contrast between Trump and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, saying Trump was "speaking from his fancy golf club, playing golf with his billionaire friends, attacking the mayor of San Juan, who is struggling to bring electricity to the island, food to the island, water to the island, gas to the island."

Sanders also said it would be fair for people to wonder if race was a factor in Trump's response to the devastation in Puerto Rico.

"Given the President's history on race, given the fact that he, a few months ago told us that there were good people on both sides when neo-Nazis were marching in Charlottesville, yeah, I think we have a right to be suspect that he is treating the people of Puerto Rico in a different way than he has treated the people of Texas or Florida," Sanders said.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/01/politics/bernie-sanders-mick-mulvaney-puerto-rico-cnntv/index.html

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Way to go Bernie for criticizing Trump rather than Democrats with a false equivalency attack! I would be a lot more supportive of Bernie if he just joined the Democratic party.

[slumcamper]

1. OR--perhaps--if the Democratic Party joined Bernie???

As you imply, this impasse must break either one way or the other.

Insofar as the message to a restless electorate which increasingly feels ignored or shafted by public policy and is losing trust in the party of Roosevelt, I'm inclined to think the break demands a party shift toward Bernie's position--not a shift by Bernie toward the object of increased voter alienation and disaffection.

[TomCADem]

2. ...I am sorry. Bernie Needs To Win My Vote. I Am a Lifelong Democrat

...and Bernie is hardly infallible. Sometimes he pushes Trump-like anti-Globalist talking points, but from a progressive perspective. In the end, both are acting like outsiders scapegoating trade and immigrants. A lot of his rhetoric sounds like leftist version of Trump: Anti-Trade, Anti-Immigrant, Anti-Establishment, and Pro-Russia.

So, if Bernie has helped the Democratic party by his critiques, then I will return the favor and help Bernie by pointing out the inconsistencies and hypocrisy that Bernie sometimes pushes. I think the main reason that Bernie gets a lot of attention is because he occasionally back stabs his Democratic allies. I am sure within a few days, even though nothing has changed, he is going to say that Democratic Party is a failure even though he is votes with them most of the time, except when it comes to sanctioning Russia.

For example, here is Bernie talking with Lou Dobbs echoing Jeff Session's attacks on work permit programs:

https://www.vox.com/2016/2/12/10981234/bernie-sanders-lou-dobbs

DOBBS: The future of the so-called grand amnesty compromise is highly uncertain tonight. Many senators opposing that legislation. The only independent senator in the Senate is Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. And he joins me now. Senator, good to have you with us.

SANDERS: Good to be with you, Lou.

* * *

SANDERS: You've got it. And that's exactly the situation and of course there is concern on at least some of our parts. The reality is that I think a growing number of Americans understand that what happens in Congress is to a very significant degree dictated by big money interests.

And these guys are basing their - their whole ideology is based on greed. They're selling out American workers and in fact they're selling out our entire country and that is a major struggle that we have got to engage in to take back our country from these very powerful and wealthy special interests.

DOBBS: These special interests, and you and I have talked about this. It is now so blatant, so overt, that only those who would refuse to see could deny that both the Democratic and Republican parties are owned lock, stock and barrel by corporate America and special interests including in the amnesty legislation, socioethnic- centric interest groups who really have very little regard for the traditions of this country, the values of this country or the constituents.

It is seemingly impossible to awaken our elected officials in Washington to their moral responsibility. There are wonderful people — including yourself — I don't mean to suggest that everyone is in this situation, only the majority, unfortunately in the Senate and the House. Is there any hope that we can change that?

SANDERS: Of course there is hope that we can change that. And I think there are a growing number of Americans who understand that there's something wrong when the middle class in this country continues to shrink despite a huge increase in worker productivity, poverty continues to increase. Since Bush has been president, 5 million more Americans have slipped into poverty. Six million Americans more have lost their health insurance and the gap between the rich and everybody else is growing wider.

So when President Bush tells you how great the economy is doing, what he is really saying is that the CEOs of large multinationals are doing very, very well. He's kind of ignoring the economic reality of everybody else and that gets us to the immigration issue.

If poverty is increasing and if wages are going down, I don't know why we need millions of people to be coming into this country as guest workers who will work for lower wages than American workers and drive wages down even lower than they are now.

DOBBS: And as we know, the principal industries which hire the bulk of illegal aliens, that is construction, landscaping ...

SANDERS: Lou, I just heard something.

DOBBS: Those are all industries in which wages are declining. I don't hear that discussed on the Senate floor by the proponents of this amnesty legislation.

SANDERS: That's right. They have no good response. I read something today that a lot of people coming into this country are coming in as lifeguards. I guess we can't find - that's right. We can't American workers to work as lifeguards. And the H1B program has teachers, elementary school teachers. Well, you know.

DOBBS: And that H1B program, we got to watch Senator Ted Kennedy watch there with the sole witness being one Bill Gates, the world's richest man, telling him he wanted unlimited H1B visas, obviously uninformed to the fact that seven out of 10 visas under the H1B program goes to Indian corporations that are outsourcing those positions to American corporations in this country and that four out of five of those jobs that are supposed to be high-skilled jobs are actually category one jobs which is low skill.

SANDERS: Well, you raise a good point, in that this whole immigration guest worker program is the other side of the trade issue. On one hand you have large multinationals trying to shut down plants in the America, move to China and on the other hand you have the service industry bringing in low wage workers from abroad. The result is the same — middle class gets shrunken and wages go down.

DOBBS: Senator Bernie Sanders, we thank you for being with us, as always.

SANDERS: My pleasure.

[slumcamper]

5. I'm a lifelong D and Bernie won my vote.

He spoke to my core beliefs and principles in a way the party establishment has not. That said, I eagerly voted for Hillary in the general. I never expect perfection in any candidate.

I didn't read all you posted but I respect your passion and lock arms in unity. Anyone and anything left of center is a friend of mine; the farther from center the better, but I embrace all people and ideas beneath the big tent.

[Leith]

3. May Millions More Voices Join Bernie's

Can We Not Make This a Bernie vs. the Democratic Party Thread? Sanders talked about Trump's inaction, NOT Democrats. That should not be an opportunity to attack an ally.

[slumcamper]

4. Invicta! We are many stripes.

As a lifelong liberal myself, I'm fully aware that WE--liberals--are a big tent. I'm also reasonable enough to realize that the Democratic Party (if one must adhere to a party label) represents my interests in nearly every way. I don't expect the D Party to be modeled in my image; we must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I caucused for Bernie, then volunteered and voted for Hillary.

That said, I would personally be a happier camper if the Democratic establishment shifted a bit more toward the left on major issue of public policy offered starker contrast and louder voice between our policy positions and those of the right. We need bold ideas--a 21st century New Deal--to disrupt stale and failed conservative thinking and dislodge and reclaim the working and middle classes from the conservative grip.

I think we can all agree that Trump is a disaster that has been visited upon us by the loud and persuasive echo chamber of conservatism (with the aid of sinister forces) coupled with the ineptitude of the Democratic Party establishment to craft a strong message and speak out very forcefully against it.