President Donald Trump “is a racist,” according to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who said that the Republican’s past remarks about Latinos have been “disgusting.”
“I think President Trump, and I say this without any joy in my heart, I think he is a racist,” Sanders told “Noticias Telemundo,” in an interview released on Sunday. “I think the things that he's been saying about the Latino community from way back when... the people from Mexico, whether they're rapists and they're criminals. You remember all of that stuff. It's disgusting.”
Trump said in his 2015 speech announcing his presidency, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best…. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
“If I won the nomination, I would have defeated Donald Trump,” added Sanders, who is running for the Democratic nomination in 2020.
“I think we need a candidate who can clearly defeat Trump,” the senator said. “And all of the polling out there has me defeating Trump. Especially in battleground states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and others — we’re doing very well against Trump.”
Sanders went on to say people are “dead wrong” if they think Democrats have to choose a moderate to compete with the president.
“We tried that in 2016 — it didn’t quite work. That’s why we got Donald Trump,” he said.