Bernie Sanders made a play for Donald Trump voters on a political talk show using a populist economic message and suggesting they share his socialist vibes.
Sanders, a self-described democratic-socialist U.S. senator elected as an independent and running against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, told
CBS's 'Face the Nation' host John Dickerson that he understood the motivation of many of Trump's supporters.
"Many of Trump's supporters are working-class people and they're angry, and they're angry because they're working longer hours for lower wages, they're angry because their jobs have left this country and gone to China or other low-wage countries, they're angry because they can't afford to send their kids to college so they can't retire with dignity," said Sanders.
"What Trump has done with some success is taken that anger, taken those fears which are legitimate and converted them into anger against Mexicans, anger against Muslims, and in my view that is not the way we're going to address the major problems facing our country."
Sanders said he can attract Trump supporters because their candidate does not want to raise the minimum wage and wants to give tax breaks to the wealthy.
"I think for his working class and middle class supporters, I think we can make the case that if we really want to address the issues that people are concerned about we need policies that bring us together that take on the greed of Wall Street, the greed of corporate America, and create a middle class that works for all of us rather than an economy that works just for a few."
Trump addressed Sanders in Twitter post on Sunday and Monday.
CNN said Trump has continued to spend more of his time talking about Clinton, saying that attacks on her husband, former president Bill Clinton, are fair game if she played up gender issues.
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