Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont could never win the general election this November if he's anointed the Democratic presidential nominee, renowned civil rights lawyer Alan Dershowitz tells
Newsmax TV.
"Bernie Sanders would do to the Democratic Party what I think [Donald] Trump would do to the Republican Party and what, in fact, [Barry] Goldwater did to the Republican Party [in 1964]," Dershowitz said Tuesday to J.D. Hayworth on "Newsmax Prime."
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"Sanders would win two, three or five states. He's not a candidate who can ever become a president of the United States — not only because of what he stands for, but who his supporters are.
"His supporters, many of them represent the most extreme hard-left in American society, much like some of the supporters of the Republican candidates represent the hard-right."
Dershowitz, a professor emeritus at Harvard, said that as a centrist nation the United States should have centrist candidates from both parties.
"I always want to be able to go into the ballot and say, 'Look here's my preference on one side but I would be satisfied if the candidate of the other side won,''' he said. "I wouldn't feel that way if either Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump were the nominees of either party."
Dershowitz added that, in retrospect, he would have voted for Ronald Reagan, who he says was a centrist, instead of Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election.
"You give me that vote back, I'll give you Ronald Reagan over Jimmy Carter any day," Dershowitz told Hayworth.
"I always liked Ronald Reagan. I met him. I liked him. I really thought he was a very decent man. I remember in his history with the film industry where he was a centrist and a moderate."
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