by Amna El Tawil
Bernie Sanders and democratic leaders gathered in the town hall in Washington sponsored by CNN and moderated by Chris Cuomo. Mr. Sanders discussed whether he would automatically oppose every suggestion that comes from the president-elect Donald Trump and his administration.
While criticizing Trump’s campaign and some of his decisions, Sanders instructed Democrats not to obstruct Trump and the incoming administration, but to challenge him instead. He blasted Republicans for acting “shamefully and outrageously” by refusing to consider President Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court last year. He suggested Democrats may not “do the right thing” and instead adopt the GOP’s tactics.
The Politico writes: “Sanders, during the event at George Washington University, was asked what if he thought Democrats should oppose any nominee Trump makes for the high court. The Vermont senator pointed out that he recently became a member of Senate Democratic leadership and that the topic came up. He refused to say what Democratic leadership has specifically discussed on the topic but did lay out his thinking.
“I won’t tell you what people said, but it was an issue that came up and here’s the problem that we had,” Sanders said going on to say: “The president of the United States, whether it is Barack Obama or Donald Trump, has the right to nominate somebody.”
Bernie Sanders also said: “I will tell you this: He ran a campaign whose cornerstone was bigotry. It was based on sexism, on racism, on xenophobia, and on that issue, I will not compromise.” At the same time, he hopes that Democrats don’t use the “obstruct, obstruct, obstruct” tactics against Trump that congressional Republicans deployed against Obama.
“I don’t think that’s what we do,” Sanders said. “I think where Trump has ideas that make sense that we can work with him on, I think we should.”
He also added: “I believe we need a new trade policy. I believe we tell corporate America they’ve got to control their greed. Mr. Trump is prepared to sit down and work on a new trade policy which is based on fairness, not just on corporate greed, yes, I will be happy to work with him.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuv-zTahMeA