Bernie Sanders Says His 2020 Strategy Is To ‘Expose’ Trump ‘As The Fraud That He Is’
In an interview with MSNBC broadcast Thursday, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders discussed his strategy for defeating Donald Trump in 2020, RealClearPolitics reports.
Sanders, he said, will “expose” Trump “as the fraud that he is.”
MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle started her discussion with the Vermont senator by pointing out that some Democrats — such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — have warned against the party moving left, suggesting that a mainstream, centrist approach to the election would be better. Furthermore, as Ruhle also pointed out, former Vice President Joe Biden is currently ahead of Sanders in most polls.
But according to Bernie Sanders, the progressive policies that he champions are not an obstacle, but rather a powerful weapon to be used against Trump. Trump, Sanders suggested, won in 2016 by managing to appeal to working class voters. This is why “bringing more people into the political process” is key to beating Trump, according to the Democratic presidential candidate, who added that youth voter turnout was high in the 2018 midterm elections, but that it has to be even higher in 2020.
“So you expand the base, talking to working people and young people,” Sanders explained his 2020 strategy, “and we expose Trump for the fraud that he is when he said that he — when he campaigned on being a friend of the working people.”
“You do that, I think I can win. I can defeat Trump and every poll that I have seen suggests we are ahead of Trump, and I think that is the correct way to go forward.”
The Vermont senator is right — virtually every poll suggests that he would beat Trump in 2020. Of 21 polls cited by RealClearPolitics, Sanders beats Trump in a head to head match up in 20 of them. The only poll according to which Sanders would lose to Trump has the incumbent president leading by only three points.
Trump predicted that he will face Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, writing on Twitter that aside from Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Democratic field is "fading fast"https://t.co/pXHRLjjZ7j
— POLITICO (@politico) May 10, 2019
Even though Donald Trump appears to be an unusually vulnerable incumbent with a less than spectacular approval rating, he has a fiercely loyal base of supporters. Host Stephanie Ruhle reminded Sanders of this, suggesting that many are arguing that Trump supporters cannot be converted.
But according to Sanders they can, since Trump has not delivered on his campaign promises. Trump, as Sanders pointed out, campaigned as a “different type of Republican,” vowing to not cut Social Security or Medicare, and then proceeded to make massive cuts to both programs.
Bernie Sanders’ team, the Vermont senator said, will beat Trump by providing “an alternative progressive agenda, which really does speak to the needs of working families.”
