US Senator Bernie Sanders, who announced he is running for president again in the 2020 elections, has lashed out at US President Donald Trump, calling him a “pathological liar,” who “embarrasses” the United States daily. RNA - Speaking at a campaign rally in in Concord, New Hampshire on Sunday, the Independent senator from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, accused the president of constantly defending authoritarianism, and added that Trump “does not know the difference between truth and lies.”
"As many of you know, all over the world today, there is a great struggle taking place between a growing or authoritarianism and democracy. And Trump is consistently on the wrong side of that struggle,” he said.
“Time and time again he has words of praise and affection for those leaders who despise democracy, while picking fights with longtime democratic allies. Democracy is about serious debate over public policy, not having a president who is a pathological liar and has told thousands of blatant lies since he is in office,” he stated.
“Now I don't care, people in a democracy have different points of view -- and all of us have conservative friends that we argue --we have a debate. But it is not acceptable to me and I think not acceptable to vast majority of the American people no matter what their political perspective is, that we have a president who simply does not know the difference between truth and lies,” he added.
Sanders continued that "Trump told the world very clearly how he feels about democracy and dissent, when he refused to criticize Saudi Arabia after that despotic regime murdered a journalist in cold blood."
The 77-year-old lawmaker described as beyond disgraceful Trump’s reference to the American media as enemies of the people.
The Vermont senator stressed that such attitude is that of a demagogue who instead of accepting responsibility for his actions, claims that what everyone is saying about him is a lie.
Sanders, who has been a relentless critic of Trump, has also called him “the most dangerous president in modern American history.”
“We are running against a president who is undermining American democracy as he leads us in an authoritarian direction,” Sanders said in an email to Reuters last month after announced his 2020 election campaign.
According to Press TV, Trump has in turn railed against what he claims is the Democratic Party’s turn to socialism, citing the rising popularity of Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both self-proclaimed democratic socialists.
A former mayor of Burlington, Vermont, Sanders won a US House of Representatives seat in 1990, making him the first independent elected to the House in 40 years. In 2006, he won a US Senate seat and in 2018 was voted in for a third six-year term.
Sanders made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2016, losing out to Hillary Clinton, who was in turn defeated by Trump.
His call for universal health care, a $15 minimum wage and free public university education has gained huge strong support among young liberals.
He mounted a fierce challenge to Clinton as he spoke to swelling crowds and garnered passionate support on social media. His 2016 campaign also rejected the use of corporate money and instead relied on small-dollar donations.
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