Bernie Sanders Slams ‘Out of Touch’ Democratic Leadership That Gets Advice From ‘Pathetic’ Consultants

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) tore into the Democratic Party’s “out of touch” leadership and “pathetic” consultants during an appearance on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, Monday.

“It is my view that the leadership of the Democratic Party, in many respects, is way out of touch with where Democrats in general are, where many independents are, where the grass roots of America are,” Sanders told Rachel Maddow:

The division that we’re seeing in the Democratic Party right now are those who get a whole lot of money from wealthy campaign contributors, they hire consultants, and I gotta tell you, that consultant class is so far removed from reality it is really quite pathetic. That’s one wing of the Democratic Party

And then there’s the other wing, and that is what Mamdani did in New York. He ran a campaign which said, “You know what? We’re gonna take on the oligarchs. We’re gonna create a city that is affordable.” And he put together an extraordinary grassroots movement. Some 90,000 volunteers. Now, needless to say, I happen to agree with the latter approach, and I think we need candidates all over this country who understand that it is insane that one person, Elon Musk, owns more wealth than the bottom 52% of American households. That it is insane that in the richest country on Earth, we are the only major nation not to guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right.

Sanders has repeatedly criticized the state of the Democratic Party in recent months, urging the party to open its doors to fresher, working-class candidates across the country.

“Democrats lost the election, alright? They abdicated. They came up with no alternative. Because you know what? They, even today, don’t acknowledge the economic crises facing the working class of this country,” Sanders told the New York Times in an interview this month. “When I ran for president, one of the things that I learned is there isn’t much of a Democratic Party. There are people on the top. When I think about a party, I think about the involvement of large numbers of people at the grass-roots level.”

He continued, “When I think about a party: People disagree, they yell and shout at each other. People have said democracy is kind of messy. But I think sometimes, when people think about the Democratic Party, they think of these cocktail parties in New York City or Los Angeles where wealthy people mingle with consultants, mingle with the leadership. That’s not much of a party. That’s really kind of an elitist institution.”

Sanders concluded, “So one of the things that I believe, if the Democratic Party is to survive — maybe it will, maybe it won’t – the transformation has to be to open the doors, to bring in millions of people, to hear what they have to say, to have them start running for office.”

Watch above via MSNBC.

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