Chuck Todd to Sanders: How Do You Convince Voters Who Think Economy’s Working Well for Them?

In the past week, Joe Biden has gone after Bernie Sanders by warning Democratic voters that it would hurt downballot candidates if Sanders gets the nomination because of how the senator describes himself as a democratic socialist — and how the president may use that to attack the entire party in November.

Chuck Todd raised the issue with Sanders today, asking, “Do you acknowledge that an economy that on its surface… looks pretty good to quite a few people — this is a fairly low unemployment rate — do you acknowledge it’s tougher to sell your economic ideas in this perceived good economy?”

“I don’t think so,” Sanders said. “I think Trump is a fraud. I think under Trump the top 1%, have seen hundreds of billions of dollars increase in their wealth.”

“Somebody that likes their 401k right now but doesn’t like Trump, how do you convince them to vote for you?” Todd asked.

“I convince them to vote for us because we are going to create a economy that works for the middle-class…” Sanders started to say.

“But they think their economy works well for them,” Todd said.

Sanders said it may for some but rejected the idea that the economy is working for everyone when “half of the American people are living paycheck to paycheck and today you’ve got half a million people sleeping out on the streets.”

“They’re going to tie socialism to Venezuela, they’re going to tie comments you made about Evo Morales in Bolivia, they’re going to say you will appease socialists in Latin America,” Todd said. “You have not condemned them the way others have condemned them and use that… You know that is what they are going to do.”

Sanders dismissed Trump as a “pathological liar” who smears his opponent as Todd questioned him about his comments on Morales.

You can watch above, via NBC.