Former 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders extended an olive branch to President-elect Donald Trump a day after the Republican’s victory. But the Vermont senator also warned Trump about what will happen if he does not alter his rhetoric and some of his policy views.
“To the degree that Mr. Trump is serious about pursuing policies that improve the lives of working families in this country, I and other progressives are prepared to work with him. To the degree that he pursues racist, sexist, xenophobic and anti-environment policies, we will vigorously oppose him,” Sanders said in a statement Wednesday evening.
Sanders, who lost the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton this summer, admitted that Trump’s team was able to tap into the “anger of a declining middle class” who has become “sick and tired of establishment economics, establishment politics and establishment media.”
But, Sanders said, the success of a Trump administration will depend on whether he chooses to help all Americans or divide people with his controversial rhetoric.
