Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., scolded media Wednesday for treating the 2016 election like a major sporting event, and he urged voters to look past the candidates’ personalities.
Recommended Stories
“Politics is not about personality,” the Vermont lawmaker said at a rally for Hillary Clinton in Des Moines, Iowa. “Now, I know if you watch the TV and watch the national media, they think that politics is like Dancing with the Stars. You know, it’s like the Super Bowl or the World Series. It’s not. It’s not entertainment.”
“What politics is about in a democratic society, it must be about, is which candidate will have a positive impact on your lives,” Sanders said.
Voters need to look at the policies being proposed by the candidates, he said, because what happens to the respective nominees is not what matters in this election.
“Here’s the truth: If Hillary Clinton wins or loses, she’s going to do fine. Donald Trump will do fine. It’s not about Trump and it’s not about Clinton. It is about you, it is about a middle class and a working class in this country that are hurting,” Sanders said.
“What does Donald Trump stand for? What does Hillary Clinton stand for? And which candidate is better for you?” he asked. “Not personality. It is policy. Old fashion, boring policy, which will impact your lives.”
This isn’t the first time that Sanders, who ran a fierce and unexpectedly competitive against Clinton during the Democratic primary, has encouraged voters to look past the Democratic nominee’s personality.
“People have got to get beyond personality,” the senator said last month in response to being asked by ABC News what his message for the “Bernie or Bust” crowd is. “And they’ve got to take a hard look at the issues that impact the lives of middle-class and working-class people. That’s what [the Clinton] campaign is really about.”
Sanders signed on recently as a campaign surrogate for Clinton. He has sought to bring some of his diehard supporters over to her team.
“And I think if you look at the issues, whether it is making public colleges and universities tuition-free, dealing aggressively with climate change, raising the minimum wage, overturning this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, on all of those issues, and many more, Hillary Clinton’s positions are far, far, far superior to Donald Trump,” the senator told ABC News.
He concluded, “I’m personally going to do everything I can to make sure that Trump does not become president of the United States.”
