Sen. Bernie Sanders’ wife Jane O’Meara Sanders believes her husband could have beaten President Trump in the 2016 general election.
“I think he would have won,” Sanders told the Irish Times ahead of an appearance at the I.NY festival in Ireland. “I have very little doubt he would have won because American people wanted change and they weren’t willing to vote for the status quo.”
Sanders — who co-founded the progressive nonprofit Sanders Institute to continue the work of the Vermont independent who unsuccessfully challenged Hillary Clinton to the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination — based her claims on the fact many working-class white voters who voted for Trump first supported the senator.
Sanders hit back at “unfortunate” criticism Clinton aimed at her husband that he should have withdrawn from the race earlier and more wholeheartedly implored his fans switch their allegiance to her.
“I disagree with that,” she said. “That’s democracy. There should always be primaries. It wasn’t that she was an incumbent. It’s nobody’s turn until it’s somebody’s turn; until the people decide it’s somebody’s turn.”
Sanders also slammed Clinton for writing in her campaign memoir, What Happened, that she drank wine and went to the theater after her shock loss instead of resisting the Trump administration.
“Most people who run for president, if they don’t win the primary, or even if they don’t win the election, they just disappear,” she said. “Bernie didn’t feel he had the opportunity to stop: this is not the time to lay back, relax and pay attention to ourselves; we have to go out and fight.”
While remaining coy on whether Bernie Sanders would launch a White House bid in 2020, Sanders said the Democratic Party’s electoral prospects were strengthened by moving to the left of the political spectrum rather than edging towards the center.
“What we need to offer is a vision for the future that addresses the needs of the American people and the direction they want to go in,” she said. “What Trump is doing is a lot more than just talking, tweets. He is rolling back regulations, standards, destroying lives. This has to be stopped.”
