by Kailani Koenig WASHINGTON
Sen. Bernie Sanders rejected a movement to draft him into starting a new political party, telling "Meet The Press" on Sunday that his focus right now is on the Democratic Party as a whole.
"Right now I am working to bring fundamental reform to the Democratic Party, to open the door to the Democratic Party," said Sanders, who lost the Democratic presidential nomination to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last year.
A group of former staff members and delegates for Sanders launched an effort last week called "Draft Bernie for A People's Party," which they called a "nationwide effort" to convince the senator "to found a new party rooted in the progressive principles that awoke a political revolution during his campaign for the presidency."
As the White House examines their options after a federal appeals panel kept the halt of their immigration executive order in place, Sanders was asked about whether he believes current procedures to let refugees and other people in the country should be improved.
"Vetting mechanisms we have now are very, very strong," he said, but added that he's open to hearing more from anyone who has a better idea to make them stronger. "I don't think there's any debate whether you're progressive, conservative, or anybody else that we want to keep the United States safe."
However, Sanders referred to the Trump administration's immigration policies as "racist" and "based on anti-Muslim ideology." He then called White House Senior Policy Adviser Stephen Miller's comments about the immigration order in the "Meet the Press" appearance before him a "shell game" and a distraction from what he said was the president "backtracking on every economic promise that he made to the American people."
"He was going to clean the swamp, remember that? Guess who is running the swamp right now. The same exact Wall Street guys from Goldman Sachs who were there in the past," specially referring to President Trump's chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, who was previously the president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs.
Sanders called the protests continuing to swell up around the country "a spontaneous and grassroots uprising among the American people," repeating that he felt it was an opportunity to usher in an increasingly progressive ideology within the Democratic Party.
But catering to the party's liberal base and focusing on sheer resistance won't help the party in the long run, former Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., argued on Sunday's "Meet The Press."
Webb has been quite optimistic about what the Trump administration could accomplish, recently writing an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal saying the president is "positioned to bring two much-needed adjustments to our governing process."
He felt Democrats are too preoccupied with opposing the president and winning election in 2018 that "they don't have a message."
"There is a campaign going on on the Hill and in academia to personally discredit not only Donald Trump but the people who are around him," Webb said, predicting that the end result will slow down the governing process and "there will not be a record of accomplishment in that."
Over the last few years, he said, the Democratic Party has "moved very far to the left."
Webb on Sunday would not say whether he still even considers himself a Democrat. "I'm not in the system right now," he said.
Webb pointed out that he did not endorse Hillary Clinton before the election and would not confirm who he voted for, saying only, "I'm comfortable with my vote and my vote is private to me."
A group of former staff members and delegates for Sanders launched an effort last week called "Draft Bernie for A People's Party," which they called a "nationwide effort" to convince the senator "to found a new party rooted in the progressive principles that awoke a political revolution during his campaign for the presidency."
As the White House examines their options after a federal appeals panel kept the halt of their immigration executive order in place, Sanders was asked about whether he believes current procedures to let refugees and other people in the country should be improved.
"Vetting mechanisms we have now are very, very strong," he said, but added that he's open to hearing more from anyone who has a better idea to make them stronger. "I don't think there's any debate whether you're progressive, conservative, or anybody else that we want to keep the United States safe."
However, Sanders referred to the Trump administration's immigration policies as "racist" and "based on anti-Muslim ideology." He then called White House Senior Policy Adviser Stephen Miller's comments about the immigration order in the "Meet the Press" appearance before him a "shell game" and a distraction from what he said was the president "backtracking on every economic promise that he made to the American people."
"He was going to clean the swamp, remember that? Guess who is running the swamp right now. The same exact Wall Street guys from Goldman Sachs who were there in the past," specially referring to President Trump's chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, who was previously the president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs.
But catering to the party's liberal base and focusing on sheer resistance won't help the party in the long run, former Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., argued on Sunday's "Meet The Press."
Webb has been quite optimistic about what the Trump administration could accomplish, recently writing an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal saying the president is "positioned to bring two much-needed adjustments to our governing process."
He felt Democrats are too preoccupied with opposing the president and winning election in 2018 that "they don't have a message."
"There is a campaign going on on the Hill and in academia to personally discredit not only Donald Trump but the people who are around him," Webb said, predicting that the end result will slow down the governing process and "there will not be a record of accomplishment in that."
Over the last few years, he said, the Democratic Party has "moved very far to the left."
Webb on Sunday would not say whether he still even considers himself a Democrat. "I'm not in the system right now," he said.
Webb pointed out that he did not endorse Hillary Clinton before the election and would not confirm who he voted for, saying only, "I'm comfortable with my vote and my vote is private to me."
Sanders: Protests on left aren't like the tea party
"It's not a tea party because the tea party was essentially funded by the billionaire Koch brothers family," Sanders said during an interview with NBC News' Chuck Todd on Sunday on "Meet the Press." "This is a spontaneous and grass-roots uprising of the American people."
Sanders, a Vermont independent who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, went on to say that there would be protests all over the country meant to pressure Republicans to answer questions on repealing and replacing Obamacare.
"On February 25th, two weeks from yesterday, there is in fact going to be rallies all over this country, and I think you're going to see people in conservative areas, in progressive areas, asking the Republicans: 'What are you going to do when you throw 23 million people off of health insurance?'" Sanders said, adding: "'How many of them are going to die? What's your plan when you raise prescription drug costs, on average, $2,000 for senior citizens? Are you really going to repeal the protection against preexisting conditions so that people who have cancer or heart disease will no longer be able to have health insurance? You going to throw kids off of their parents' health insurance programs?'
The tea party movement began in 2009 in opposition to some of the policies of President Barack Obama, including ones that became the Affordable Care Act. The recent protests in favor of the ACA have flipped the script somewhat.
"Republicans are going to have to start to answer those questions, and the American people are pretty clear, overwhelmingly they want to improve the Affordable Care Act, they do not want to simply repeal it," Sanders said.
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