'The American people are angry and want change': Bernie Sanders slams Democrats for loss

Sen. Bernie Sanders is blaming the Democratic Party after Vice President Kamala Harris lost to now President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans gained control of the Senate.

In a statement shared on social media Wednesday, the U.S. senator from Vermont said party leadership must have "serious political discussions" about Latino and Black workers voting for Republican candidates.

"It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them," Sanders wrote. "While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right."

Sanders, 83, highlighted several issues he believes the nation has failed to address under the Biden-Harris Administration, from wealth inequality and a worsening standard of living to high prescription drug prices and the lack of guaranteed medical leave.

Though he is an Independent, Sanders caucuses with the Democratic Party, and has long championed policies like Medicare for All and a higher federal minimum wage.

Sanders defeats Republican Gerald Malloy in Vermont race

Sanders' statement comes a day after he won a fourth Senate term on Election Day, defeating Republican challenger Gerald Malloy, 62, and securing another six years in Washington.

He joined the Senate in 2007 after being elected in to the U.S. House in 1991. He has previously run for president in 2016 and 2020.

Malloy, a former U.S. Army officer and business executive from Perkinsville, Vermont, campaigned as a staunch conservative. Originally from Boston, he graduated West Point in 1984 and holds a graduate degree from Temple University.

The outcome was widely anticipated in a state that hasn't elected a Republican U.S. Senator since 2000. Malloy, 62, had previously run for the Senate in 2022 and lost to Democrat Peter Welch.

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Read Bernie Sanders full statement

It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. First, it was the white working class, and now it is the Latino and Black workers as well.

While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they're right.

Today, while the very rich are doing phenomenally well, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and we have more income and wealth inequality than ever before. Unbelievably, real, inflation-accounted-for weekly wages for the average American worker are actually lower now than they were 50 years ago.

Today, despite an explosion in technology and worker productivity, many young people will have a worse standard of living than their parents. And many of them worry that Artificial Intelligence and robotics will make a bad situation even worse.

Today, despite spending far more per capita than other countries, we remain the only wealthy nation not to guarantee health care to all as a human right and we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. We, alone among major countries, cannot even guarantee paid family and medical leave.

Today, despite strong opposition from a majority of Americans, we continue to spend billions funding the extremist Netanyahu government's all out war against the Palestinian people which has led to the horrific humanitarian disaster of mass malnutrition and the starvation of thousands of children.

Will the big money interests and well-paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from his disaster campaign? Will they understand the pain and political alienation that tens of millions of Americans are experiencing? Do they have any ideas as to how we can take on the increasingly powerful Oligarchy which has so much economic and political power? Probably not.

In the coming weeks and months those of concerned about grassroots democracy and economic justice need to have some very serious political discussions.

Stay tuned.

Contributing: Jeremy Yurow

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bernie Sanders slams Democrats for 'abandoning working-class people'