Politics

Bernie Sanders: ‘Trump Country’ Issues ‘Not Any Different’ From California’s Issues

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Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders claimed on Tuesday that the issues facing “Trump country” aren’t really any different from the issues facing coastal states like California.

“I am in ‘Trump country’ because I think the issues that you face here in southern Ohio are not any different than in Vermont, not any different than in California, or any other state in this nation,” Sanders said while speaking at a town hall in Portsmouth, Ohio.

Sanders’ trip to the swing state of Ohio has stoked growing speculation that he is positioning himself for a potential presidential campaign in 2020. He hit many of his usual messages during the rally, bashing the “one percent” and the “billionaire class” for many of America’s problems.

“I think at the end of the day, in my view, we have got to say to the wealthiest and most powerful people in this country — and again this is a difficult issue that many people feel uncomfortable dealing with — but we have got to say to the one percent and the billionaire class that they cannot have it all,” he declared.

Sanders specifically warned that the Koch brothers, two libertarian-leaning Republican donors, are advocating for smaller government.

The issue here is there are some people out there, there’s an ideology that there that is kind of being pushed by the Koch brothers, a very very wealthy extremely right-wing family and this is their ideology  and it’s not a crazy ideology but this is their view, and their view is that government in society should play a very, very limited role and that that what freedom means is having government not involved in Social Security,” Sanders said.

He added: “That is an ideology that says everybody is on their own and I have no responsibility to you or your family and you have no responsibility to me and my family.”