White House: ‘Respectfully disagree’ with Sanders that Democrats abandoned working class
The White House on Thursday said it "respectfully" disagrees with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) assessment that the Democratic party has abandoned working class people, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Thursday.
“Respectfully disagree with the senator and I think you can talk to unions, you can see the jobs that we have been able to create to disprove that,” Jean-Pierre said on Thursday when asked for a response to the senator’s comments.
“And this is a president that cares certainly about the people that do get forgotten, the people who are not able to make ends meet… and so does the vice president,” she said of Biden and Harris.
Jean-Pierre noted that Biden has been called the most pro-union president and cited that he has worked towards creating jobs that don’t need a college degree to do.
“The president created 16 million jobs in the past more than 3 years,” she said. “And, it is because wages went up, unemployment has gone down and he believes everybody deserves a shot.”
Sanders issued a blistering statement after President-elect Trump’s decisive victory on Tuesday, which has triggered a series of recriminations within the party.
Sanders said that it “should come as no great surprise” that the working class abandoned Democrats because the party had abandoned the working class.
Jaime Harrison, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, called the remarks by Sanders “straight up BS” and also cited Biden as the most pro-union president.
Harris, during her run, struggled to differentiate herself from Biden’s record and while she had an array of proposals aimed to bring down prices, she also focused on abortion rights and her message that Trump is a threat to democracy.