Story highlights
- Sanders on CNN: "Where Trump has ideas that make sense that we can work with him on, I think we should'
- Dems are increasingly reliant on progressives such as Sanders to set their message
Washington (CNN)Bernie Sanders said Senate Democratic leaders discussed Monday whether the party would flatly oppose any nomination President-elect Donald Trump makes to the Supreme Court.
At the same time, Sanders urged fellow Democrats against simply obstructing the incoming administration -- demonstrating the difficulty progressives are having in deciding how to handle the incoming president.
Speaking at a town hall in Washington sponsored by CNN and moderated by Chris Cuomo, Sanders blasted Republicans for acting "shamefully and outrageously" by refusing to consider President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court last year. He suggested Democrats may not "do the right thing" and instead adopt the GOP's tactics.
Meanwhile, Sanders, a Vermont senator and progressive favorite in the 2016 Democratic primary, acknowledged Obamacare has "problems."
"But we damn well aren't going to see it repealed and have no replacement there at all," he said.
And he drew another clear line with Trump, saying: "I will tell you this: He ran a campaign whose cornerstone was bigotry. It was based on sexism, on racism, on xenophobia, and on that issue, I will not compromise."
Still, Sanders said he hopes Democrats don't use the "obstruct, obstruct, obstruct" tactics against Trump that congressional Republicans deployed against Obama.
"I don't think that's what we do," Sanders said. "I think where Trump has ideas that make sense that we can work with him on, I think we should."
Sanders: It isn't time to consider 2020 run 03:17
Sanders wouldn't say whether he would again seek the presidency in 2020. But said there's one issue on which he would work with Trump: trade. Both railed against the North American Free Trade Agreement on the campaign trail and said they opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
"I believe we need a new trade policy. I believe we tell corporate America they've got to control their greed," Sanders said. "Mr. Trump is prepared to sit down and work on a new trade policy which is based on fairness, not just on corporate greed, yes, I will be happy to work with him."
Progressives prepare to fight
With Hillary Clinton defeated and Obama counting down his final days in office, Democrats are increasingly reliant on Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other leading progressives to set the party's message -- and pick its battles. Democrats face this challenge as they're poised to lose all their levers of power in Washington.
Changes to Senate rules made when the party had the majority now mean its members can't block any of Trump's Cabinet nominees. Nor can Democrats stop the GOP push to repeal Obamacare using the same filibuster-avoiding budget rules Obama used to push the health reform law through Congress.
The party is also down to 17 of the nation's 50 governor's offices, and Republicans have full control of the legislatures in 32 states -- realities that make it harder for Democrats to stop changes to voting access laws that have hurt the party.
Sanders said Democrats have lost support among working-class voters in part because the party joined Republicans in deregulating Wall Street and enacting massive trade deals. Doing that, and then claiming the mantle of the middle class, won't work, he said.
Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders, right, leads a sit-in organized by the Congress of Racial Equality in 1962. The demonstration was staged to oppose housing segregation at the University of Chicago. It was Chicago's first civil rights sit-in.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders takes the oath of office to become the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, in 1981. He ran as an independent and won the race by 10 votes.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders, right, tosses a baseball before a minor-league game in Vermont in 1984. U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, center, was also on hand.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
In 1987, Sanders and a group of Vermont musicians recorded a spoken-word folk album. "We Shall Overcome" was first released as a cassette that sold about 600 copies. When Sanders entered the U.S. presidential race in 2015, the album surged in online sales. But at a CNN town hall, Sanders said, "It's the worst album ever recorded."
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders reads mail at his campaign office in Burlington in 1990. He was running for the U.S. House of Representatives after an unsuccessful bid in 1988.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
In 1990, Sanders defeated U.S. Rep. Peter Smith in the race for Vermont's lone House seat. He won by 16 percentage points.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders sits next to President Bill Clinton in 1993 before the Congressional Progressive Caucus held a meeting at the White House. Sanders co-founded the caucus in 1991 and served as its first chairman.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Barack Obama, then a U.S. senator, endorses Sanders' Senate bid at a rally in Burlington in 2006.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders takes part in a swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in January 2007. He won his Senate seat with 65% of the vote.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders chats with Dr. John Matthew, director of The Health Center in Plainfield, Vermont, in May 2007. Sanders was in Plainfield to celebrate a new source of federal funding for The Health Center.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders speaks to reporters in 2010 about the Obama administration's push to extend Bush-era tax cuts. Three days later, Sanders held a filibuster against the reinstatement of the tax cuts. His speech, which lasted more than eight hours, was published in book form in 2011. It is called "The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class."
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders and U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, walk to a news conference on Capitol Hill in 2014. Sanders was chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
In March 2015, Sanders speaks in front of letters and petitions asking Congress to reject proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
In July 2015, two months after announcing he would be seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for President, Sanders spoke to nearly 10,000 supporters in Madison, Wisconsin. "Tonight we have made a little bit of history," he said. "You may know that some 25 candidates are running for President of the United States, but tonight we have more people at a meeting for a candidate for President of the United States than any other candidate has."
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Seconds after Sanders took the stage for a campaign rally in August 2015, a dozen protesters from Seattle's Black Lives Matter chapter jumped barricades and grabbed the microphone from the senator. Holding a banner that said "Smash Racism," two of the protesters -- Marissa Johnson, left, and Mara Jacqueline Willaford -- began to address the crowd.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders shakes hands with Hillary Clinton at a Democratic debate in Las Vegas on October 13. The hand shake came after Sanders' take on the Clinton email scandal. "Let me say something that may not be great politics, but the secretary is right -- and that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about the damn emails," Sanders said. "Enough of the emails, let's talk about the real issues facing the United States of America."
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders embraces Remaz Abdelgader, a Muslim student, during an October 2015 event at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Asked what he would do about Islamophobia in the United States, Sanders said he was determined to fight racism and "build a nation in which we all stand together as one people."
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders waves while walking in a Veterans Day parade in Lebanon, New Hampshire, in November 2015.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders sits with Killer Mike at the Busy Bee Cafe in Atlanta in November 2015. That evening, the rapper and activist introduced Sanders at a campaign event in the city. "I'm talking about a revolutionary," Killer Mike told supporters. "In my heart of hearts, I truly believe that Sen. Bernie Sanders is the right man to lead this country."
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Comedian Larry David and Sanders appear together on "Saturday Night Live" on February 6. David has taken the role of Sanders in a series of sketches throughout the campaign season.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders and his wife, Jane, wave to the crowd during a primary night rally in Concord, New Hampshire, on February 9. Sanders defeated Clinton in the New Hampshire primary with 60% of the vote, becoming the first Jewish candidate to win a presidential primary.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders speaks at a campaign rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on March 7. Sanders won the state's primary the next day, an upset that delivered a sharp blow to Clinton's hopes of quickly securing the nomination.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders speaks at a campaign event in New York's Washington Square Park on April 13.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders speaks at a rally in Santa Monica, California, on June 7. He pledged to stay in the Democratic race even though Hillary Clinton secured the delegates she needed to become the presumptive nominee.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders endorses Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at a rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on July 12.
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Photos: Bernie Sanders in the spotlight
Sanders addresses delegates on the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 25.
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Sanders brings a giant printout of one of Donald Trump's tweets, in which the President-elect promised not to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, to a debate at the Senate in Washington on January 4.
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"They're not going to believe you," he said of voters. "What we have got to do is come up with an agenda that speaks to the needs of the working people."
It's against that backdrop that Democrats will begin to fight back this week as they seek to make the case that Trump is selling out his working class base by tapping corporate figures such as ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson for secretary of state, Goldman Sachs veteran Steve Mnuchin for treasury secretary and fast food executive Andy Puzder for labor secretary.
Sanders said he has real concerns about two of Trump's nominees -- Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt for EPA administrator. The Vermont senator said he wants to hear what they have to say before deciding whether he'll vote against them -- but acknowledged he's not inclined to vote for either of them.
"All that I am doing here is trying to be polite," Sanders said.
Heated moment
A heated moment unfolded when a Trump-supporting small business owner pressed Sanders on what he said were a raft of burdensome Obama administration regulations.
Sanders pushed back, telling the man: "Obama did raise taxes on the top 1 or 2%, and you know what? I would have gone further. I think the wealthiest people in this country are doing phenomenally well."
The questioner continued to press Sanders, who wouldn't give an inch. "The devil is in the details. We've got to see what those regulations are," he said, adding that he wouldn't rule out reconsidering some regulations, but saying he didn't know which ones the man was citing.
"It's very easy to blame Barack Obama for everything, by the way. Some of those regulations may be state, may be local," Sanders said.
"But some of them, if you're talking about -- you now, you have some folks out there who really want the freedom to pollute our air and pollute our water," he said. "They want to get rid of those regulations. I don't agree. I don't agree. We have got to protect our environment."