Bernie Sanders challenges Trump, Dem establishment at UC Berkeley

Former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders talks to the crowd at Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley.
Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

He may have recently been appointed to the Senate Democratic leadership team, but Bernie Sanders isn’t exactly playing the part.

Speaking Friday afternoon at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, he continued to try to push the party left while rallying supporters who feel adrift after the election ofDonald Trump. The senator from Vermont and former presidential candidate offered his view on what went wrong in the Democratic Party and how liberals ought to counter the president-elect.

Gone were the conciliatory remarks offered by Sanders and other prominent Democrats, President Obama included, on giving Trump and his policies a chance.

While promoting his latest book, “Our Revolution,” Sanders referenced “our delusional president-elect” and called one of Trump’s tweets “an insane statement.” That was the one that claimed — with no evidence — that the Republican would have won the popular vote if millions of undocumented immigrants had not voted.

In language reminiscent of his campaign stump speeches railing against “the millionaires and billionaires,” Sanders said he would not compromise on key policy goals, including increasing voter access, fighting climate change and repealing the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case that allowed corporations to spend unlimited amounts on political campaigns.

“Well, Mr. Trump, you’ve got to start listening to scientists and not just the fossil fuel industry,” Sanders said as Trump neared his selection for energy secretary. “Climate change is not a hoax.”

Trump’s early days as president-elect — in particular his building of a Cabinet that includes Steven Mnuchin, a former Golden Sachs executive, as Treasury secretary — have eroded Sanders’ hope that the two might find some common ground.

“I have very little hope that Trump will keep the promises he made to those people,” Sanders said of members of the disenfranchised working class that both men sought to champion as candidates.

Still, Sanders — who ran as a Democrat but remains an independent in the Senate — didn’t rule out working with Republicans across the board, including if lawmakers were to pursue comprehensive global trade reform.

“There are areas where I think there can be a compromise,” Sanders said. “There are areas where there can be no compromise.”

Doubling down on his call in recent weeks for the Democratic Party to retreat from identity politics, a message that has drawn the scorn of some Hillary Clintonsupporters, Sanders urged the party to focus more on broadening its base and less on propping up its politicians.

The party’s reluctance to embrace several progressive policy prescriptions — including single-payer health care, a $15 minimum wage, gender pay equity and immigration reform — underlined sweeping election losses across all levels of government, Sanders said.

“I don’t see this as much as a victory for Trump as I see it as a defeat for the present Democratic Party,” Sanders said.

Sanders voiced his support for Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., to become the new chair of the Democratic National Committee, while noting with dismay that the progressive candidate is “already getting beat up by the establishment.”