U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has just announced he is running for President, and will do so once again as a Democrat. Sanders ran in 2015-2016 for president, also as a Democrat, but lost the nomination to Hillary Clinton.
“I wanted to let the people of the state of Vermont know about this first,” Sanders told Vermont Public Radio early Tuesday morning. “And what I promise to do is, as I go around the country, is to take the values that all of us in Vermont are proud of — a belief in justice, in community, in grassroots politics, in town meetings — that’s what I’m going to carry all over this country.”
Sanders also took a strong swing at President Donald Trump.
“I think the current occupant of the White House is an embarrassment to our country,” Sanders said. “I think he is a pathological liar… I also think he is a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, somebody who is gaining cheap political points by trying to pick on minorities, often undocumented immigrants.”
Sanders will face one challenge off the bat. An Independent for almost all of his lengthy political career, he became a Democrat in 2015 to run for president. After the 2016 election he returned to being an independent. New Democratic Party rules, adopted in June, call for “good faith” participation as a Democrat.
“At the time a presidential candidate announces their candidacy publicly, they must publicly affirm that they are a Democrat,” the DNC rules state.
Sanders spoke with CBS News Tuesday morning:
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