(Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who considers himself a Democratic socialist, on Thursday accused President Donald Trump of being “a socialist who believes in massive help to large corporations and the rich.”



During CNN’s Presidential Town Hall, Sanders was “If you're the nominee, you're expected to face criticism such as President Trump stating, 'America will never be a socialist country.' For Americans who hold this belief, how do you overcome that kind of labeling to convince them to vote for you?”







“In two ways, in many ways Donald Trump is a socialist himself. He is a socialist who believes in massive help to large corporations and the rich. When Trump was a private businessman - he is a real estate developer - he himself received some $800 million in tax breaks and subsidies to build luxury condominiums. That's called socialism for the very, very rich,” Sanders said.



“When we give tax breaks and subsidies to the fossil fuel industry to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars so they can produce a product which is destroying the planet, this is called socialism for large corporations, corporate socialism. Now my definition of socialism, needless to say, is a little bit different, and I think if you look at countries around the world, look at countries in Scandinavia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, what do they have?” he asked.



“Everybody in those countries has health care as a human right. They vary a little bit, but by and large, it is a right. You don't have to take out your wallet. It is available to all people. In those countries, Germany, other countries, higher education is basically free,” the senator said.



“In those countries, you have strong child care systems so mom and dad can go to work and know that their kids are going to be in high quality affordable child care. The housing programs are strong. In other words, they have run governments which have policies designed to help the working families and the middle class,” Sanders said.



“So I know that Trump will distort anything and everything I believe, and by the way, he'll call any Democrat a socialist. So that will happen, but we will discuss what Democratic socialism means as opposed to the corporate socialism that Trump believes in,” he said.



CNN host Anderson Cooper asked a follow-up question: “On a debate stage, I'm not sure if you -- you've debated a lot of people. I'm not sure any candidate has ever debated somebody like Donald Trump until they have actually done it. There were, what, 16 Republican candidates who were experienced and qualified. One by one, they were eliminated.



“They all thought they could figure out how to deal with him. They didn't know how to deal with him. When you're on a debate stage, and if he's, you know, saying things which aren't true, going after you, do you know how debate with him in a way that you don't get sucked into it?” Cooper asked.



Sanders responded by calling Trump a “bully” and saying that he doesn’t get intimidated by bullies.





Trump is a bully, and anybody who knows anything about bullies knows that they are very insecure human beings, and I do not get intimidated by bullies. Trust me, I don't. I've been taking on powerful people and special interests my entire political life. So I don't get intimidated easily. Trump is not going intimidate me, and Trump, by the way, is also a fraud.



“Not only is he a pathological liar, he is a fraud, and the biggest fraud -- biggest fraudulent ideas that he has expressed is that he cares about working families. I get a kick out of the fact that he is trying to ask us to hate the undocumented people in this country.



Meanwhile, as many of you know, when he was a private businessman, he hired hundreds and hundreds of undocumented people in his resorts at low wages and in building projects that he undertook.

Trump rants and raves about outsourcing, oh my God, how terrible corporations are, shutting down America. They're going to low wage countries abroad, says Trump. What do you think he did as a businessman? He manufactured his products in China, in Mexico, in Bangladesh, in Turkey, hiring people at very, very low wages.



“So I think, boy, and I so much look forward to that opportunity, not just debating him, but taking on this fraud, this liar, this person who's betrayed the working class of this country. Trump got up on the State of the Union oh, the economy is doing oh so great. Really?



Well, for the billionaire class in the last three years, their wealth has increased by $800 billion, a 37% increase in wealth for the billionaires. Anybody here know what wages, how wages went up last year for the average American worker? Anybody happen to know what kind of wage increase the average American worker saw in inflation-accounted wages? Anybody know?





“13 cents,” someone shouted.

“That's right. No, it was 17 cents - 1%. So this is the booming economy. Half of our people living paycheck to paycheck. Half a million people sleeping out on the streets, including veterans, and in this great booming economy, the millionaires over three years see a 37% increase in their wealth. Average worker, 1% increase in his or her income. He’s a fraud,” Sanders said.





