Sanders on Trump: 'I am not a billionaire'

Sen. Bernie Sanders said on Sunday his Democratic presidential campaign differs from that Republican Donald Trump’s bid for the White House, even though many voters who like Sanders’s message also seem to like Trump’s.

“Here is the difference, I am not a billionaire,” the independent senator from Vermont said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”


“We are raising our campaign contributions from 350,000 people who are, on average, giving $31.20 a piece,” he noted. Trump, a wealthy real estate developer and entertainer, says he’s financing his own campaign.

Sanders said he’s focused on the collapse of the middle class and struggles of low-income Americans, who are facing greater income inequality and a marginalized role in the electoral process following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United campaign finance ruling.

If elected president, Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate, says he’d also like to expand Medicaid to all citizens, address institutional racism, de-militarize local police departments and reform the criminal justice system.

And he said on Sunday he’d promise Vice President Joe Biden an issue-oriented campaign, if the former Delaware senator enters the Democratic presidential race, where Hillary Clinton still remains the frontruner.

“I’ve known Joe for many, many years,” Sanders said. “Everyone who knows him likes him.”