(CNN) Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders -- one of multiple lawmakers discussed as possible presidential candidates in 2020 -- offered a line-by-line rebuke Tuesday of the current foreign policy stances that President Donald Trump has taken, saying Trump is inspiring "authoritarian leaders around the world."

"While this authoritarian trend certainly did not begin with Donald Trump, there's no question that other authoritarian leaders around the world have drawn inspiration from the fact that the President of the world's oldest and most powerful democracy is shattering democratic norms, is viciously attacking an independent media and an independent judiciary, and is scapegoating the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society," Sanders said in a speech focusing on countering authoritarianism.

Weaving in familiar themes of economic inequality, stagnating wages and climate change -- issues he campaigned on as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 -- with newer actions and themes taken by Trump's administration in the last year, Sanders described "two competing visions for the future."

"On one hand, we see a growing worldwide movement toward authoritarianism, oligarchy and kleptocracy," Sanders said. "On the other side, we see a movement toward strengthening democracy, egalitarianism, and economic, social, racial and environmental justice."

The room at the Kenney Auditorium at the John's Hopkins School of Advance International Studies in Washington, DC, had every seat filled, but the subdued crowd marked a different kind of audience than Sanders is used to in his typically large rallies.

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