Mary Spicuzza

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

U.S Sen. Bernie Sanders said Monday that President-elect Donald Trump's surprise win in places like Wisconsin was rooted in the "pain" and desperation of middle class voters.

"There's a lot of pain in this country, in Wisconsin," Sanders said during a televised town hall meeting in Kenosha. "For the last 40 years, the middle class in this country has been disappearing. We have massive levels of income inequality, here in Kenosha, in Wisconsin, in Vermont."

Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to win Wisconsin since 1984, and the first to win Kenosha County since 1972. Wisconsin's recount, which was completed Monday, confirmed that Trump won the state by some 22,000 votes.

The gathering aired Monday night as a special edition of "All in with Chris Hayes" on MSNBC. Topics included job security, trade deals, immigration, college costs, health care, income inequality, religious freedom, Muslims — and, of course, Trump's win.

Hayes praised both Democrats and Republicans who participated — especially the Trump supporters — for keeping the discussion civil.

"I don't want to set up a Roman coliseum here," Hayes said Monday in an interview with reporters. "That's the whole point."

Nevertheless, Sanders repeatedly offered sharp criticisms of Trump and his campaign. He accused the president-elect of running a "bigoted" campaign. The senator from Vermont, who ran for president but lost in the Democratic primary to Hillary Clinton, also said he believes many voters in places like Wisconsin backed Trump because they believed he would take on the establishment.

Sanders, who outpolled Clinton in Wisconsin during the Democratic primary, pointed to people's frustration with trade deals that have hurt workers in the United States as an example of why some who backed Democrats in the past voted for Trump.

But he essentially accused Trump of a bait-and-switch, saying his cabinet picks have favored the country's wealthiest people. The qualification for getting a position in Trump's cabinet "seems to be that you need to be a billionaire," Sanders said.

Sanders also railed against income inequality, saying CEOs shouldn't make "300 times" what workers at their companies make.

"Why do we have so much income and wealth inequality?" Sanders said.

Hayes said MSNBC may do additional town halls. He added that he was drawn to do the first one in Kenosha because the county had flipped after 44 years of backing Democrats.

"We were looking at the states in the industrial Midwest, you know, particularly Michigan and Wisconsin. And then we started looking at counties that have flipped," Hayes told reporters. "There just seemed like a lot going on here. Really, the thing that struck me is that this place, this county hasn't gone for a Republican for president since 1972. Something happened. So that was a big part of it."

Following the event, Illinois resident Spencer Tipton praised Sanders and said his criticisms of Trump were accurate.

"What I didn't like about Trump was he bullied everybody," Tipton said. "He's got all the money, the big shots, that he's trying to put into office to run Washington. And I think he's more or less left the working-class people out."

Mary Magdalen Moser, a Trump supporter from Kenosha, said she didn't think Sanders got challenged enough on his points. Moser added that she wasn't especially surprised by Trump's win in Kenosha, or Wisconsin.

"The fact that the Democrats didn't see this coming shows — it proves — that they just ignored Wisconsin," Moser said. "Because it was eminently predictable if you paid attention to the numbers, or who we have as governor, or who we have as state Senate and state Assembly."