Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Thursday night suggested Republicans were only interested in defeating President Barack Obama in 2012, even if it meant ruining the country.

“The day after Obama got elected the Republicans made a decision: They would do everything they could to stop his agenda,” he explained on MSNBC’s The Ed Show.

“If the issue means rebuilding our infrastructure and creating jobs, they will obstruct it. If the issue means taking on Wall Street and protecting consumers, they will obstruct. If the issue is transforming our energy system and dealing with global warming, they will obstruct.”

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“Because what is important to them is not rebuilding the middle class or protecting the United States of America, it is defeating Barack Obama and it’s a pretty sad state of affairs.”

Senate Republicans voted against a payroll tax cut extension because the bill would have offset the tax break with a surtax on millionaires. They also blocked Obama’s nominee, Richard Cordray, to lead a new consumer watchdog agency tasked with protecting Americans from finance industry abuses.

“Elizabeth Warren would have been my preferred leader of that agency,” Sanders said. “But she is running, and I think running well, for the U.S. Senate and I hope she wins. Everything I have heard about Cordray is that he is strong, he is a consumer advocate. And that, for them, is precisely the problem.”

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