Bernie Sanders also accused Republicans of supporting a government run by a billionaire class and called for lawmakers to “make it easier for people to participate in the political process, not harder.” | Getty Sanders: Trump voter fraud claims 'disgraceful and unfounded nonsense'

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday tried to tie the rest of the Republican Party to President-elect Donald Trump’s weekend Twitter rant propagating baseless conspiracy theories about voter fraud.

On Sunday, Trump took to Twitter to claim, despite the lack of any supporting evidence, that “millions” of people had voted illegally in the presidential election, which he won in an upset last month. He falsely asserted that those “illegal” votes had cost him the popular vote, which he lost to Hillary Clinton, and then alleged that there was “serious voter fraud” in three states she won.


Sanders, a liberal populist who ran a surprisingly strong challenge to Clinton for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, released a blistering statement Monday afternoon describing Trump’s false claims as “disgraceful and unfounded nonsense.” And he blamed Trump’s party at large, declaring, “Republicans are threatening American democracy.”

“When Trump talks his disgraceful and unfounded nonsense about millions of people voting illegally, he is sending a very clear signal that the Republicans will move to make it harder for people of color, the elderly, immigrants, young people and poor people to participate in elections,” Sanders said.

As he often did on the campaign trail, Sanders also accused Republicans of supporting a government run by a billionaire class and called for lawmakers to “make it easier for people to participate in the political process, not harder.”

Sanders, who was recently elected to the Democratic Senate leadership, is looking to push the party left in the aftermath of the election. Among other points, he has called on Democrats to make a better case to white working class voters who largely supported Trump in November.

A self-described democratic socialist, he was elected to the Senate as an independent but caucuses with the Democrats.