Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday night lamented President-elect Donald Trump‘s tepid relationship with the truth.
“What do you do when you have a president-elect, soon to be president, who—and I say this not happily but I think most people who observe him would agree—is a pathological liar, who changes his mind every single day,” Sanders told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.
.@BernieSanders: Trump is a "pathological liar" #inners https://t.co/EPCRdMYRIA
— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) December 9, 2016
Sanders added that he believes the answer to Trump’s willingness to break with facts is to “build a movement of millions of people who actually are following reality.”
“That’s the challenge,” Sanders added. “Real change in this country—I am more and more convinced of it—is not going to come from Capitol Hill; it’s going to come from grassroots America.”
Trump came under fire this week after attacking an Indiana union leader, United Steelworkers 1999 President Chuck Jones, who called out Trump for lying about the number of jobs saved in his deal with United Technologies, the parent company of air-conditioning and heating device manufacturer Carrier.
Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016
If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana. Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016
Trump told Carrier workers that he had saved 1,100 jobs—85 percent of the roughly 1,300 jobs the company planned to send to Mexico—by giving the company $7 million in tax breaks. The number is actually 800, 730 of which are factory jobs. Carrier told workers 550 people would still lose their jobs.
“I’m tired of being lied to about our jobs,” Jones wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post on Thursday.
Trump’s willingness to lie or otherwise bend the truth has colored his candidacy since the beginning. Of the 339 Trump claims reviewed by PolitiFact so far, 237 (70 percent) were rated “mostly false,” “false,” or “pants on fire.”
Sanders also told MSNBC that he would like to better understand why 62.8 million Americans voted for Trump over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, whom Sanders challenged in the party’s presidential primary.
“I want the truth. I really want to hear why people voted the way they voted,” Sanders said. “I want to hear why people voted for Donald Trump, what their expectations were, why they didn’t vote for Secretary Clinton.”
H/T the Hill