Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Monday called on Donald Trump to live up to his campaign promises to protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security or else admit that he lied about his support of those programs during the presidential campaign.
In an op-ed published in the Washington Post, Sanders confronted Trump with the same choice he outlined on the floor of the Senate last week: Admit he lied during the campaign, or “instruct his Republican colleagues to end their efforts to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and inform them that if they don’t, he will veto any bills that cut those life-and-death programs.”
Sanders referenced Trump’s September appearance on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” where he promised to support health care for “everybody.” He previously made the internet rounds for blowing up Trump’s Twitter promise to protect entitlements on a huge poster board to display during last week’s floor speech.
In the op-ed, Sanders also announced a nation-wide day of action on Jan. 15, “Our First Stand: Save Health Care” to advocate for “economic and social justice,” including an event he plans to attend in Michigan with new Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Gary Peters (D-MI).
Addressing Republican leadership, he wrote: “We will demonstrate in their communities, jam up their phone lines and throw them out at the ballot box if they go forward with their plans.”