KALAMAZOO, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – After the Donald Trump assassination attempt in July 2024, the soon-to-be president criticized the Democrats for political rhetoric leading to political violence.

Progressive U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders was quick to criticize Trump.

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“I would suggest to Donald Trump: Tone it down. Let’s have a debate on issues, let’s have honest disagreements, but don’t start calling people terrible names or suggesting that people are communists,” Sanders said in the interview on MSNBC in September 2024, according to The Hill.

Fast forward to this week in Kalamazoo and Sanders and U.S. Senate Democrat candidate Abdul El-Sayed were in Kalamazoo as part of the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.

With Sanders listening, El-Sayed called Trump’s administration “goons” and urged Democrats about how to deal with Republicans and to “choke them out.”

El-Sayed also said Democrats have to stand up to “Trump and his goons.”

“We don’t back down. With all due respect, if they go low, we don’t go high. We take them to the mud and we choke them out,” El-Sayed said.

 

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Sanders was a Democrat for years and is a far left progressive who now campaigns as an Independent.

El-Sayed ran for governor of Michigan in 2018. In his campaign for governor that year, El-Sayed called for a $15-minimum wage for the state, but didn’t pay his own political interns who had to work for free.