Senator Bernie Sanders says Trump moving US towards authoritarianism

US Senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says President Donald Trump’s statements and actions indicate that he is "delusional" and a "total hypocrite” and is moving the US into a more authoritarian mode.

Sanders, who lost to Hillary Clinton last year in the Democratic primary presidential election, made the remarks during an interview with CNN that aired Saturday.

"I use the term 'delusional' with regard to Trump when he said there were 3 to 5 million 'illegals' who voted in the last election ... That is delusional," Sanders said. "Nobody in the world believes that is the case. There is zero evidence to back it up. But he makes that statement. So I think the word 'delusional' is correct."

Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, said Trump did not grasp the Constitution, which he swore to uphold when he reached the highest office in the nation.

"Clearly, we have a President who does not understand what our Constitution about, what democracy is about. And I think there is a fear in this country of this nation under Trump moving into a more authoritarian mode," Sanders said.

Sanders also tweeted on Saturday that Trump’s attacks on the judiciary and media prove his lack of understanding for democracy and the US Constitution.

“A president who attacks a judge who rules against him as a 'so-called judge' clearly does not understand what our Constitution is about,” the one-time Democratic presidential hopeful said in a tweet on Saturday.

Trump has openly criticized the US judicial system after a court ruling by District Court Judge James Robart that halted his travel ban against people coming from seven Muslim-majority countries—Iran, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Sudan and Somalia.

Trump insulted Robart, calling him a "so-called judge," and threatened to overturn his judgment.

“The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!” he tweeted.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Sunday denied an emergency appeal from the Department of Justice to restore Trump’s executive order banning citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Fake news

In another tweet on Saturday, Sanders used Trump’s attacks on media as another point of attack against the real estate mogul.

“A president who attacks media that makes critical remarks about him as “fake news” does not understand what democracy is about,” the Vermont senator wrote.

Trump has frequently accused The New York Times and CNN, two of the most outspoken critics of his policies, of publishing fake news.

In a press conference days before his January 20 inauguration, Trump refused to take questions from a CNN correspondent over the network’s coverage of a so-called dossier that linked the president to Russia.

Sanders has been fiercely attacking Trump ever since his election victory on November 8. Last week, he called Trump a “fraud” for breaking his campaign pledges.

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