Bernie Sanders Spells Out How Bad Things Are For U.S. With Historical Comparison

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Friday declared the United States is likely enduring its “worst moment” since the Civil War, as he revealed that many of the stories his supporters have shared with him about the coronavirus pandemic are just too painful to read.

“It is important for us to take a very deep breath and to understand that we are in the worst moment, the worst moment in American history maybe since the Civil War,” Sanders told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes.

“We are in a terrible, terrible moment,” he continued, citing the soaring nationwide death toll and job losses resulting from the public health crisis. The contagion has now killed more than 77,000 people in the U.S. and sickened at least 1.3 million others.

Sanders, who dropped out of the Democratic presidential race in April, said he had asked his “large email following” to reply with stories about what was happening to them during the pandemic.

“What we received from people by the thousands was literally so painful, I couldn’t read it. I mean, the stories are, ‘I lost my mother, I lost my job, I have no money, I can’t feed my kids, I don’t know what to do,’ mental illness taking place, enormous anxiety,” he said.

“People are hurting in a way we have never ever seen in our lifetimes,” added Sanders. “And to top it all, we have somebody so irresponsible, so not understanding the current reality as president of the United States, that it is just incredibly painful.”

Check out the interview above.