Washington Post: After Trump Moves to Undo Financial Regulations, Sanders Calls Him ‘a Fraud’

By Mike DeBonis:

“This guy is a fraud,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “This guy ran for president of the United States saying, ‘I, Donald Trump, I’m going to take on Wall Street. These guys are getting away with murder.’ Then suddenly he appoints all these billionaires, his major financial adviser comes from Goldman Sachs, and now he’s going to dismantle legislation that protects consumers.”

Trump on Friday signed an executive order ordering a review of U.S. financial regulatory laws and regulations, and he acknowledged a coming assault on the 2010 package of regulatory revisions known as Dodd-Frank. His chief economic adviser, Gary Cohn, and his nominee for treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, are alumni of the Goldman Sachs investment bank.

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“This is a guy who ran for president saying, ‘I’m the only Republican [who’s] not going to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,’ and then he appoints all of these guys who are precisely going to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,” Sanders said in an apparent reference to Trump’s nominees to lead the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Health and Human Services — both of whom have advocated for cutbacks in entitlement spending.

“Man, this guy, he is a good showman, I will give you that,” Sanders continued. “He is a good TV guy, but I think he’s going to sell out the middle class and the working class of this country. … It is one thing if you run a campaign that says, ‘Look, I think Wall Street’s great. I think the drug companies are great. I think we have to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,’ and if people want to vote for that, that’s fine. That’s democracy. But you have a president who I think in a totally fraudulent campaign said that ‘I’m going to stand up for the working people.’

“Look at his Cabinet: We’ve never had more billionaires in a Cabinet in the history in the country. Look at his appointees: These are people who are going after the needs of working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. That is called hypocrisy.”

The Full Story (February 5, 2017)