Senator Bernie Sanders brought a very interesting visual to the Senate floor on Wednesday: A giant printout of a tweet.
But this wasn’t just any old tweet. It was a post from President-elect Donald Trump himself.
Shortly before 3 p.m. on Wednesday, the Vermont senator took to the senate floor as legislators debated the Republican-led effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, known colloquially as Obamacare.
During his speech, Sanders railed against Republicans for trying to dismantle the legislation without introducing a plan for a new law.
“They have no idea. Their theme is to repeal, and then to delay,” Sanders said. “You don’t destroy a house without having another house.”
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He also laid out a passionate defense against making cuts to Medicare or Medicaid, saying that the Republican bill is unpopular because “it is not what the American people want.”
Which, of course, led to Trump.
Halfway through Sanders’ monologue, a staffer put a blown-up version of a tweet Trump sent in 2015 promising that he wouldn’t cut Medicare, Medicaid, or social security.
I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid. Huckabee copied me.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 7, 2015
Sanders seized on the tweet, as well as a few other comments Trump made during the presidential campaign, as an example of how Sanders believes the president-elect was, well, right.
“This was a central part of his campaign,” Sanders said of the tweet. “This is what he asked millions of elderly people and working class people to vote for him on.”
Sanders also appeared to applaud Trump for lashing out against House Speaker Paul Ryan on the campaign trail, as Trump said then that the Republicans in Congress wanted to make cuts to the programs Sanders was defending.
“Mr. Trump was right, and millions of people voted for him,” Sanders said.
In that vein, the Vermont senator aimed to try and hold Trump to his word.
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“If all he was talking about was campaign rhetoric, then what he is obliged to do now is tell the American people he was lying,” Sanders said. “If that is not what the case is. . . I would hope tomorrow, or maybe today, he could send out a tweet and tell his Republican colleagues to stop wasting our time. . . and for Mr. Trump to tell the American people he will veto any proposal that cuts Medicare, that cuts Medicaid, and that cuts social security.”
While the topics up for discussion were quite serious, Sanders’ deputy communications director did note in a Twitter post that Senator Ted Cruz got a chuckle out of the giant tweet.
earlier today, sen. ted cruz chuckled when i walked past him carrying this poster. pic.twitter.com/65iAY2106p
— mike casca (@cascamike) January 4, 2017