Bernie Sanders Criticizes Trump for Touting Dow Document, as Thousands and thousands of People Will not Have Sufficient Meals on Thanksgiving

Senator Bernie Sanders, an unbiased from Vermont, known as out President Donald Trump for touting the Dow Jones Industrial Common passing a record-breaking 30,000 on Tuesday—as hundreds of thousands of People might go hungry on Thanksgiving this week.

For the primary time ever, the Dow Jones broke 30,000, which economists attributed to the Common Providers Administration (GSA) permitting the transition to President-elect Joe Biden to formally transfer ahead—fueling buyers optimism as Trump refuses to concede the election. However Trump took credit score for the robust inventory market and the financial restoration amid the surging COVID-19 pandemic.

“I simply need to congratulate everyone. The inventory market, Dow Jones Industrial Common simply hit 30,000, which is the very best in historical past,” Trump mentioned in Tuesday remarks. The president described 30,000 as “sacred,” asserting that “no person thought they’d ever see it.”

Responding to Trump with a Thursday tweet, Sanders, a progressive who unsuccessfully challenged Biden for the Democratic Celebration’s presidential nomination earlier than throwing his full help behind the previous vice chairman, identified that the excessive quantity did not imply a lot to hundreds of thousands of People going through important monetary hardships.

“Yesterday, Trump took full credit score for the 30,000 Dow Jones, however took zero credit score for 260,000 People who died from COVID, 40 million who face eviction or 26 million who do not have sufficient meals to eat on Thanksgiving,” Sanders tweeted.

“No, Mr. President. The inventory market shouldn’t be the economic system,” the progressive senator wrote.

In an announcement emailed to Newsweek, a White Home spokesperson pushed again towards Sanders’ criticism.

“President Trump’s financial program of tax cuts, deregulation, improved commerce offers, and power independence has created essentially the most inclusive, resilient economic system in historical past benefiting all People, together with the hundreds of thousands of hardworking individuals with 401(okay)s. The President has labored tirelessly to offer the American individuals with the help they should overcome the challenges related to the pandemic, together with trillions of {dollars} of help for small companies, unemployment insurance coverage, and stimulus funds, along with the world’s main testing system, billions of items of PPE, and coverings and vaccines in document time,” the spokesperson mentioned.

Sanders seemed to be referring to survey knowledge from the U.S. Census Bureau, which confirmed practically 26 million (or about one in eight) People typically or typically didn’t have sufficient meals to eat prior to now week. That knowledge was compiled from October 28 to November 9.

Feeding America, a nonprofit with a nationwide community of greater than 200 million meals banks, has projected that greater than 50 million People can have confronted starvation by the top of the yr. That is an uptick of some 15 million in comparison with the 35 million previous to the coronavirus pandemic.

In the meantime, the estimated nationwide unemployment fee stays about twice as excessive because it was previous to the pandemic, in response to knowledge from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the previous two weeks, the Division of Labor’s studies have once more proven a rise within the variety of new jobless claims. Because the pandemic continues to surge and states and municipalities implement new lockdown measures, economists are involved that the state of affairs might worsen within the coming months.

“With new pandemic restrictions on habits both mandated by governments or initiated by people themselves, draw back dangers for the economic system have solely grown. We all know that there’s mild on the finish of the COVID-19 tunnel. Sadly, each for the economic system and the wellbeing of people and the companies using them, we’re at the moment caught in a type of pandemic purgatory,” Bankrate’s senior economist Mark Hamrick mentioned in an e mail to Newsweek.

Regardless of the dire state of affairs going through tens of hundreds of thousands of People forward of the vacations, Republicans and Democrats nonetheless stay at odds over additional COVID-19 financial stimulus. Forward of the election it seemed as if lawmakers could also be approaching a compromise, however that did not materialize. Now members of each events are suggesting a smaller, extra focused invoice could also be doable previous to the transition to the brand new authorities in late January.

“It’s unhelpful that elected officers in Washington have did not go new aid laws,” Hamrick mentioned.

The U.S. continues to have the very best variety of infections and deaths attributable to COVID-19 of any nation on the earth. As of early Wednesday afternoon, the nation has confirmed greater than 12.6 million infections and practically 260,000 deaths, in response to The New York Instances‘ tracker. The common of latest instances has risen to about 175,000 per day over the past week, whereas new deaths over the past seven days have been greater than 1,600 on common. The U.S. reported 2,216 deaths on Tuesday.

Up to date 4:40 PM ET, with remark from a White Home spokesperson.