Senator Bernie Sanders said he believes the Medicare for All bill could pass Congress, and he stopped short of saying President Donald Trump would certainly reject it. Speaking after Democrats won big in Tuesday's midterm elections, Sanders argued that the proposal has growing backing across the country and within his party.
Sanders said more than 60 percent of Americans support the plan, and he put Democratic backing at between 80 and 90 percent. He has pushed the proposal for years, and he said support for it is increasing inside the Democratic Party. When asked about a veto, Sanders said he was not absolutely certain Trump would reject the bill. He argued that passing legislation is Congress's job regardless of what the White House might do. He added that any veto would then fall on Republicans, who would need to sustain it, placing the political burden on the opposition party rather than on Democrats.
Not everyone agreed with his assessment. In the discussion, host Hayes doubted that Trump would sign the bill, questioning whether the president would back a measure of that scale. Psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert went further, criticizing Sanders' speech as decades old and arguing that the senator was flattering Trump for strategic reasons. Alpert's remarks framed the exchange as more about political positioning than about the policy itself. The White House has not yet responded to Fox News Digital's request for comment on Sanders' remarks or on the veto question.
The remarks come after a midterm election in which Democrats regained control of both the House and the Senate. Trump congratulated Democrats after the results and said he would work with them. Republicans, meanwhile, are facing an internal reckoning after the losses. Former Senator Jeff Flake discussed the fallout for the GOP on PBS, pointing to the difficult questions the party now confronts about its direction. Those questions give the health care debate added weight, because any major Democratic bill would now have to clear a Congress where the party holds the gavel.
The political climate is also shifting inside the White House. Trump reportedly told 60 Minutes that he expects firings, and Susie Wiles has reportedly been moved out of her role as chief of staff. Trump has also pledged to veto Democratic bills he calls insane. That pledge puts any health care legislation from a Democratic-controlled Congress on a potential collision course with the administration, and it sets up the veto dynamic Sanders described as a test for Republicans.