Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) blasted the Democratic Party on Saturday, saying that President Donald Trump did not win the 2016 election but rather Democrats lost it.
During a speech in Chicago at "The People's Summit," Sanders criticized the party whose nomination he ran for in the 2016 election.
"Now I am often asked by the media and others, 'How did it come about that Donald Trump, the most unpopular presidential candidate in the modern history of our country, won the election?'" Sanders said to progressive activists. "And my answer is that Trump didn't win the election, the Democratic Party lost the election."
The liberal crowd applauded Sanders as he also went after the Democratic Party leadership.
Sanders also mentioned Democrats' struggles in recent years in races besides the presidential one.
"But we also have to understand that Democrats have lost the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate, Republicans now control almost two-thirds of the governor's chairs throughout this country, and over the last nine years, Democrats have lost almost 1,000 legislative seats in states all across this country," Sanders said.
"Today, in almost half of the states in America, the Democratic Party has almost no political presence at all," Sanders added. "Now if that's not a failure, if that's not a failed model, I don't know what a failed model is."
Sanders has previously criticized the Democratic Party model as a failing one. During the party's "Unity Tour" alongside Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez earlier this year, Sanders refused to identify as a Democrat.