Bernie Sanders warns Democratic party 'may not survive' as favorability stands at 33 percent

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Independent Senator Bernie Sanders warned on Monday, November 3, that the Democratic Party’s survival is not guaranteed.

According to the RealClearPolling average, the Democratic Party’s favorability stands at just 33.4 percent. Sanders said on The New York Times’ 'The Opinions podcast' that the party’s survival hinged upon opening up to the masses instead of catering to elites.

Bernie Sanders shares why Democratic party's survival is not guaranteed

Bernie Sanders said during the podcast, "When I ran for president, you know, one of the things that I learned is there ain’t much of a Democratic Party. There are people on the top."

"When I think about a party, I think about the involvement of large numbers of people at the grassroots level … People disagree. They yell and shout at each other. As people have said, democracy is kind of messy," the senator added.

He also mentioned, "But I think sometimes when people think about the Democratic Party, they think of these cocktail parties in New York City or LA, where wealthy people mingle with consultants, mingle with the leadership. That’s not much of a party. That’s really kind of an elitist institution. So, one of the things that I believe, if the Democratic Party is to survive, maybe it will, maybe it won’t, the transformation has to be to open the doors, to bring in millions of people, to hear what they have to say, to have them start running for office, etc," Sanders added.

Interestingly, Sanders ran for president as a Democrat in 2016 and 2020.

Moreover, he asserted on Flagrant in May 2025 that both of his campaigns experienced "hatred" from the "Democratic establishment."

Sanders said at the time, "The establishment did not want to open the door. They hated the idea for all these people whose hands were a little bit dirty, who didn’t have PhDs or weren’t wealthy, imagine walking in: ‘It’s my party, man. You ain’t getting in. We will fight you in the most ruthless ways that we can.’ And that’s the struggle."

"Are they gonna open the door, or are they prepared to lose elections, literally, and … go down with the Titanic?" he added.

Bernie Sanders says Trump 'did a better job' than Joe Biden in securing borders

Bernie Sanders has praised President Donald Trump’s immigration policy, saying the president "did a better job" securing the border than former President Joe Biden, and urged Democrats to return to an enforcement-focused approach.

Sanders’ remarks, made on 'The Tim Dillon Show' on October 22 and circulated on X and YouTube, mark one of the Vermont independent’s sharpest breaks with his party.

He said during the show, "So long as we have nation-states, you’ve got to have borders. If you don’t have any borders, then you don’t have a nation." "Trump did a better job. I don’t like Trump, you know, but we should have a secure border, and it ain’t that hard to do," he added.

Moreover, he added, "Biden didn’t do it," faulting several administrations for failing to enforce the law.

Interestingly, Sanders, who ran for president twice on a populist economic platform, has previously broken with his party on immigration enforcement and warned during the 2020 campaign about the risks of "open borders" rhetoric.

He stated that the US has the "technology and manpower" to secure the border, but that leaders of both parties have failed to act. "I’m not going to sit here and tell you that overall [Biden] did a good job — it was not," Sanders mentioned.