Sen. Bernie Sanders I-Vt., called on Democrats to develop a new strategy to win back middle-class voters and revitalize the party.
Speaking to Democracy Now, Sanders, who unsuccessfully ran against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, called for a new approach to political organizing.
"I think any independent assessment, without casting any blame, says the current approach has failed. All right? We need a new approach. This means we start playing ball in states that the Democrats have conceded decade ago," he said.
Sanders added it is time for Democrats to create a grassroots party, "where the most important people are not just wealthy campaign contributors, but working people, young people, people in the middle class, who are going to come in and going to start telling us what their needs are and give us some ideas as to how we go forward."
He said Donald Trump was able to connect with voters and touch a nerve.
"There are some people who think that everybody who voted for Donald Trump is a racist, a sexist or a homophone or a xenophobe," he told Democracy Now. "I don't believe that.
"These are people who are disgusted and they are angry at the establishment. And the Democratic Party has not been clear enough, in my view, about telling those people, whether they are white, whether they are black, Latino, Asian American or whatever, women gay, whatever, that we are on their side.
"We need people who will have the guts to stand up to the billionaire class and corporate American and fight for working families."
Just last week, Sanders criticized Trump and called the president-elect the "Tweeter in Chief" for potentially sparking an arms race through Twitter, according to The Hill.
"Congress must not allow the Tweeter in Chief to unleash a dangerous and costly nuclear arms race," he said.
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