A day ahead of the one-year anniversary President Donald Trump's inauguration, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Friday sharply criticized the president's performance during his first year in office, calling him "an international embarrassment" in an interview on MSNBC.
"Has it really only been one year? I thought it was about 16 years," Sanders joked, before outlining how Trump has departed from his campaign promises during his presidency.
Trump "is a pathological liar...who ran on a populist campaign," Sanders charged. "He said, 'healthcare for everybody,' he's going to stand up to Wall Street, he's going to stand up to the drug companies. He lied."
.@WillieGeist asks @SenSanders his thoughts on the first year of Trump's presidency #MorningJoe pic.twitter.com/TD0LjmqIVa
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) January 19, 2018
"It is an international embarassment," Sanders added. "We have a president who has driven the respect that this great country has all over the world down, and down lower than it has ever been."
Sanders remarks come on the heels of an international survey revealing that the United States' global reputation has reached a record low as well as warnings about how the Trump administration's "authoritarian populist agenda" has emboldened "rights-trampling strongmen" worldwide, raising concerns about the president's impact on human rights on a global scale.
Within the United States, meanwhile, polling shows that Trump's average approval rating for his first year in office is lower than any other president in recorded history, with the majority of voters reporting that they believe he is dishonest, does not have good leadership skills or care about average Americans, and is not level-headed or fit to serve as president.
