Bernie Sanders Tells LA That Poverty 'Is a Death Sentence'

Bernie Sanders rallied a crowd in East Los Angeles on Monday in a last-ditch appeal to the city's massive Latino community ahead of California’s vital June 7 primary.

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Directly referencing the undocumented, Native American and African American communities, Sanders emotionally spoke of the plight of the poor in the United States.

“Poverty in America is a death sentence,” Sanders said, noting that life expectancy can be almost two decades shorter for people in low-income communities compared to the wealthy elite, and “that must not continue in the wealthiest country in the history of the world.”

Sanders also focused on electoral politics, noting that he has received the most individual contributions — eight million — in electoral history, with an average donation of US$27 per person.

Alluding to Republican Donald Trump, who is backed by casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, the U.S. senator from Vermont said this year’s elections “sounds to me like oligarchy,” with “billionaires supporting billionaires."

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Sanders assured his audience that Trump will not win, however, but also pointed to the fact that he does better than his rival Hillary Clinton in a head-to-head matchup with the billionaire.

In a typical sign-off, Sanders ended with, “I appreciate so much the 'Bernie, Bernie' (chant),” but said that neither “Bernie, and nobody else, can do it alone.”

“Democracy is not a spectator sport,” he said, and if health care, national security policy and the immigration system are to be changed, his supporters must participate even after the polls close.