Sanders Struggles to Name Something He Admires About Trump: He Is a ‘Homophobe’ and ‘Religious Bigot’

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) struggled to name a single thing he admires about President Trump during a youth forum at Drake University on Sunday.

Instead he jokingly remarking on the president’s hair before eventually giving him props for his notoriously early mornings, but not before blasting him as a racist, sexist, homophobe, xenophobe, and religious bigot.

Sanders spoke at the event in Des Moines, Iowa, on Sunday and took a question from an attendee, who asked the socialist senator to name a “genuine thing” he admires about Trump.

“Politics has become so divisive that it’s often difficult to see members of the opposing party as human. If you could say one genuine thing you admire about President Donald Trump, what would it be?” the attendee asked.

“His hair, I’m really impressed by the color of his hair,” Sanders initially said to a few chuckles:

“Look, let me answer your question in a non-facetious way,” Sanders continued, urging the audience to “look at recent history” and blaming the Republican Party for going too far to the right:

I think the answer is – you may not be happy with this answer – but I think if you look at it you will find that there was once –I don’t know, I don’t know – 20, 30 years ago where you had a Republican Party which is what we would call a center-right party, conservative party. Center-right. You had a president called Dwight D. Eisenhower was president in this country who was probably … his politics today would be a moderate Democrat actually. But for a variety of reasons over the years – before Trump – the party moved very very far to the right, and that is where it is right now. And it gives me no pleasure, I mean it really does not. I have Republican colleagues who I respect I like –they differ with me.

Sanders added he has colleagues he disagrees with politically, telling the crowd, “You know you’d be shocked to know people sit down, they have lunch together they don’t hate each other,” but followed up by calling Trump a racist, sexist, homophobe, xenophobe, and religious bigot.

“In this president, you have somebody who is a racist – in my view – who is a sexist, who is a homophobe, was a xenophobe, and there’s a religious bigot, and you have to speak that out,” Sanders said.

“I have to do everything I can to take that type of behavior on. That’s what I gotta do,” Sanders added.

“Is there a single thing about the president that you can say you admire? Single thing?” the attendee followed up.

Sanders conceded, giving the president props for waking up early, albeit a bit sarcastically.

“He gets up at 3 o’clock in the morning to tweet, so I’m impressed by people who get up at 3 o’clock in the morning,” Sanders said.