Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders tells a Luther College audience "this campaign is about thinking big, not small"

A large audience of Luther College students and area residents jammed into the North Gym at Luther College Monday afternoon to hear U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for president, promise, "I stand with the working people of America."

Sanders' speech touched on familiar themes.  He said the country needs to wrestle control away from the "oligarchy" which controls government now.  He stated that 83 percent of the benefits from President Trump's tax cut package went to the top one percent of the country's population.  He challenged President Trump to "lead by example" and stop selling imported goods through the companies he owns and stop hiring undocumented immigrants at his properties.

Sanders told the audience Trump "is not just a pathological liar, not just a racist...Donald Trump is a fraud."  He promised to take on the insurance industry and the fossil fuel industry, which he said "is destroying our planet."  He also promised to eliminate private prisons and reform a "broken criminal justice system."

Prior to his main speech at Luther, Sanders spoke to a small crowd of students who had not come in time to get a spot inside the North Gym.  He told them the country "needs to defeat this most dangerous president."