Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) thinks Democrats complaining about the new slate of left-wing candidates gaining traction with voters need a reality check, calling the establishment “way, way, out of touch” with Americans during a stop by MediasTouch’s “On Sunday” podcast this weekend.

Sanders had a blunt answer when host Jack Cocchiarella asked the progressive patriarch what he’d say to members of the Democratic Party who are telling the rising faction of democratic socialists “if you’re not going to just fit in nicely with the Democratic establishment, you shouldn’t be a Democrat.”

“Well, maybe the converse is true,” the two-time presidential contender replied.

“Maybe the Democratic establishment should begin to understand they are way, way, out of touch with where the American people are,” Sanders went on. “That we don’t need a party anymore which is dominated by wealthy campaign contributors.”

As his host agreed, Sanders then reminded everyone what a tight cadre the upper echelon of Democratic Party politics is actually made up of.

“When you talk about the Democratic establishment, it’s really relatively a few people. And they’re pretty open about it,” he explained. “You know, ‘the donor class said you or you should be the candidate for the Senate,’ that’s what the ‘donor class’ says.”

From Sanders’ perspective, elected officials would be wise to recognize the power of being the “party of working people, of young people, of people of color, of people who understand what it’s like to struggle, who are prepared to take on the oligarchs, who want to see the economy work for all, not just a few.”

Asked what excites him about progressive Senate hopefuls like Abdul El-Sayed and Peggy Flanagan, who are both leading polls against establishment Democrats ahead of their respective Michigan and Minnesota primaries on Aug. 4 and 11, the senator said, “Because they have the guts to talk to the issues that are on the minds of ordinary Americans. It’s not more complicated than that.”

The Vermont senator’s comments come amid uproar over democratic socialists and committed progressives who triumphed over establishment Democrats during this summer’s primary elections.

Institutional Democrats’ unease has been amplified by the fact that Republicans have seized the far-left wins as an opportunity to smear the party as a cabal of communists and radicals.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misstated the date of Michigan’s primary.

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