Bernie Sanders: 'Occupy' protests pushing Obama to stand with working people

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said Monday night that the ongoing "Occupy Wall Street" demonstration presented Barack Obama with an opportunity to stand with working people and push for a new jobs bill.

"I think what the president is catching on to is that the American people want him to stand up tall and straight on behalf of working families who are struggling desperately today and take on the big money interests who are so powerful and the wealthiest people who are doing phenomenally well," he said.

The senator noted that Americans are more sympathetic with the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters than the tea party movement.

"That tells you something," Sanders said. "It is not only the greed and recklessness of Wall Street, the other important issue that the demonstrators have been right about raising is the moral and economic aspects of a grossly unequal distribution of wealth."

"We need to address the issue of the rich getting richer and everybody else getting poorer."

Watch video, courtesy of Current TV, below: