Bernie Sanders wants federal probe of Tamir Rice case: 'We need to take a hard look' at police use of force

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was critical on Monday of an Ohio grand jury's decision not to indict two police officers in connection with the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.

"I think we need to have a federal investigation to take a look at that. But I will also tell you that we need, nationally, to take a hard look at the use of force," he told MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry.

Sanders, who is campaigning for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, said that while he feels police have an impossible job, "as a nation, we have got to recognize that lethal force should be the last response, not the first response -- and we're seeing too much, I think, [shootings] in this country."

The senator also renewed his criticism of Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who seemingly reversed course earlier in the day from complaining that wages were "too high" to signalling support for increasing wages.

"What Trump is telling the American people is that low wages are good," Sanders told Harris-Perry. "That's good for America. What he is telling the American people is he wants to see hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks for the .2 of 1 percent, and that's the word we have got to get out to working class people who are inclined to support Trump: it's old-fashioned trickle-down economics -- the rich will get richer under Trump's ideas, and the middle class will continue to decline."

Watch the interview, as aired on Monday, below.