Senator Bernie Sanders has torn the Democratic Party apart following Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday.

Trump appeared poised to sweep battleground states and secure another term as president as Harris performed among voters across the country after the sometimes tense campaign. Democrats have already begun the autopsy of the election results, as Harris’ supporters express a mix of outrage and despondency.

Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats who won re-election on Tuesday night, issued a scathing statement on the Democrats’ performance on Wednesday afternoon.

“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party that has failed the working class finds that the working class has failed them,” Sanders wrote. “First it was the white working class, and now it’s also Latino and black workers.”

He chastised the Democratic leadership for defending “the status quo” while Americans “are angry and want change.”

“Will the big money interests and highly paid consultants who control the Democratic Party learn any real lessons from this disastrous campaign? Will they understand the pain and political alienation that tens of millions of Americans are experiencing? Do they have any idea how we can take on the increasingly powerful oligarchy that has so much economic and political power? Probably not,” Sanders wrote.

Sanders expressed concern about the Democratic Party’s response to several key issues, including health care, drug prices, the rise of artificial intelligence and the U.S. response to the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

“In the weeks and months ahead, those of us concerned about basic democracy and economic justice need to have some very serious political discussions,” he wrote.

Newsweek contacted Harris’ campaign via email for comment.

Polls in the final stretch showed a tight race between Harris and Trump, with both campaigns always assuming key battleground states would be at stake.

By Wednesday evening, networks in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin had called Trump. He also led in Arizona and Nevada, although those states still had not been called as of 6:00 PM ET.

Democrats are already divided over why Harris lost. Progressives blame Harris’ tactics focused on her defeat. They have also argued that her support for Israel cost her votes in Michigan. Some have expressed concern about voters’ perception of Harris as be too liberal.

Exit polls showed that the economy and concerns about democracy motivated voters. Harris had sought to allay concerns about the economy as inflation has fallen since 2022. But voters still expressed general dissatisfaction with the state of the country’s finances and direction.

Update 6/24/11, 6:37 PM ET: This article has been updated with additional information.