Drawing Huge Crowds, Bernie Sanders Steps Into Leadership Of The Anti-trump Resistance

Bernie Sanders is standing alone on the back of a pickup truck shouting into a bullhorn.

He's facing several hundred ecstatic voters huddled outside a suburban Detroit high school - the group that did not fit inside the high school's gym or two overflow rooms. The crowd screams in delight when he tells them that a combined total of 9,000 people had shown up for the rally.

"What all of this tells me, is not just in Michigan or in Vermont, the people of this country will not allow us to move toward oligarchy. They will not allow Trump to take us into authoritarianism," Sanders yelled. "We're prepared to fight. And we're going to win."

At 83 years old, Sanders is not running for president again. But the stooped and silver-haired democratic socialist has emerged as a leader of the resistance to Donald Trump's second presidency. In tearing into Trump's seizure of power and warning about the consequences of firing tens of thousands of government workers, Sanders is bucking the wishes of those who want Democrats to focus on the price of eggs or "roll over and play dead."

For now, at least, Sanders stands alone as the only elected progressive willing to mount a national campaign to harness the fear and anger of the sprawling anti-Trump movement.