Sanders tours Roosevelt site, says nation can learn from FDR

HYDE PARK, N.Y. (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Tuesday the nation can learn from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's courageous stance against powerful interests, drawing parallels to his own fight against the "billionaire class."

Sanders toured the grounds of Roosevelt's home and presidential library along the Hudson River, pausing to pay his respects at the gravesites of the late president and his first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. The impromptu visit offered symbolic meaning for a candidate who casts himself as the counterweight to Wall Street and establishment politics.

"I think there is a lot that we can learn today from Roosevelt's life and courage, from his willingness to stand up to the most powerful special interests of his time - people he called the economic royalists, people I call the billionaire class today," Sanders said.

"In 1936, when he was re-nominated by the Democratic Party for another term as president, he proudly proclaimed that he welcomed the hatred of the economic royalists - that he stood with the working class and the oppressed people of this country. And that's what he did," Sanders said.

Sanders has frequently expressed his admiration for Roosevelt as he challenges Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. In a speech last year, he sought to connect his own views of "democratic socialism" to Roosevelt's push for economic security, a living wage and universal health care.

Sanders stopped at the Roosevelt home before a rally at Marist College in nearby Poughkeepsie. The Democrat is barnstorming the state ahead of New York's presidential primary next Tuesday.