Michael Moore says Trump could win in 2020, Midwest support hasn't dropped 'one inch'

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Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore argued that President Trump could be on his way to another electoral victory, claiming his support hasn't dropped "one inch" in the Midwestern battlegrounds that are key to the 2020 presidential contest.

At the same time, Moore used that warning to make his case for a candidate like Bernie Sanders -- whom he's endorsed -- urging Democrats not to nominate another "Republican-lite" candidate like former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

While suggesting his party still has a fighting chance, Moore said that if the 2020 elections were held today, Trump would lose the popular vote by a bigger margin than he did in 2016 but still win the electoral vote.

"I think if the election were held today -- Hillary won by 3 million popular votes. I believe whoever the Democrat is next year is going to win by 4 to 5 million popular votes," Moore told Democracy Now in an interview posted on Thursday.

"There’s no question in my mind that people who stayed home, who sat on the bench, they’re going to pour out, in California, and New York and — you know, but also in Texas and whatever, I mean, places that Trump will probably win, but, yeah, there’s going to be a much higher percentage of people voting against him."

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While Democrats feel energized going into 2020, the Michigan filmmaker also indicated Trump's support in the Midwest hasn't wavered, and if anything has intensified, due to fears he could lose his re-election bid.

"The problem is, if the vote were today, I believe, he would win the electoral states that he would need, because, living out there, I will tell you, his level of support has not gone down one inch. In fact, I'd say it's even more rabid than it was before -- because they're afraid now. They're afraid he could lose."

Moore claimed that choosing another moderate like former Vice President Joe Biden could doom Democrats.

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"The majority of the American people agree with us. Seventy percent of the voters next year are women, people of color, and young adults. Okay? All that on our side. So, what we have to do is, we have to make sure we don't give them another Hillary Clinton," he said.

He added that Clinton didn't lose because of working-class voters but because the Democratic base -- "women, people of color, young people" -- were put off by the nominee.

"She only lost Michigan by 10, 11,000 votes. 90,000 wanted to send a message to the Democratic Party: 'You forgot us a long time ago out here and we will not put up with this anymore. We're not going to vote for Trump but we're not going to tolerate you sending us another Republican-lite Democrat,'" Moore said.

Plenty of Democratic commentators argue the opposite -- that a candidate like Sanders would put off critical swing voters and hand Trump a victory.

But Moore's comments speak to the raging internal debate over whether the party should nominate a progressive like Sanders or Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., or moderates like Biden. Moore previously called out Biden, describing him as "this year's Hillary" and warning that he wouldn't excite the base.

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In October, Moore endorsed Sanders, I-Vt., perhaps the most left-wing candidate in the race.

"Why me for Bernie? Because Bernie understands that capitalism and the greedy form of capitalism, especially that we have now, is at the core of so many of the problems that we're talking about. And he's not afraid to come out and just say that -- that it's the problem," he said.

Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn and Nick Givas contributed to this report.