MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Income Inequality, Climate Change, Iran Deal
Interview
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SCHULTZ: ...For more let`s turn to the Senator from Vermont. Senator, good to have you
with us tonight.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I) VERMONT: Good to be with you.
SCHULTZ: You have been very clear on the issues that we have talked about.
But now Senator Warren is questioning Hillary Clinton for not stepping out.
Does that change your schedule at all if there`s going to be one?
SANDERS: No it doesn`t. Look, the American people understand, Ed that
there`s something profoundly wrong when 99 percent of all new income
generated in this country goes to the top 1 percent, when we have lost
60,000 factories since 2001 and millions of decent paying jobs.
In my view, every candidate not just Hillary but everybody else has got to
be clear about what we do to expand the middle class, to tell the wealthy
and large corporations that they have got to begin paying their fair share
of taxes. How do we create the millions of decent paying jobs we need.
Those are the issues that have got to be discussed.
SCHULTZ: Senator, you have been out and about around the country, in all
regions of the country, what are people asking you, when you go out to a
town hall and they want to talk to Bernie Sanders, what are they talking
about? What do they ask you?
SANDERS: Well, I will tell you Ed. What people are talking about is how
we create the millions of jobs this country desperately needs. And the
reason for that is that real unemployment in America is not 5.5 percent,
it`s 11 percent.
They want to know how we raise wages so that people are now earning $7.25
an hour. They want to know how we`re dealing with climate change and how
we reverse climate change by moving to sustainable energy. And there is a
lot of interest about trade policies and how we defeat fast track for the
TPP.
SCHULTZ: OK.
SANDERS: Those are some of the issues that the American people are talking
about.
SCHULTZ: What is this analysis that you might get disaffected Tea
Partiers? Do you see any parallel in that?
SANDERS: Absolutely and look, you got a lot of White working class guys
out there. They can`t afford to send their kids to college. They don`t
have any health care and do you think that they really believe in the
Republican agenda of giving tax breaks to billionaires and cutting social
security, Medicare and Medicaid, they don`t. But somebody has got to reach
out to them and say, "OK, we may disagree on this with that issue, but are
you concerned about your kid being able to go to college?" "Are you
concerned about how they get decent job or do you want to see your job go
to China?"
I think we can bring forth some common agenda which brings a number of
these people into an approach that says, "Enough is enough, the billionaire
class can`t have it all."
SCHULTZ: OK. Senator, news today, the Iranians are saying that the
sanctions are going to have to be lifted across the board if there`s going
be a deal. What is your perspective on this? If you were president, if
you were making the decision, where would you be right now?
SANDERS: Well, I got to say, Ed; A, I think the President and Secretary
Kerry have done a very good job in making it clear that A; we want to make
sure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon but B; what we have got to do
is everything possible to prevent another war on the Middle East.
I cannot believe that I have Republican colleagues who are very nonchalant
after the wars in Iraq, after the war in Afghanistan, "Oh, yeah, well maybe
we`ll have a war with Iran," disaster.
So I applaud what President is doing. There a lot of -- the devil is in
the details and I will study them. But he and John Kerry deserve credit
for trying to negotiate agreement that prevents Iran from getting the bomb
and yet does it in a way without a war.
SCHULTZ: Well, from what you know of it, would you lift the sanctions
across the board to get a deal?
SANDERS: I don`t have a lot of details but I think the President is moving
in the right direction and as soon as I see the details, I`ll be able to
give you a better decision.
SCHULTZ: OK. Senator Bernie Sanders, good to have you with us tonight. I
appreciate your time.
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