CNN "State of the Union" - Transcript: Interview With Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders
Interview
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TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION. I'm Jake Tapper.
Back with me now is independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Senator, President Trump just tweeted: "Telling Democrats to help Republicans make changes to immigration reform."
You caucus with the Democrats. You're in the minority in the Senate. You're in the minority in the House. You don't hold the White House.
When it comes to immigration, what specifically are Democrats willing to compromise on?
SANDERS: Well, Jake, the problem we have is, we have a president who is not serious about policy, a president who lies every single day, a president who told us that he couldn't do anything about ripping children from the arms of their mothers, it had to be in Congress, and then, two days later, he passed an executive order.
So, that is the first problem we have. Clearly, anyone who looks at the record understands that the Democrats
in Congress have been serious about comprehensive immigration reform. That is what the American people want, and a path towards citizenship for people who are undocumented.
Democrats are serious about dealing with the DACA crisis in this country. Eighty percent of the American people think that we should provide legal status to the 1.8 million people in the DACA program.
The president rescinded Obama's executive order. These young people, raised in the United States, in school, working, are now fearful about being deported.
So, what we need is comprehensive immigration reform. We need Obama -- we need Trump now to make it clear that the United States of America is not a nation...
TAPPER: Right.
SANDERS: ... which tears children from their parents.
TAPPER: But, Senator, I...
SANDERS: And then we need to get about dealing with comprehensive immigration reform.
TAPPER: I didn't hear you say anything there that you are willing to compromise on.
For example, in addition -- in exchange for or as part of a larger legislative package on immigration reform that includes the steps you just took, you just outlined, would you be willing to support a border wall, for example? Would you be willing to go to more of a merit- based immigration system?
SANDERS: Jake, I held my nose and very reluctantly voted for some money for a border wall. That's what we voted for.
We couldn't get even that legislation passed because it protected the young people in DACA, and we had minimal amount of Republican support.
But let us be very clear. What the president is now trying to do is to divide the American people up, whether it is, in this case, immigration, whether it is the needs of African-Americans, whether it is the needs of minorities in general.
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What he is trying to do is divide us up, and not focusing on the real issues that impact the American people.
TAPPER: Well, one...
SANDERS: Immigration is a very important issue, but so is the rising cost of health care. So is the fact that we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. So is the fact -- Trump talks about the needs of the American worker.
TAPPER: Right.
SANDERS: We got millions of people working longer hours for low wages.
The president's job is to bring people together to address the problems that we face, not to divide us up and not to demagogue against desperate people who are coming into this country.
TAPPER: Well, you call it demagoguery.
President Trump says that he is giving voice to people who don't get heard from. He -- for instance, he is suggesting that Democrats seem to focus more on the victims of crime committed by undocumented immigrants, instead of looking at the children separated at the border.
I want you to take a listen at this from President Trump on Friday:
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TAPPER: How do you respond to President Trump making that argument?
How are the Democrats...
SANDERS: Well, I respond...
TAPPER: Go ahead.
SANDERS: I respond in two ways.
Number one is, I understand that the crime rate among undocumented people is actually lower than the general population.
Number two, where was Trump bemoaning the fact that we had a guy in Las Vegas shooting down dozens and dozens of Americans, we had a young American walking into a high school in Parkland, Florida, shooting down kids?
Crime is terrible. Murder is terrible. Let's deal with those issues, and let's not suggest that the only causes of crime are coming from undocumented people.
But, once again, what our job is as a government is to address the issues facing the American people. And time and time again, Jake, we have a president who lied to the American people, a president who told us he was going to take on the pharmaceutical industry. He lied. Drug prices are going up all across this country.
He was going to guarantee, during his campaign, health care to everybody. More and more people have no health insurance. The cost of health care is going up.
Unemployment is low, but for millions of workers, real wages are going down because of the cost of affordable housing, soaring prescription drugs, soaring -- gasoline at the pump soaring.
TAPPER: So, Senator, I want to ask you.
Several Democrats were tweeting recently about this photograph of -- showing, undocumented children in a government holding cell. It turns out the photograph was taken in 2014 under the Obama administration during the unaccompanied minors crisis from that year.
Now reports say undocumented children in government custody in Virginia were allegedly beaten and left in solitary confinement. Again, that was under the Obama administration. How do you respond to critics who say Democrats only seemed to start caring about these children under Trump?
SANDERS: Well, that's not accurate.
I think you had -- if you remember, there was a lot of discussion and a lot of concern about how undocumented people were treated under Obama.
But, under Obama, there was not a policy that says, if you are a mom with a little boy coming over to the country, we are going to grab that boy, put him into a detention center, which will clearly cause long-term psychic, psychological problems for that kid. That was not the policies of the Obama administration.
That must never be the policies of the United States of America. We have to deal once again with immigration through comprehensive immigration reform. Trump caused this problem, just as he caused the DACA problem.
TAPPER: More than a dozen Democratic congressional candidates reportedly support abolishing or defunding ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, including candidate for governor of New York Cynthia Nixon, who tweeted this week -- quote -- "ICE is a terrorist organization and its egomaniacal leader is Donald Trump. Sign our petition to #abolishICE."
Do you agree that ICE should be abolished?
SANDERS: I think what we need is to create policies which deal with immigration in a rational way and a rational way. And a rational way is not locking children up in detention centers or separating them from their mothers.
What we need is Trump to sit down with members of Congress and work on a rational program which deals with a serious issue.
TAPPER: Senator Sanders, thank you so much. We always enjoy having you on every Sunday. Thank you so much for your time.
SANDERS: Thank you, Jake.
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