NBC "Meet the Press" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Bernie Sanders
Interview
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CHUCK TODD:
And joining me now is presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, running as a Democrat for this campaign. Senator Sanders, welcome back to Meet the Press, sir.
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS:
Good to be with you, Chuck.
CHUCK TODD:
You know, it's fascinating. In our poll, I think about your candidacy from 2015, and sort of your come from nowhere insurgent candidacy. And here you have -- you have changed the Democratic Party. More -- a majority of Democrats want big, substantive, transformational change. How frustrating is it to you that right now among those voters they're picking Elizabeth Warren right now and not you?
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS:
Well, that's in your poll --
CHUCK TODD:
Yeah, I understand that.
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS:
-- there are three other polls that came out in the last week or two which had us in a strong second place. And let me tell you something, Chuck. Let me tell you why we are going to win the Democratic nomination and why we're going to beat Donald Trump. And that is that the working class of this country is sick and tired of working longer hours for lower wages. They're sick and tired of three people in America owning more wealth than the bottom half of America. Sick and tired of 50% of American workers living paycheck to paycheck and being the only major country on Earth not to guarantee healthcare to all people. That is why we're going to win this election.
CHUCK TODD:
Well, as I was saying, I feel like message-wise you're winning the argument. Voter-wise, you still have a ways to go. You know, why you and not Elizabeth Warren? What would you say to those Democrats --
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS:
Well --
CHUCK TODD:
-- that want this transformational change? Because they look at the two of you and they say, yes, there is a few differences here and there, but theyâre both advocating that big transformational change.
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS:
Well, I, you know, Elizabeth is, is a good friend of mine, and all I can say is the following. What people understand is that for decades now there have been great speeches, great legislation, great plans about how to move the working class of this country forward. And yet in the last 30 years, unbelievably, the top 1% has seen a 21% increase -- a $21 trillion increase in their wealth, while the bottom half have fallen even further behind. In other words, what we need in this country is a mass movement of millions of people, which I am prepared to lead as president, to take on Wall Street, to take on the drug companies who are ripping us off every single day, to take on the insurance companies, to take on the fossil fuel industry, which is literally destroying this planet. What we need is a political revolution. And I think I am the only candidate who has been clear about that, who has the capability of doing that and defeating Donald Trump in the process.
CHUCK TODD:
You're getting a lot of advice these days from a lot of friends. The New York Times story earlier this week was filled with a lot of it. I want to show you an excerpt. "A deeper challenge. Confronting his aides and supporters after nearly four decades of running and winning iconoclastic campaigns on his own terms, he is deeply reluctant to change his approach." And you've had a lot of friendly, these are people very much supporters of you, who are saying, "It sounds too much like 2016. You have to rejigger things a little bit. Oh, be more personable." How are you accepting this advice?
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS:
Well, look, two things. People say, "Bernie, you know, you're repetitious. You are talking about the rich getting richer and 40 million people living in poverty. You are talking about so many old people who cannot afford their medicine and so forth. And so you know what, Chuck? Here's a promise I will make to you. When the poor get richer and the rich get poorer, when all of our people have healthcare as a right, when we are leading the world in the fight against climate change, you know what? I will change what I am saying. So it's not me that's being repetitious. It is what is going on as society continues to favor the people who have the wealth and the power, while all over this country people are working two or three jobs. And I understand that I keep hammering away at that issue, because I believe that in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, we don't need 45 million people struggling with student debt. Kids can't afford to go to college. Those are the issues I will continue to talk about and those are the issues we'll win on.
CHUCK TODD:
I'm very curious if you have, of what you make of what's happening in the House of Representatives on the Democratic side, because it does feel like -- it's sort of insider/outsider. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was a volunteer in your campaign, she was very upset with Nancy Pelosi. And she said, "When these comments first started, I kind of thought that she was keeping the progressive flank at more of an arm's distance in order to protect more moderate members, which I understood. But the persistent singling out, it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful, the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color." Is this part of this bigger disruption that you helped lead four years ago, where the party is just having growing pains? Or what do you make of this dispute?
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS:
Well, Chuck, this is what I think. I think it goes without saying that the future of our country and the future of the Democratic Party rests with young people. And I'm very proud, by the way, in virtually every poll that I have seen, we are winning people under 45 or 50 years of age and younger.
CHUCK TODD:
You do well with younger voters in our poll as well. Yeah.
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS:
Okay. And, you know, and what Alexandria and other young women and women of color are saying, we have got to reach out to young people. We have got to hear the pain of the working class of this country. And that is causing some political disruption within the leadership of the Democratic Party. And let me give you one example where I am very concerned. I have helped lead the effort to expand community health centers in this country. And right now there's legislation in the House, the Democratic House to cut, in real inflation accountable dollars, community health centers by 20%. Unacceptable. So I support, you know, Alexandria's, and the other women's, desire to bring more people, especially young people, working class people, into the Democratic Party. That is the future of the Democratic Party --
CHUCK TODD:
Do you think the speaker --
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS:
-- and of this country.
CHUCK TODD:
--is being too tough on them?
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS:
I think a little bit. I think you cannot ignore the young people of this country who are passionate about economic and racial and social and environmental justice. You've got to bring them in, not alienate them.
CHUCK TODD:
I'm curious, you're one of seven senators running. We've got this crisis at the border, unsustainable conditions, and now even Republicans are saying that they think these conditions need to change. What could you guys do right now in the Senate? What do you think you could do now in the Senate? I know you have plans to do something if you're elected president, but you guys, what do you plan on doing in the Senate in the next couple of weeks?
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS:
Well, the immediate crisis is that we cannot be separating children from their parents. You cannot be having unsanitary, disgraceful conditions in which women and children and people are living. This is the wealthiest country on Earth. We can make sure that if people travel 1,000 miles with their children, while they're awaiting the asylum proceedings they are treated with respect and dignity and as human beings.
CHUCK TODD:
Is there something more, though, that you could do? Band together almost as a presidential caucus and try to demand some of these changes? So -- I mean, it seems as if it's a lot of rhetoric but --
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS:
Absolutely. And I --
CHUCK TODD:
-- what could you guys bring from the campaign trail?
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS:
Well, I think we can raise consciousness about this issue and understand that desperate people who are fleeing violence in Honduras and other countries with their little children, these are not criminals. These are desperate people who deserve to have an asylum process, and to be, if possible, not detained at all. Go with their relatives and their friends while they're awaiting the proceedings. But at the end of the day, Chuck, we have got to do what the American people want. And that is comprehensive immigration reform and a path towards citizenship for 11 million undocumented. We need to provide immediate legal status for the 1.8 million people in the DACA program, and a humane border policy. That is really what we have to do as a nation.
CHUCK TODD:
Senator Sanders, I'm going to leave it there for now, thanks for coming on and sharing your views, and stay safe on the trail.
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS:
Okay, thank you, take care.
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