CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) Discusses About The Chance Of Bernie Sanders Winning South Carolina
Interview
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BURNETT: All right. Jeff, thank you very much. And I want to go OUTFRONT now to Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, the national co- chair of Bernie Sanders' campaign. And I appreciate your time. Good to have you back.
So, look, South Carolina, the firewall for Joe Biden, he was perceived to be head and shoulder as the winner. Poll out today shows them within five points of each other. Do you think Senator Sanders will win South Carolina?
REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): He's going to do very well. Obviously, it's up hill. I know that Jim Clyburn was very respected in that state. He's likely to endorse Joe Biden. A lot of the political establishment is behind Joe Biden, but Bernie Sanders is going to do better than anyone expected him to do in that state.
BURNETT: So you just heard Biden and Buttigieg slamming Sanders. Buttigieg also, this weekend, calling him inflexible, saying Sanders ideas were 'revolution leave out most Americans'. You hear Bloomberg it's all about Sanders tomorrow. And, of course, last week it was all about Bloomberg for everybody. Is Bernie Sanders ready for everybody to come at him tomorrow night?
He is because he has had consistent beliefs for 30 years. That's why he's doing well. He believes we need to complete the work of FDR and finish the new deal that we need to give everyone in this country the right to health care, a decent education, childcare that we need to get out of endless wars.
That's his message. He knows who he is and he's going to say the same thing on the debate stage tomorrow night.
So we played a clip of this, but senator Sanders has come under fire from Democrats and Republicans for these comments he made last night on 60 Minutes about Fidel Castro. I just want to replay them for you, Congressman Khanna. Here he is.
KHANNA: Sure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: We're very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba. But it's unfair to simply say everything is bad. When Fidel Castro came into office, do you what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing even though Fidel Castro did it?
ANDERSON COOPER, 60 MINUTES HOST: There's a lot of dissidents imprisoned in Cuba.
SANDERS: That's right and we condemn that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now, some of your Democratic colleagues from Florida which is, obviously, a crucial swing state and these are the Democrats that are slamming him, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, "I find Senator Sanders' comments on Castro's Cuba absolutely unacceptable."
And you just heard Donna Shalala. She said that she hope Sanders will take time to speak to her constituents before he decides to sing the praises of a murderous tyrant like Fidel Castro. Do you think that perhaps he went too far on Castro?
KHANNA: Let me just say this, Senator Sanders clearly believes that Fidel Castro was a dictator that he had massive human rights abuses, that he engaged in mass shootings and there is absolutely no apology for what he did. He did things that were heinous and human rights violations that were indefensible.
But the point is that what Senator Sanders is saying is let's go back to Obama's policy, where Obama was trying to have some normalization with Cuba and not support Donald Trump's policy where Donald Trump has reversed everything Obama did.
And let me tell you, if you talk to President Obama or anyone close to him, he would have carried Florida in 2020. The young people were for him. All Senator Sanders is saying is let's go back to President Obama's policy.
BURNETT: So Mike Bloomberg campaign office in Chicago was vandalized over the weekend, as you may have heard. The word oligarch was among the word spray painted. Not the first time that that word or similar language was used to vandalize a Bloomberg campaign office. And in a statement, the campaign chairman, Kevin Sheekey, said in
part, "While we do not know who is directly responsible, we do know Senator Bernie Sanders and his campaign have repeatedly invoked this language. Senator Sanders' refusal to denounce these illegal acts is a sign of his inability to lead and his willingness to condone and promote Trump like rhetoric has no place in our politics.
Do you think Senator Sanders needs to denounce these acts of vandalism?
KHANNA: Let me just say, I'm the co chair of the Senator Sanders campaign. I unequivocally denounced these acts of vandalism. I don't condone anyone name calling any of the other opponents.
[19:10:01]
We are not about that. We are about our positive vision, which is a grassroots campaign that is fueled by individual donors and we are willing and eager to build a broad coalition. So we welcome people who were supporting other candidates to look at our platform and I believe when they look at our platform they're going to see that they agree with a lot of it.
BURNETT: Congressman Khanna, of course, some of this language, though, it does come from the top. I understand you denounce them. And here's, though, Bernie Sanders talking about Bloomberg in just the past couple of days.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: Today, we say to Mayor Bloomberg we are a democracy not an oligarchy. You're not going to buy this election.
Anybody here worth $60 billion, you can run for president and you could buy the airwaves. My friends, that is called oligarchy not democracy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Do you think he needs to change his rhetoric or not?
KHANNA: I think he's just pointing out the facts that Michael Bloomberg is spending $300 million to $400 million, an order of magnitude that is, at least, 10 times more than the entire field. And he believes as the Senator Warren as the many of the candidates that that's not healthy for our democracy.
I think that's a fair point to make in a Democratic debate. I mean, here you have Michael Bloomberg calling Bernie Sanders a communist which is patently false.
BURNETT: All right. I appreciate your time, Congressman Khanna. Good to talk to you again.
And tonight on CNN, don't miss --
KHANNA: Thank you, Erin. Thanks for having me.
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