CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Bernie Sanders

Interview

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COOPER: Kaitlan Collins, appreciate it. Thanks.

Joining us now, Vermont Senator, and newly minted Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Bernie Sanders.

Senator Sanders, thanks for being with us. Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a 9/11-type commission is going to be established to investigate all that happened during the insurrection of January 6, is that something you support? And what would you want them to focus on?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Well, I do. I think when you have for the first time in 200 years an attempt to overthrow the government of the United States, you want to know as much as you can about who was behind it and what happened then and the role of the President of the United States.

But I would also say this, Anderson, it is absolutely imperative that the U.S. Congress show the American people who are hurting right now in a way that they have not hurt in many, many years that we can walk and chew bubblegum at the same time.

So yes, we've got to deal with impeachment. Yes, we've got to deal with this commission. But mostly, in my view, we have got to address the pandemic. Make sure that all over this country, people get the vaccines that they desperately need. We've got to deal with the economic collapse.

The fact that many millions of people have lost their health insurance, people have lost their jobs and their income, people are worried about being evicted. People cannot feed their children. We have to address those problems.

We have to focus on climate change, on criminal justice and racial injustice, on immigration reform. We have enormous crises facing this country and we have got to go forward aggressively in standing up for the working families of this country.

[20:10:02]

COOPER: It doesn't seem at this point that the $15.00 an hour Federal minimum wage is going to be part of this particular stimulus plan. I know that's obviously very important to you, is that acceptable to you? And what are your thoughts on how --

SANDERS: I don't agree, Anderson.

COOPER: You don't agree, okay.

SANDERS: The $15.00 minimum wage was included in the House Bill. We are going to make our case and this is enormously complicated, I won't bore anybody with Senate rules here.

But we are going to make our case to the parliamentarian that we absolutely believe that raising the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour is consistent with the rules of the Senate and the reconciliation process.

And I believe, look, when you have half of the people in this country living paycheck to paycheck, when all over this country are having workers trying to survive a $9.00 or $10.00 an hour, or even less than that, the American people want, Republicans, Democrats, Independents want to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, 15 bucks an hour.

It is popular. It is what the people want. It is what justice demands.

So I'm going to fight as hard as I can, and I believe that we will succeed in including the minimum wage in the Reconciliation Bill.

COOPER: March 14th is when a lot of folks' unemployment insurance runs out. How confident are you that something will be passed to make sure that people don't fall off the cliff after the 14th?

SANDERS: That's a great question. That's a great question, Anderson, and you've got millions of people who will lose their unemployment benefits, we cannot allow that to happen. I am the chairman of the budget committee. This bill is going through the Budget Committee, and we're working with leadership, we are working with the House to make sure that we pass this bill as quickly as we possibly can.

And I want people to understand what is in this bill. It means if you are watching this program, the likelihood is if you're a working class person, you've already received $600.00 per person. We're going to provide another $1,400.00 per adult, per kid for people under 70 -- individuals under $75,000.00, couples under $150,000.00 because people are living in desperation, now they need that.

That's a family of four, another 5,600 bucks, that's life or death for millions of families. We're going to raise that minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour.

Anderson, we're going to do something that we have not talked about enough in this country, we're going to cut childhood poverty in half because we're going to significantly increase the child tax credit.

We are going to make sure that cities and states have the resources that they need so they're not going to be laying off teachers, or firefighters or police officers, or other municipal and state employees. This is a comprehensive bill, which is attempting to address the

unprecedented crises that working families throughout this country are facing and then let's be clear. The very, very rich are doing just fine. Billionaires are seeing tremendous growth in their wealth.

But working families today are living in more desperation than since the Great Depression, and Congress has got to move forward vigorously. Do what the President of the United States campaigned on and wants to do. That's what we've got to do, not only to help American people, but to restore faith that government, in fact, can respond to the needs of ordinary Americans.

COOPER: There has -- you know, obviously, there's been a lot of hope, as there always is in a change of administrations that things are going to become more bipartisan, that there's going to be more, you know, unification -- unity.

When you look at what happened over the impeachment, you know, and what you hear now from Republicans, you know, Senator Graham has once again found love for the former President and seems to be gushing about his power over the party.

Republicans are talking about impeaching Kamala Harris in 2022 if they took back power. How do you -- I mean, how do you make -- how is unity possible with this kind of rhetoric, and with the former President still being head of the party?

SANDERS: Anderson, in my view, and I'm not alone in believing this, the Republican Party is going to have to make a simple decision. The debate of today is not about healthcare. It's not about climate change, it is not about education. It is, in fact, whether the Republican Party believes in democracy, or whether they're going to continue to believe in the big lie.

You know, you may recall that during the impeachment trial, I asked Trump's attorneys, whether in fact they believe that Biden won the election, or whether they believe that Trump won a landslide victory. They refused to answer that question.

So either the Republican Party will be the party of the big lie, the party of conspiracy theories or the party of racism and the decisiveness. And by the way, the party of violence or else it will be as it has traditionally been a conservative party operating within the framework of democracy.

[20:15:08]

SANDERS: That is what Republicans are going to have to decide in terms of their future. And obviously, I would hope that the leadership and ordinary Republicans understand that people fought and died to protect American democracy. We don't believe in one authoritarian government, run by one person, Trump or anybody else, we don't. We believe in the rule of law.

That is a decision that Republicans are going to have to make, and I'm going to do everything that I can, not only fighting for working families, but fighting for democracy.

COOPER: Senator Bernie Sanders, I appreciate your time.

SANDERS: Thanks very much, Anderson.

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