MSNBC "All In With Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Bernie Sanders

Interview

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SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Well, the answer is, yes, they are in competition. There`s a limited amount of time. We have 50-50 tie in the Senate. I think of the House throw up by three or four votes, so we can`t make any mistakes. But what I do think, Chris, is at this moment, what is the right thing to do policy-wise makes very good politics. And that is to continue Biden`s effort to be bold. to go big.

So if we, in the next several months can create millions of good-paying jobs by finally rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, if finally, we deal with the existential threat of climate change, which is not only the right thing to do in terms of the future of the planet, it also can create millions of jobs. If we can do what has never been done, Chris, and that his take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, they have never lost, they could double the price of your medicine tomorrow, totally legal.

If we can take them on and go to the American people and say, you know what, we reduced your prescription drug costs by 50 percent -- and by the way, because we`ve negotiated prescription drug prices with Medicare which every other country in the world does, we have enough money to expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing aids, eyeglasses and lower medical eligibility age to 60.

You are right about the structural problems that we face. But right now, if we can do those policy initiatives, a lot of people in this country could be nodding their heads, say, you know what, that`s pretty good. Maybe I`m going to vote for the Democrats.

HAYES: You know, I think -- I mean, that seems to be a perfectly persuasive or at least defensible theory of the case, right? That if you do good stuff, if life gets better, particularly when you think about how dark -- I mean, how really awful, you know, particularly December, January of this past year where in so many ways, the sheer level of death and suffering and the insurrection, all that stuff. But there`s also just this question of like, you know, when you look at that chart we showed, midterms are tough for the party in power just is the case.

And, you know, you were down in Kentucky recently, right, I think over the weekend, you know, trying to sort of take the fight to McConnell. I guess - - I guess the approach has to be you do the best you can and hope that if you govern well, you`re rewarded politically, right?

SANDERS: Well, the answer is yes. But your point is absolutely true as well. Look, we are fighting -- let`s be clear. The debate now with the Republican Party, it`s not all the health care or education or climate. It`s whether or not we remain a democracy. All across this country, unprecedented, vicious and ugly, voter suppression efforts are taking place. And we`ve got to deal with that.\

H.R.1 which is a very significant piece of legislation which makes certain that we will not have voter suppression, deals with billionaires buying elections, deal with -- deals with excessive gerrymandering, we`ve got a pass that. We`ve got the past time. It has to do with the future of American democracy. But we`re going to be moving on a dozen different directions. We`re going to be moving hard.

HAYES: Well, that`s -- I guess the question is, you know, I think the -- what you just said is important to me because I tend to see this in that prism that we really -- we survived the real narrow -- narrowly. It will attempt on something that would have profoundly altered the degree to which America is a functioning democracy, which was a frontal assault on the peaceful transfer of power by the loser to retain it over the winner. And that assault continues.

And I wonder if do people -- do you and your colleagues feel the kind of hot breath of that on the back of your neck, that that is still there, it hasn`t been permanently defeated in anyway.

SANDERS: I think many of us do. But I cannot tell you all of us do. You know, the point that I try to make to my colleagues is number one, as you`ve pointed out from a historical perspective, you know, it is going to be a really tough fight for Democrats to retain control of the House and the Senate.

And if we lose in either body, then to a significant degree, Biden`s agenda is finished. But second of all, you have a former president who continues to spread the outrageous lie that he won the election, all right. We have never seen this before. And many of his followers and many of his supporters in Congress maintain that lie as well.

So, we`re going into a territory we have never been in before, not debating ideas and issues, but dealing with an incredible level of disinformation and lies. How you deal with that is tough stuff, to be honest with you. But it`s something we have got to figure out.

HAYES: Senator Bernie Sanders who is hard at work in that -- in that governing coalition with the slimmest of margins, but so far getting a lot done. Thanks for making some time for us.

SANDERS: Thank you.

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