MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: Hey, Ed, you haven"t left me anything to say. You said it all. I"m going home. Bye.

SCHULTZ: OK. Hey, it"s Friday. Take the night off, Bernie.

What is it? OK, you gave the president some tough love in a caucus meeting. You got together and said, look, we"ve to get tough on this. Tell us what went down.

SANDERS: I think that there is a growing understanding that the Democratic leadership cannot continue to be on the defensive. Barack Obama is in the White House. He"s a Democrat. The Democrats have the majority in the Senate, and we have got to stand tough on issues that the vast majority of the American people support.

Listen, we"ve got a $13.7 trillion national debt, largely caused by Republicans--two wars, tax breaks to billionaires, the Medicare Part D program, the Wall Street bailout--and now these guys, who have the nerve to say that they are concerned about the national debt, worried about our kids and our grandchildren, you know what they want to do? Another $700 billion in tax breaks--

SCHULTZ: So, Senator--

SANDERS: -- for the top two percent.

SCHULTZ: -- why doesn"t President Obama--why doesn"t he get that? I mean, it seems to me like, here he is just saying, well, we want to get together and see what the Republicans want to do on November 30th.

Doesn"t he know what they want to do?

SANDERS: If he doesn"t--no, of course he knows what they want to do. And I can"t answer your question, Ed. All that I can tell you is that I"m cautiously optimistic --

SCHULTZ: OK.

SANDERS: -- that this time, the Democrats are going to stay on top.

Second point that has to be made, it"s not only driving up the deficit and the national debt, it is also doing it at a time when we have more and more income inequality in America. The top one percent has earned 80 percent of all new income in the last 25 years. The middle class is collapsing. These guys on top got it all.

A deal? You give them more is a moral outrage.

SCHULTZ: Yes. Senator, I want to know, was it accurately reported by the media that it was a contentious caucus meeting and senators are getting frustrated with President Obama?

SANDERS: What was accurately reported is that for the first time in a long while, there was a good--and I mean this sincerely--frank discussion. We really got into some issues. There are disagreements. I think it is fair to say--

SCHULTZ: OK.

SANDERS: -- that a strong majority in the Democratic Caucus now think we"ve got to put a line in the sand, hang tough, protect the middle class.

SCHULTZ: Senator Sanders, good to you have with us tonight. I appreciate it.

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