breaking tonight the fate of the house
approved two thousand
dollars individual relief payments
remains unresolved in the senate
let's bring in one of the first
lawmakers to back the bigger checks the
president
is also pushing for that as well vermont
senator bernie sanders
senator welcome back to special report
thank you very much and happy new year
to you
happy new year to you sir um you know
you've called president trump
a racist a sexist a xenophobe a
religious bigot a demagogue
a liar but now you say he's a visionary
when it comes to 2000 i didn't say
visionary no i didn't brett i think
president trump is the most dangerous
president in the history of our country
but he happens to be right
on this issue i think he is correct in
saying that we are living in a terrible
terrible economic
moment for tens of millions of working
class families
we fought very hard to get the dollar
direct payment
trump is right and saying that's not
enough we need to go to two thousand
dollars i didn't say he was a visionary
he's right on this issue
you know uh obviously speaker pelosi uh
senator chuck schumer the treasury
secretary
debated this with republican leadership
for a long time they cut a deal
for the 600 stimulus check did they just
waste their time and cut a lousy deal
well look when you look at a deal you
have to look at it
within the context of the problems that
we face and brett
as i think most americans know we are
living in a terrible
unprecedented moment when millions of
folks have lost their jobs and their
income tens of millions of people are
facing eviction
we are looking at a record level of
hunger in america
in the midst of this terrible pandemic
you've got 90 million people who are
uninsured
or underinsured and can't afford to go
to a doctor
you have people accumulating more and
more debt you have shoplifting
with families people trying to get
enough food to feed their kids
so in this particular moment i think we
need bold action and i think providing a
two thousand dollar check
to every working class adult is the
right thing to do
and there's a lot of people uh senator
that both republicans and democrats who
feel the way
you do that this is an extenuating
circumstance but on the flip side there
are
some who feel like 600 dollars is going
to get the job done
right now and they feel like 463 billion
dollars
added to the debt at this moment is not
the right thing
after this this funding bill what do you
say to them
well i look i fought and helped lead the
fight
for direct payments and i wanted more
we got 600 and that will help a lot of
people but brett
i was on the floor of the senate today
reading stories that came to my office
from all over this country
and when we're talking about moms trying
to feed their kids
we're talking about people worried about
being thrown out on the street because
they are faced with with eviction
uh we got a really serious problem 600
bucks
as president trump has said is just not
enough not going to do it
now in terms of the debt that that is a
serious issue
and you're right we're talking about a
whole lot of money uh but i always find
it amusing
that this sometimes the very same people
who voted for a trillion and a half
dollar tax break
for the one percent in large
corporations uh they didn't have a worry
about the deficit
uh at that point when it comes to
hundreds of billions of dollars in
corporate welfare these large profitable
corporations they don't worry about the
deficit
we just voted working on right now the
largest military budget in the history
of this country 740 billion dollars
the pentagon can't even do an
independent audit there's enormous
amount of waste
and duplication in that budget but no
one worries about that when it comes to
working families
to the mom and dad who are struggling to
put food on the table for their kids
oh my god we're worried about the
deficit so deficit is an issue yeah i
agree
but i think this at this moment we've
got to do the right thing for working
families
um senator to your credit you said the
exact same thing to me in april
uh when we talked at that town hall and
you said that you were concerned about
it but that you thought there was
hypocrisy here
i should just point out that was 22
trillion dollars in debt it's now 27.
let me uh play senate majority leader
mitch mcconnell
uh talking about you just mentioned
defense the ndaa
our colleague from vermont is again
putting political stunts before the
needs of our men and women
in uniform the senate will not let our
national security be shoved off course
certainly not by senators who have spent
years
literally years trying to gut america's
capabilities while our adversaries
continue ramping up
so are you and your democratic senator's
uh colleagues
dug in on forcing a delay on this uh
override take place so what mcconnell
said is just not accurate of course it's
going to take place
but why delay it because it is the only
tool that i have brett
in order to force a vote the real issue
and when i was down on the floor of the
senate today demanding is
what is mcconnell's problem in the house
44 republicans voted
to provide two thousand dollar checks to
working class families
in the senate as you know a number of
republicans i don't know
five or six have said they want to vote
for this all that i am asking of mitch
mcconnell
give us a vote he wants to vote against
it that's fine what is the problem
giving us a vote and if he wants to
announce that vote now he can have his
vote on the on the
defense override in five minutes but
it's the only tool
okay so you're gonna do it relent and
let it come out on saturday this vote
right now that's the only tool that all
that i want
all that i want is i and i think the
american people don't understand
what is the problem with having a vote
if people want to vote it against it
vote against it if you want to vote for
it vote for it okay let's have a vote
so what what are the problems you have
with the other elements that mitch
mcconnell is now wrapping into this
two thousand dollar check which is the
section 230
prohibitions and also looking into uh
election fraud and concerns about
election fraud
not even necessarily for this election
but for elections to come
i don't why is that no i don't have a
problem for example
there are whole the way we do elections
needs a whole lot of improvement uh
there are parts of this country where
people are waiting online for five or
six
hours in order to vote there's a lot of
voter suppression voter intimidation
uh i worry about the possibility well i
mean just a whole lot of things that are
out there sure let's look at it
but don't attach it to the issue of the
moment
which is people are desperate they need
help he wants to bring that up
let's do it you want to talk about
section 230
find we can do it but why do you want to
attach it
to a bill which is so important to
working families i get what you're
saying senator i really do i get what
you're saying but
couldn't this be put back in uh house
speaker pelosi's lap
and senator schumer's lap and say why
did you relent
to 600 why didn't you listen to bernie
sanders and say two thousand dollars
i mean they agreed to this deal it went
through
it got compromised they passed it and
broke chambers
and now you're going back and the
president agrees with you
well that's the point i mean i think
what you know my view has
always been as as you well know that the
600 was not adequate i wanted more
you make a fair point but the point also
is that you have a president right now
who is telling
republicans in a very strong way i might
say
in the senate do the right thing do it i
think asap was
his term do it as soon as possible and
if the president is saying that and you
got
president-elect biden saying that uh you
got the house
having voted on it let's do it let's do
it
okay let me ask you two other things did
either of the democratic candidates down
in georgia ask you to campaign
for them in the final days ahead of this
runoff did they ask me to go to georgia
the campaign no they did not
um does that tell you anything about
them or where that race is no
i think that race is very very important
and i would say to our friends
in georgia uh that it is terribly
important that we elect
uh warnock and assaf uh so that in fact
if we're unable to move aggressively
right now on those
two thousand dollar checks we will do it
i believe i can't speak for joe biden
but i think it will be at the very top
of the agenda for a biden administration
what does it tell you that the biden
transition team hasn't and the
president-elect hasn't picked someone
for the job you've expected
expressed interest in uh the labor
secretary
well look uh what i have so i think the
picks
many of the picks uh that the
president-elect has made are really
excellent and i think
especially in the area of covert 19
and healthcare you're going to see a
radical change and god knows we need
that
i share the president-elect's concern
that the vaccines are not getting out as
quickly
as they should what i have said many
times
brett is that i think the progressive
movement in this country
is you know 40 45 percent
of the democratic coalition and i think
it is appropriate
that uh the progressive movement have
representation uh in the biden cabinet
that
was my point that is my point that's
what i believe
do you think it's progressive enough as
it stands today it is
it's pretty good it's pretty good but
not as strong as as i would
like it to be
senator sanders we always appreciate you
coming on thanks for the time thank you
brett
happy new year everybody