-Our first guest tonight
is a United States Senator from Vermont.
Please welcome back to the show,
our friend Senator Bernie Sanders.
Hello, Senator!
-How are you, Seth? -Good.
You know, we last spoke right before the election,
and now here we are in the first full day of the Biden era.
How are you feeling?
-I am feeling great. I -- I was almost in te--
I was at the inauguration yesterday,
and I was in tears seeing the new President
getting sworn in and the old president leaving Washington.
-It will not surprise you to know that I was aware
you were at the inauguration.
[ Both laugh ]
-I heard about that. -Yeah.
I would say, you know, outside of Amanda,
the inaugural poet who was incredible,
you were sort of one of the stars of the inauguration.
Were you aware that this photo was immediately --
sort of became the meme of the day?
-Not at all. I was just sitting there,
trying to keep warm,
trying to pay attention to what was going on.
-I appreciate that you're not a politician who uses memes,
but you became one. I mean, do you --
Does your staff show them to you?
Here you are with the "Sex and the City" girls.
-[ Laughs ] Yeah, I've seen them.
I've seen them. [ Laughter ]
-The other question -- -What was really nice, Seth,
is the woman who made the mittens
lives in Essex Junction, Vermont.
She is a schoolteacher. And a very, very nice person.
And she has been somewhat overwhelmed
by the kind of attention that is being shown to her mittens.
-You know, she struck me as the kind of supporter
who would make Bernie Sanders mittens
because I read her saying that a lot of people have reached out
asking for the mittens and she basically said,
"Look, I work. I'm a mother.
I don't have time to make you mittens."
And I thought that is very in line
with what I expect of you, as well -- all business.
And I promise -- I promise to get
to a substantive discussion here.
I don't want to waste all the time talking about memes.
But the other question, of course, is,
people were asking what you were carrying.
What was your manila envelope?
-I'd love to tell you, Seth. It's top-secret.
[ Laughter ] -You know what?
I appreciate it. I appreciate your honesty.
You know, I think one of the things
we've talked about in the past is that you obviously
are more progressive than the President,
but you're a longtime friend of his.
Are you encouraged thus far by how you're collaborating,
how you're working together?
-I think the President is off to a very good start.
And what I liked about his inaugural remarks
and the general tone of his administration
is he recognizes that this country faces
a set of unprecedented crises, from the pandemic
to the economy, to the very threats against democracy,
to climate change, to income and wealth inequality.
I think he understands that.
And I think if we can give him the support that he needs
in Congress, he can, in fact,
be an extremely progressive president
addressing the crises facing working families.
-You've talked in the past about reaching out to Trump voters
who felt they were left behind by this economy.
What we saw on January 6th, I think it's becoming
more and more clear those were not people
that were driven by economic anxiety who stormed the Capitol.
Is there a way to, as a Democratic Party,
reach out to those people, or do you have to just accept
there is never going to be middle ground with people
who make choices like that?
-I think the latter point is correct.
I mean, those are fanatical people
who do not believe in democracy,
who are in many, many cases white supremacists.
I'm not quite sure how you can reach out to them.
But I think that there are tens of millions of other people
who voted for Trump who are hurting economically,
who are worried about the future for their kids,
who are worried about the opioid epidemic
that is hitting their communities,
who are worried that they do not have
the kind of decent-paying jobs they need,
the healthcare they need,
the educational opportunities their family needs.
And I think we can reach out to those people.
You know, what Trump tried to do,
spent four years trying to divide us up
based on the color of our skin, where we were born,
our sexual orientation, our religion.
And our job is to try to do the best we can
in bringing people together
around an agenda that works for all.
Whether you are a conservative living in rural America
or a progressive in New York City,
you need decent healthcare.
That's what you need. You need a decent-paying job.
So I want to focus on those issues
that bring people together
and that improves the quality of life for Americans.
-President Biden made, I think, a great effort yesterday
to send a message of unity, and he is someone who talked
in the lead-up to the election about how he is
the kind of politician who has friends
on the other side of the aisle.
He wants to work with Republicans.
Yet we're already seeing even today that Mitch McConnell
is taking steps to limit
what the Democrats in the Senate can do.
Do you think there is some sort of bipartisan work
that can be done in the Senate,
or are you expecting a sort of McConnell-inspired gridlock?
-Look, I think we should do our best
to reach out to Republicans
who represent communities that are suffering terribly,
in terms of unemployment, lack of healthcare,
and other very serious problems.
But I don't think our reaching out should go on indefinitely.
This country today is hurting,
and people are hurting really, really badly.
We're looking at people,
people who cannot feed their kids, literally,
who are worried about being evicted,
can't afford to go to the doctor even when they are sick.
We have got to move and move quickly.
So I think we should reach out to Republicans.
If they choose not to come on board,
which I suspect will probably be the case,
we have the majority, we should use that majority
in a very aggressive way.
Now, I'm gonna be chairman of the Budget Committee,
which handles what we call reconciliation,
and that is a Senate process by which you can pass
not all kinds of legislation
but a whole lot of very important legislation
with a majority vote, not 60 votes.
And it is my view we should make sure that we address
the needs of the American people in that reconciliation bill,
and if we pass it with 51 votes, we'll pass it with 51 votes.
-One of the questions that is being asked of a lot of people
in the Senate right now, especially with all
that President Biden wants to accomplish quickly
due to the fact that we are facing
the multitude of problems you mentioned, is do we also --
or, should I say, will impeachment be a distraction?
Do you think, moving forward, that, one,
the Senate can balance both getting things done
and an impeachment, and, two, is the impeachment,
in your mind, an important thing to move forward with?
-Well, I think both. I mean, I think it will be
an impediment to some degree, but I think it's something
that has to be done. And I'll tell you why, Seth.
History must record that this Congress made it clear
that no President can incite his followers into insurrection,
that that is an outrageous act.
That is an attack on the Democratic foundations
on which this country is built, and he must be impeached.
Having said that, there are so many problems
facing this country that I want to see
this impeachment process move forward.
I want to see him convicted as quickly as possible.
We have got to show the American people
that we can walk and chew bubble gum at the same time.
We don't have the time to spend weeks and months on impeachment.
People are hungry in America today.
They're facing eviction. They have no income.
They're worried about the future.
We've got climate change out there.
We got 90 million people uninsured or underinsured.
We have got to move aggressively to protect the American people,
and we can go forward simultaneously
on all of these issues
if we're prepared to roll up our sleeves and get to work.
-Well, I really appreciate you being here.
I do want to close with my -- I think this is my favorite one
because I just don't think you would listen
to Forrest Gump that long.
I think you would get up and leave that bench.
[ Both laugh ] Hey, thank you, so much.
We'll see you soon. I really appreciate it.