Bernie Sanders last time around in the primary won 46% of
the pledged delegates. People said that was impossible. He got more than a
million individual donations, an average of $27. Famously. I mean, the
accomplishments. He completely changed the dialogue around the Democratic Party
and what's possible in America. The guy who did it all, Bernie Sanders, has
announced this morning is running for president. And Bernie, welcome back to the program.
[Sen. Sanders] Hey great to be with you Thom. [Thom] It is so great to have you here, and it's so
great to hear that you are officially running for president. Tell us about it.
There's there are so many issues that you literally have been the
guy who was at the lead of, you know. Whether it's Medicare for all, or the
$15 minimum wage, or breaking up the big banks, or free tuition, or lowering drug prices.
All the work that you've done over the years for veterans. Where do you start?
[Sen. Sanders] Well I think we start where we left off and I think
you raised the right point. As a result of millions of people standing up and
fighting back, we have changed the definition of what is possible in the
United States of America. And as a result I think of the 2016 campaign people are
saying, you know what, every other major country on Earth has healthcare as a
right not a privilege, why can't we? Countries around the world provide free
tuition at their public colleges and universities why can't we?
Countries around the world pay their workers a decent wage. Why can't we? And also what
is even more significant now, is the understanding that we have got to be
extremely aggressive in dealing with the global crisis of climate change.
And that's an issue we're going to be talking a whole lot about, because from a
existential perspective, if we do not transform our energy system away from
fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy and by the way, when
you do that, you can create millions of good-paying jobs. If we do not do that,
we're gonna be leaving our kids and our grandchildren, and I have seven grandchildren,
a planet that is increasingly unhealthy and uninhabitable.
So Thom, those,. you know, certainly are some of the issues out there. Criminal justice,
immigration reform, but the other obvious issue, is the need to deal with the most
dangerous president in certainly the modern history of this country. And it
gives me no pleasure to tell the listeners what they already know.
That Trump is a pathological liar. It doesn't matter what he says today, he will say
something different tomorrow.
He is a racist. He is a sexist. He is a xenophobe.
He is a religious bigot. And, you know, it honestly gives me no pleasure to talk
about a President of the United States in those words. But that is that is the
simple truth. And Trump must be defeated. And I believe, after a lot of thought,
that I am the strongest candidate to defeat Trump. I think we can win, in
states that Hillary Clinton lost. States like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, other
states. And the third point that I would make Thom, about maybe what makes
our campaign a little bit unique. Is it is one thing to talk about health care
for all, another thing talk about raising the
minimum wage, or the need to transform our energy system. But what I believe
from the bottom of my heart and you have heard me talk about this for many years
on this show, is that the powers that be, the special interests, in the fossil fuel
industry. On Wall Street. The military industrial complex. The pharmaceutical
industry. All of these special interests are so powerful, that the only way they
can be defeated is through an unprecedented grassroots movement of
millions of people who are standing up and fighting back. So it's not just ideas.
Ideas are important, but we need to mobilize people. Today, what we are
asking of people. We're asking people to contribute money, that's great.
But more importantly, we are asking one million people in the next week or so, to
sign up and work on campaign. Put together an unprecedented,
historic grassroots campaign, which not only will win the Democratic nomination,
not only wins the general election, but also begins the process of transforming
American society so that we have a government that works for all of us and
not just a few. [THOM] This is the second part is the really
big challenge. I mean Franklin Roosevelt became president and then in 1936 when
he was running for re-election he was coming right out and saying, never before
have the forces of greed hated such a candidate as much as they hate me and I
welcome their hatred. That pulling together of a coalition pulling together
the people of the country, is really going to be the biggest job of of the
next president assuming that, you know, and of Congress and everything else.
How do we most effectively do this? [Sen. Sanders] Well here's what we do.
What Trump does, is what demagogues historically have done. I don't want to
give him too much credit, he did not develop the strategies what demagogues
have done for a long time. You represent the wealthy and the
powerful, and you do that by dividing people up often picking on minorities.
That's kind of history in this stuff. And our job is do exactly the opposite.
It's to bring blacks and whites and Latinos, Native Americans, Asian
Americans, women, men, gay ,straight native-born immigrants. We bring our
people together and we demand a government which thoughts working for
all of us or not just wealthy campaign contributors. So we have a fight in front
of us, to transform our economic and political life. To create a democracy of
one-person, one-vote. Not the Koch brothers and other billionaires buying
elections. Not voter suppression. Not excessive gerrymandering. To create an
economy, which does not allow three people, and this is really unbelievable,
and very few people talk about it we got today Thom, you got three people owning
more wealth than the bottom half of America. You got the top 1% owning more
wealth than the bottom 90%. You got 46% of all new income going to the top 1%.
And you got a billionaire classes "oh, that's not enough,
I need massive tax breaks let's cut Social Security Medicare and Medicaid".
It is really out of control. So we need to mobilize the American people
around an agenda which people already support. And, you know, I hope that we can
even reach out to some of Trumps supporters, who now understand that he
lied to them, as he often does. He told them that he would protect working
families and then he proceeds to try to throw 32 million people off of
the health insurance they have. That's not protected working families. He comes
up with a budget after, campaigning on saying, I'm not gonna cut Social Security
Medicare and Medicaid. Here's a budget last year. A trillion dollars cut in Medicade.
500 billion in Medicare. 72 billion in Social Security.
He lied. So, we got a lot of work in front of us. But to answer
your question. Our challenge is to bring people together around a progressive
agenda, an agenda that in many ways is supported by the vast majority of the
American people. Defeat Trump and then roll up our sleeves and take on the big
money interests, who exert so much influence over our economic and
political life. [THOM] Amen. And last question.
I'm assuming that BernieSanders.com is your campaign website. So if
people go to the website and they say, "Yes I'd like to be one of those million people".
What is the range of kinds of help that people can offer?
[Sen Sanders] That's a great question and I hope everybody
understands us. Look we know that there are some people, have three kids
and they're working full-time. They don't have a whole lot of time. We will take
whatever you can give. If it's an hour a week, two hours a week, two hours a month,
that's great. If you have more time that's great. So yes, we would love, you
know, small campaign, donations. But more important at this stage is
to do what has never been done. Can you imagine Thom, if in a couple of weeks, we
can announce, that we have a million people who are prepared to work hard on
this campaign? Wow, if we can do that I think there's no stopping us.
[Thom] Amen. Well said. Well Senator Sanders, I wish you the very best.
I am so pleased that you are in this race. BernieSanders.com
is the website. [Sen. Sanders] Thom, thank you very much for all the
great work that you do. in terms of being one of the great
progressive voices on on radio so thank you keep up the great work.
[Thom] Well, thank you Bernie and thank you so much for being a part of this show
for so many years and for being on our show today. We'll talk again soon I hope.
[Sen. Sanders] We will.