-Welcome back, Senator. -Good to be with you.
-I'm so happy you're here. Let's get right to it.
There was some big news over the weekend
that everyone is talking about.
We were following the race.
Ariana Grande is endorsing you.
-[ Laughs ]
-So this is a big deal. [ Cheers and applause ]
Why is a 78-year-old politician
connecting with all these younger voters?
-That is a good question.
I'm still trying to figure it out.
Ariana is not only a great entertainer, which she is.
-Yeah.
-We were at a concert with her in Atlanta.
Just a zillion people there. Gave a great show.
But she's doing more than that.
She is a very socially conscious,
politically conscious person,
and she's doing exactly what has to be done.
She is reaching out to young people,
getting them involved in the political process.
And I think at her concerts alone,
she has registered 20,000 people to vote.
-That's amazing.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-And that's a big deal. -That is a big deal, yeah.
I know you're from Brooklyn. I am from Brooklyn, as well.
But I have a photo of you and your mom and your brother.
And there's little Bernie right there.
[ Audience awws ]
[ Laughs ]
What memories do you have from Brooklyn
that kind of made you who you are?
Because we're from New York City. Very local show.
-Well, I grew up in a rent-controlled apartment
in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn.
Our family did not have a whole lot of money.
And, you know, I think my politics
came from the fact that our family struggled economically,
you know, kind of every single day,
so I got a sense of what that struggle was about.
-Like, give me an example.
You would want to buy something but you couldn't afford it?
-The memories, you know -- When you're a little kid,
you feel these things very strongly.
My parents would argue about money.
My mother, for example, who died very young,
her dream was to own her own home
and move out of the apartment.
And that was a dream that she never fulfilled.
So, you know, the conflicts that take place between your parents,
you know, when you don't have enough money
is something that impacts kids pretty, pretty harshly.
That's what's going on all over the country today.
-Yeah, you were like that.
So, when holidays would come, would you have a big holiday --
Would you have a big Thanksgiving? Would you have --
-Yeah, I mean, it's not like we were poor,
but it's just that we were pretty solidly
lower middle-class, and money was always an issue.
My other memory of growing up in Brooklyn
is just being out on the streets all the time
playing punch ball and football and basketball.
-What is punch ball?
-Punch ball is, you throw the ball up and you hit it.
It was a Spaldeen, remember?
Remember Spaldeen? -I know Spaldeen.
-Yeah, we lived with the Spaldeens.
-You play stoop ball? -We played stoop ball, too.
We played every game that you can think of.
We spent, you know, our entire lives
out on the school yard or out on the streets,
and we'd just choose up games, and everybody knew
how good everybody else was, and it was pretty good.
-My dad has a bunch of stories of growing up in Brooklyn,
and he was -- he used to sing doo-wop on the corners.
-That, I did not do.
-Just saying, we have a microphone.
-For reasons that you would soon find out.
But, no, we didn't. We played ball.
-My dad, he was in a doo-wop group,
and he was also in a gang at the same time.
And so he would sing with these guys
and then fight them later that night.
It was so Brooklyn. -That's growing up Brooklyn.
-That's growing up Brooklyn, yeah.
Can we talk about the impeachment?
Because now we've made it through the House.
The Trump impeachment.
If it goes to the next level, it goes through the Senate,
which means you have to get involved.
-Yep. -Which means that you're gonna
miss -- you're going to have to get off the campaign trail
a little bit. -Yep.
-How are you going to do that?
-Well, look, I have a Constitutional responsibility.
I swore an oath of office, and I'll do my job.
I think this is a sad moment in American history
because we have a president who is not only a pathological liar,
not only a racist and so forth,
but I think is running the most corrupt administration
in the modern history of this country,
and the House will do its duty,
and I suspect they will impeach him, as you indicate.
The trial is going to come to the Senate.
And I'll do my duty. I'll listen to the evidence.
But as of now, I mean, I think you have a president
who has committed a number of impeachable offenses.
-After what you've seen, the evidence,
do you have a yes or no?
-I'm going to listen.
My job is in a sense a juror in the Senate
to listen to the evidence.
But if you ask me today, I think he has probably
obstructed justice, in terms of the Mueller investigation.
I think he is probably guilty of violating the emoluments clause,
which prevents a president from enriching himself
through the use of his own office.
I think he has used the office
to enrich himself and his family.
And lastly, of course, I think the evidence
seems to be pretty clear that he has used
hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid to the Ukraine
as leverage to get political dirt on an opponent,
which is also an impeachable offense.