-Hey, Senator Sanders. You look great.
Really good to see you again.
Thank you so much for being here.
-Thanks for having me, Jimmy.
-There's a lot to talk about.
First, I'd love to get your thoughts on last night's debate.
-Well, what I think is that
it was certainly not as crazy a debate as the first debate.
-Yeah. -But I continue to be astounded
by the degree to which Donald Trump lies --
just lies and lies and lies --
not only his lies,
his downplaying of this terrible pandemic from Day One
is just astounding to me.
And I hope the American people understand that
because of his irresponsibility,
because of his rejection of science,
his attacks on Dr. Fauci,
that tens of thousands of people have died unnecessarily.
-One of the things I admired about you
is that you endorsed Vice President Biden,
although you don't agree with him on every issue.
I just think that sends a --
what -- what message are you sending there?
-Well, the message is that -- let me be very frank --
and not everybody will agree with me,
but I think that Donald Trump is the most dangerous president
in the modern history of this country,
and it's not just because he lies all the time.
It's not just because he doesn't believe in science.
It's not just because
he's a racist or a sexist or a homophobe or a xenophobe,
it is because he is quite intentionally
trying to undermine American democracy,
trying to suppress the vote.
We are a democratic society.
People have fought and died to defend our democracy,
and we cannot re-elect the president
who does not believe in the rule of law,
our Constitution, or, in fact, our democracy.
I have known Joe for many, many years.
He is a very decent guy. As you have indicated,
he and I have differences of opinions on a number of issues.
But I can vouch for his decency
and his belief in the rule of law and democracy.
-When was the first time -- do you remember
meeting Joe Biden, Vice President?
-Oh, I do. You know, he was a senator, and I was a senator.
He was around for a very long time.
I was new.
And the thing I think
that people will learn bout Joe Biden --
he is a very, very down-to-earth guy.
My wife remembers the first time that she met him,
and she never, you know, talked to him at all.
He sat down, and he chatted with her about Ireland --
their families both come from Ireland.
-Yeah. -Very -- Very human guy.
A very empathetic guy.
-Although the election is November 3rd,
and it's been said that we won't know the results
until days later,
when do you think we'll know the results?
-Jimmy, you raise an important point,
and I hope the American people understand it,
because this is something I worry about.
My view is every vote must be counted.
For reasons which I don't have the time to get into tonight,
you're going to have a situation, I suspect,
in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin,
other states,
where they are going to be receiving
huge amounts of mail-in ballots.
And unlike states like Florida or Vermont,
they're not able, for bad reasons,
to begin processing those ballots until --
I don't know -- Election Day or maybe when the polls close.
That means you're going to have states
dealing with perhaps millions of mail-in ballots.
Here is my worry.
What polls show,
and what studies have shown is that, for whatever reason,
Democrats are more likely to use mail-in ballots.
Republicans are more likely to walk into polling booths
on Election Day.
It is likely that the first votes that will be counted
will be those people who came in on Election Day,
which will be Republican.
And here is the fear --
and I hope everybody hears it --
it could well be -- you know,
I don't know what's going to happen -- nobody does.
But it could well be that, at 10:00 on election night,
Trump is winning in Michigan, he's winning in Pennsylvania,
he's winning in Wisconsin,
and he gets on the television and he says,
"Thank you, Americans, for re-electing me.
It's all over. Have a good day."
But then, the next day and the day following,
all of those mail-in ballots start getting counted,
and it turns out that Biden has won those states.
At which point Trump says,
"See? I told whole thing was fraudulent.
I told you those mail-in ballots were crooked.
And I got -- you know, we're not going to leave office."
So that is a worry that I and a lot of people have.
So, the results -- you know, we don't know what's happened.
-Sure. -Maybe the results will be known
on election night.
But people should be aware of that possibility.
-I know that you have been working
with people running in Texas.
Why is Texas important now?
I feel like a lot of people are highlighting Texas.
-I think that Texas may be -- in many ways,
Texas is the future of progressive politics in America.
Historically, because there has been a lot of voter suppression,
Texas is one of the states
where their Republican state government has,
for a long time,
tried to make it as difficult as possible for people to vote.
But you have folks over there -- Beto O'Rourke and others
are doing a great job registering people,
getting people to vote.
The bottom line is that if Texas becomes a blue state
and a progressive state, as I think it can --
it has a lot of young people.
It has a lot of Latinos, a lot of African-Americans.
It can become a progressive state.
And if that happens,
and if those 38 electoral votes go Democratic,
then we've changed the face of American politics.
-Wow. I think that would be --
that would be -- I mean, are people predicting that?
Or this is just your people?
-There's no question the trend is with us.
What we don't know is how it plays out this election.
And to those people out there who say,
"Oh, Texas is a conservative state" --
trust me, it is not.
You have some great, great progressive candidates
who are running for office who stand a great chance to win,
and the future is with progressive politics in Texas.
-It will be interesting to watch what happens in Texas.
Bernie Sanders, thank you so much for coming back to my show.
And give my best to the grandkids.
I know we always talk about them every time you're on.
And, God, you always smile every time I bring them up.
But I appreciate you coming back on the show.
It means a lot to me, so thank you.
Senator Bernie Sanders, everyone.