-Senator Sanders, thank you so much again for being here.
I appreciate it. I think I probably can kind of
guess your answer, but how do you think
the administration's been dealing with the protests?
-Um...
I think it is, you know, beyond belief.
And we have, as you know,
a former Secretary of Defense --
Secretary of Defense --
speaking out and saying, you know, this is --
the military must not be used...
[ Chuckles ] ...against civilian protesters.
Former Secretary of Defense, uh, saying that.
Uh, and, um, you have a president
who I think is consumed by his own political goals,
by his own narcissism,
who will do anything he can
to further those personal goals
at the expense of the American people.
So not only is he not doing the right thing,
not only has he not shown any empathy for this crisis
and for the pain of the African-American community,
but he has certainly exacerbating it,
trying to divide us up in a way
that I think, you know, we have never seen.
And it was interesting.
You have a conservative president like George W. Bush
making a statement the other day making that point.
All right? He's a conservative Republican.
What he is saying is
we got to fight racism and bring people together.
This is from a conservative former president,
not Donald Trump.
-If there's anything --
Say, hypothetically, the President called you up
and asked you for advice on something to say,
what would you say to him?
-Well, I don't talk to the president
because I think anything I said
would be used as a photo opportunity
or some kind of manipulative statement.
But it is clear that, as we head into this election,
the American people have got to come together.
And while we will have our differences of opinion --
God knows I don't agree with Joe Biden on every issue,
that is for sure --
I think for the future of this country,
for the future of our kids and our grandchildren,
for our planet, in terms of climate change,
Donald Trump has got to be defeated.
I think there's nothing that I can say to Trump
that will have much impact on him.
-Now, if you don't mind, can we talk about November?
And Joe Biden's campaign.
And I know you've chosen -- You're supporting Joe Biden.
How closely are you working with Joe Biden?
-We're close.
Our campaigns are working together in a number of ways.
And as I said earlier, Jimmy,
I understand not everybody agrees with anybody.
Not everybody agrees with me or Joe Biden or anybody else.
But I would hope that the American people
come together to understand
that we have got to defeat, in November, Donald Trump,
who, in my view, is the most dangerous president
perhaps in the entire history of our country,
and I'm gonna do everything I can to make that happen.
Where Biden's campaign and our campaign is working together
is through a number of task forces
on some of the major issues facing the country --
the economy, health care, criminal-justice reform,
immigration, education, climate change.
And we brought great people --
he has his people, we have our people --
to figure out how we can hammer out policies
that both sides can live with.
-Yeah.
-And these task forces are meeting right now.
We'll see what the results will be.
But certainly what my goal is,
is to move this country to a Biden presidency
in a way that more strongly represents
the needs of working people who are really, really hurting.
Not just now in the middle of the pandemic,
but for many years.
Got half our people living paycheck to paycheck.
40 million people living in poverty.
We can do better than that.
We need to rebuild not only our crumbling infrastructure.
We need 10 million units
of low-income and affordable housing.
Got a major housing crisis.
We create jobs doing that. We create jobs.
And I think Joe Biden understands this.
Transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel
to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.
In my view -- Biden and I have different views on this --
I happen to believe that health care is a human right.
All people should be entitled to it.
We got to take on the greed of the drug companies.
So there's a lot to be worked on,
but I hope at the end of the day,
we'll come up with an agenda
that speaks to the needs of working people,
rather than just the big-money interests
who have so much wealth and power today.
-Is there a silver lining in any of this?
-Yeah. I think there is.
And I hope -- and I will be very upset
if we don't take advantage of the moment.
But, Jimmy, we're going through
a terrible, terrible, terrible moment.
So much pain, so much suffering,
so much mental distress, so much death.
107,000 people dead already.
And I think the silver lining is that we have got to think
about how we got here in the first place.
Uh, do we have the health-care system that we need
in the wealthiest country on Earth?
And the answer is we don't.
Do we have an economy that works for working families?
Even before the pandemic. No, we don't.
Half of our people live paycheck to paycheck.
They got nothing in the bank.
And when those paychecks stop, you know what?
You become desperate.
You can't pay your rent. You can't buy food.
Is that really the best that we can do for an economy?
I don't think so.
You know, so we have got to think big about how we got here,
what kind of policies got us here,
and have the courage to take on very powerful special interests
and, in my view, move this country
in a very, very different way.
That, if you like, in my view,
is the silver lining of this moment.
Use this opportunity to move this country
in a very different direction than we have been in.
-I'll take it. Thank you so much, Senator Sanders.
And please give my best to your wife.
-Mutual. You take care. -Thank you so much.