🚨 Bernie Sanders issues BAD NEWS for Trump ahead of election

now we've got Senator Bernie Sanders

thanks so much for taking the time my

pleasure good to be with you you too uh

we've got the most consequential

election of our lifetimes coming up

after what was already the most

consequential election of our lifetimes

in the 2020 election but President

Biden's now contending with waning

enthusiasm from young people and

progressives um as the result of Gaza

and and Israel for example what do you

say to those people who right now feel

like they want to punish Biden at The

Ballot Box in November by either voting

against him or not it all well Brian

that is maybe the most important

question that we can discuss so let me

be clear I strongly strongly strongly

disagree uh with President Biden over

his administration's approach to what's

going on in Gaza uh in my view and I

think uh that view is shared by a strong

majority of the American people

especially young people uh often young

people of color uh the reality is that

while Israel has every right in the

world to respond militarily to the

terrorist attack by Hamas they do not

have the right to go to war against the

entire Palestinian people and that is

precisely what we are seeing right now I

think as we speak close to

35,000 Palestinians have been killed

over 77,000 have been wounded that is

more than 5% of the entire population

infrastructure destroyed destroyed

education destroyed Health Care System

destroyed and right now we're looking at

the possibility of hundreds of thousands

of children starving so I think the

president is dead wrong on that issue

and I did my best to make sure and will

continue to do my best to make sure that

Israel does not get US military aid to

continue that war having said that I

would hope that people in response to

your question take a deep breath and say

okay okay what are our options here we

disagree with Biden on

Gaza uh we're going to look at Donald

Trump well Donald Trump is a

pathological liar uh Donald Trump is a

guy who does not believe that women have

a right to control their own bodies uh

he is somebody who thinks that climate

change is a hoax somebody who has said

incredibly bigoted and and racist uh

remarks who wants to give Mass of tax

breaks to billionaires who wants to

throw millions of people off of

healthcare that is not an alternative

what is the alternative the alternative

is to continue to elect progressives to

the house and occasionally to the Senate

uh build a political movement which

demands that Biden starts addressing the

needs of working people the environment

and changes his views on foreign policy

to that point can you speak about the

ability to move Biden versus the ability

to move Trump for some fol folks look I

think both Trump and Biden are good

politicians that's all and you're in a

political moment they listen to people

if you think that uh Biden's people are

not concerned with the numbers that they

are seeing where young people who used

to be supportive of a democratic nominee

are increasingly less supportive if you

think they're not paying attention to

that you'd be dead wrong so I think

we've got to continue the pressure and

in my view the pressure right now is to

say to president Biden okay you won your

vote to get more military aid to Israel

but you don't have to release that until

Israel does AB c and d and that is most

importantly uh end this humanitarian

disaster which could lead to the

starvation of huge numbers of people now

to a similar Point we've got an economy

right now with some really strong

indicators inflation is is is down from

where it was real wages are up

employment's at uh under 4% for the

longest stretch in half a Century stock

markets at an all-time high record job

growth but for a lot of people in this

country they're not feeling its effects

and while inflation is down for example

prices are still up generally so how do

you approach this issue for folks who

who who simply enough say I'm paying

more at the grocery store this cereal

was cheaper When Donald Trump was in

office uh the economy today is stronger

than it was when Trump was in office for

all of the reasons that you gave you

know we take take it for granted in my

state of Vermont right now you know what

our major economic crisis is right now

it is the labor shortage good problem to

have yeah well it's not I mean it really

is impacting our economy we don't have

enough workers and that is true in many

parts of of the country but that is a

much better problem to have than to have

millions of people who are want to work

and unable to find jobs uh what we have

I think what people are dealing with and

you know Brian there are a lot of you

know people's attitudes are shaped by a

lot of things they are shaped by the

pain that we went through with covid are

they're shaped by the fears that we have

with regard to climate change what kind

of planet will we have for our kids and

our grandchildren they're shaped by

racism and and bigotry uh they're shaped

by a lot of things and I think right now

uh when people are looking at the

economy what they are perceiving I think

correct ly is yeah the economy maybe

yeah it's okay but it's doing really

well for the people on top and that is a

point that we don't make often enough in

fact the 1% in America the billionaire

class have never ever had it so good not

in the history of this country more

income and wealth inequality than we

have ever had three people owning more

wealth in the bottom half of American

society richest people getting much

richer so I think what the president has

got to talk about is say all right look

we made some progress on the economy

we're rebuilding our infrastructure

that's good making some progress

lowering the cost of prescription drugs

and issue I have worked on uh that's

good we are for giving by the way a lot

of student

debt I don't know if you're aware of it

but we're talking about

millions of young people whose lives

have been transformed I talked to a

woman I was at the Morgan State a couple

of weeks ago uh and she was faculty

member $80,000 in debt removed

transformative for her life all right

that is true for I talk to people in

Vermont same thing uh we got to talk

about that but most importantly we have

got to demand that the president come up

with an agenda that takes on powerful

special interest income and wealth

inequality and by the way I don't know

if you've had the occasion to talk to

Lena Khan from the

FTC have you had that occasion no I

haven't spoken to her it's a worthwhile

discussion she's doing a tremendous job

best FDC chair we have ever had in

breaking up monopolies uh and standing

up for working people so we have made

some progress but I do understand the

reality that today real inflation

accounted for dollars are no better than

they were 50 years ago despite all of

the uh increase in productivity that

we've seen now uh another issue that

really has impacted people across this

country is obviously the issue of

abortion in recent interview with time

Donald Trump came out and expressed

support for allowing states to monitor

women's pregnancies so that they can

know if they've gotten an abortion after

a ban was put in place can I get your

reaction to that I mean what can I say I

mean you know what can you say

monitoring women's pregnancies in the

land of the free I mean it is you know

unspeakable uh and you know clearly what

uh Trump and many of his Republican

colleagues are about

are at war with women's rights trying to

roll back the gains that women have

struggled for for so many

years uh but the idea that after women

had won the constitutional right what we

thought was the constitutional right to

be able to control their all bodies you

got a supreme court uh undermining

overturning roie Wade and you got States

all over this country in my view just

humiliating women by taking away basic

rights so you know when we talk about

one of the issues of this campaign let's

be clear uh Biden has been very strong

on trying to protect uh a woman's right

to control her own body uh and Trump and

the Republicans have been absolutely

disastrous and I would hope people

perceive and understand that as we go

into the election I think what's

especially crazy too is that they're

making this decision uh on on the heels

of what was it 10 15 years ago uh

fearmongering about death death panels

in response to the ACA and they said you

couldn't possibly allow government to

get between a woman and her doctor

because they'll decide you know who

lives or dies and now you have

government in between a woman and a

doctor deciding who can get life-saving

medical treatment and who can't just

because you know theocrats want to to

kind of impose their religious will onto

people who don't want it I mean that's

that's absolutely right and above and

beyond that look it is not Donald

Trump's decision or some you know

politician's decision to determine what

is best for a woman and her family

that's a decision between her and a

doctor in my view and of discussion you

know Trump does seem to get away with

being a moderate on this issue or

perceived as being a moderate on this

issue because of his background as this

New York Playboy who probably himself

paid for abortions despite his support

of the most Draconian abortion bans in

the history of this country what do you

say to people who give him a pass or or

write off his extremism on this issue

what I say is that Donald Trump has

boasted about appointing the three

Supreme Court Justices who helped

overturn roie way and set back women's

rights in a very in in the most

significant way that we have seen in

modern history so anybody a who believes

anything that Trump says I would

question anything he says uh but be

clearly this is a man who boasts about

overturning roie white similarly he

skates by on the issue of earned

benefits despite the fact that when he

was president his own budgets literally

cut Social Security Medicare and

Medicaid what would happen to those

programs that Americans have paid into

for their entire lives if Trump again

takes office well it's not just him it

is his Republican colleagues here in the

house and the

Senate um what they are floating are a

number of ideas uh to cut benefits and

their argument is that the uh Social

Security trust fund faces uh insolvency

well there is a way to deal with it

which is the proper way right now is I'm

sure you know

Brian uh if you make

uh60 more or less I think

$165,000 a year okay your Cas I make $16

million year guess what we both both pay

the same amount of money into the Social

Security trust fund that's absurd so at

a time of massive income and wealth

inequality the tax system that funds

Social Security is totally regressive

you lift that cap you can expand the uh

benefits that many seniors get a lot of

seniors in this country are struggling

trying to get by in $1 15,000 $30,000 a

year which is really hard but if you

lift that cap you can extend the

solvency of social security for

75

years and the overwhelming majority of

the American people would not pay a

nickel more in taxes that's what we got

to do on the issue of seniors just as a

quick aside there's a guy named Eric Hy

and he's running against Tammy Baldwin

in Wisconsin in the Senate he said that

if you're in a nursing home you only

have five or six months life expectancy

and that nobody in a nursing home is at

a point to vote that was a direct quote

from him which I thought maybe uh

Senator Sanders we can chalk up to like

a gaff but then I found out that the

bank that he leads was named as a

codefendant in a California lawsuit that

accuses a senior living facility partly

owned by Hy's Bank of elder abuse

negligence and wrongful death so uh do

you think a guy like that is going to

protect earn benefits for seniors who

he's just decided to put on death row by

Fiat I mean you know some of the things

I mean one of the things I think that

concerns the American

people is

the growing

extremism of the Republican party I mean

there used to be years back kind of a

center right party there were strong

disagreements between the left and the

right but they have become a right-wing

extremist party so when you have a

candidate for the United States Senate

what implying that seniors and nursing

homes shouldn't be able to vote or what

was his point is that his point yeah

just that just that they're basically uh

like waiting to die that they've only

got a couple months left to live if

they're in a nursing home anyway and

they're not at a point to vote is what

he said I mean that is you know and

these are probably the same mentality as

young people are not at a point to vote

people of color are not at a point to

vote yeah I mean this is what we mean

you started this discussion off by

mentioning that this is the most

consequential election in our history

and I know people say oh I've heard it

again I've heard it before you say this

every election well this is what we're

talking about we are talking about a

party and I don't want to say it's true

of every Republican because it's not but

you are talking about a party which

increasingly does not believe in

democracy the right of all people

whether you're elderly whether you're 18

whether you're black whether you're

white whether you're Latino to fully

participate in the political process

this is a party which has a number of

people who look to Putin as an example

of what quote unquote democracy is about

uh so when we talk about this coming

election and while many people are not

enthusiastic about Joe Biden Joe Biden

does believe in democracy uh Trump in

many ways does not you know there's this

inity a scheme to that exact point

that's happening right now where

Republicans are looking to refuse to

fund our election infrastructure they're

looking to zero it out as a line item in

the Congressional budget for 2024 last

year there was 55 uh million allocated

what we actually need to be able to

properly fund our election

infrastructure is $400 million can is

there any anything that you can say

about about the the likelihood of our

election infrastructure being properly

funded in the upcoming budget so that we

don't uh have our whole system fail so

that our election Administration can go

off properly so that the the purveyors

of disinformation don't have a predicate

to point to a bungled election and say

look we told you it was rigged now we

just got to take it over ourselves and

do it the right way which of course is

going to include you know Banning

dropboxes voter suppression reduced uh

polling places on minority majority

precincts and on and on right uh I think

you hit the nail right on the head uh

and that's what Republicans do if you

don't fund something and running you

know elections in 50 states in this

country uh is not easy and the one thing

that you didn't mention in your list of

things that Republicans are attempting

to do is intimidate local election

officials you know I know in Vermont you

know you and all over the country you

have people who just volunteer you know

they volunteer to come and to count the

ballots and often you know Democrats and

Republicans sitting around they getting

along and what these people are doing

now some of the right-wing extremists

are literally intimidating people uh

making you know outrageous charges

against them so the people say who needs

this I'm a badia yeah you know what do I

need to be insulted or

attacked uh you know so I I think the

point to be made is democracy will not

disappear in this country by Fiat by oh

hey guess what no more elections that's

not the way it will happen it'll happen

because voter officials are intimidated

people are not able to vote uh or make

it harder for people to vote uh where

people are uh uh videoed as they walk

into a polling Booth we got you you know

you're voting you know and people say

hey it's not worth it why will I vote if

they're going to be I'm going to be

videoed I'm going to be harassed so you

got a whole Litany of activities on the

part of the right which are basically

trying to undermine uh American

democracy and is there a proper effort

to make sure that our elections are

funded to the degree that they need to

be in some of us are absolutely some of

us are if you believe in democracy you

want to make sure that there is the

infrastructure available to make sure

that every eligible voter in America can

cast his or her vote without fear in a

way that is convenient you know some of

us believe that it is a good idea to see

large vter T Nots to encourage young

people and and you know everybody to

participate it's called democracy there

are other people who are moving in

exactly uh the other direction I want to

go back to the senate for just a moment

the the Republican party's candidates

right now include in Wisconsin that

California multi-millionaire Banker who

I just referred to before Eric Hy in

Pennsylvania they're running Dave

McCormick from Connecticut who is doing

the whole I grew up poor stick and yet

the guy grew up in what's referred to as

the president's mansion in Montana

they're running a Minnesota guy who grew

up in a multi-million dollar lake house

what's at stake in the Senate if this

slate of Republican candidates is

elected well I hope everybody knows and

I'm not sure that they do that in the

Senate we have the Democratic caucus has

the slimmest of slim majorities it's 51

to

49 uh and um if we were to lose that

majority if the Republicans uh were able

to gain control over the house uh and

win the presidency uh it would be an

incredible disaster uh in my view for

working people for uh uh environmental

policy for women's rights uh Etc uh so

right now you have a number of elections

in Battleground States uh where

Democrats are fighting hard uh to get

reelected Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin

John tester in Montana Bob Casey uh in

Pennsylvania uh among others uh and they

need all the help uh that they can get

now moving over to the house and I know

this isn't your the other point I'm

sorry I wanted to say Brian the other

point made I should have picked up on

your point you're talking about you know

very wealthy people running for office

and all of that speaks to something else

that the Republican party has managed to

do and that is it's not only

overthrowing uh roie Wade they

overthrew citizens united so right now

and I hope everybody understands it we

are living in a very corrupt political

system where any billionaire who wants

to s a super pack can spend hundreds and

hundreds of millions of dollars to elect

or defeat candidates that they want uh

and when you're talking about

billionaires running for office they

don't even need a super pack right just

buy the election themselves right but I

would hope that most of us understand

that democracy is not about big money

buying elections it's one person one

vote and if you're working class person

you have a right to run for election and

you don't have to hustle money from

billionaires and so forth and so on so

we need fundamental campaign Finance

reform in my view it is Public Funding

of Elections rather than billionaire

funding of Elections well said um that's

in the Senate uh moving over to the

house and I know this isn't your

jurisdiction but just this past week

margorie teler Green's efforts to OU

Mike Johnson as Speaker for the crime of

allocating foreign aid kind of blew up

in her face uh with this effort to to

push the motion of vacate seeming to

fail Democrats have come out and said

that we're not going to allow you to to

descend the house into chaos again do

you think this signals some fatigue even

among Republicans um at the interminable

stream of BS by extremists like Margie

Taylor green I hope so but I wouldn't

bet the f on it uh you

know it's uh people I mean Republicans

in in the house have expressed massive

uh dissatisfaction with a lot of what's

going on they understand that they have

not been able to govern pass legislation

by and large uh but I fear very much uh

that people like um representative uh

green and others uh have a whole lot of

influence in the Republican body it

should not be underestimated now you've

introduced the 32-hour work week act you

are in a body that on both sides is

quite corporate quite friendly to

corporations is there any hope for

something like this to gain TR there is

look it you're quite right both parties

are heavily influenced by big money and

in corporate interests that's the

reality of American politics and we are

trying very hard to change that we're

trying to convert the Democratic party

into a workingclass party a multi-racial

party a multigenerational party where

young people working people have

influence rather than just wealthy

campaign contributors that's a hard

fight but what is interesting is on

issue after interest issue after issue

you see the degree to which Congress

lives in a bubble sep ated from what the

American people want whether it is

funding the War uh in Gaza for Israel or

whether it's something like a 32-hour

work week here is the reason that I

introduced that legislation which is

quite popular in in around the country

and the reason is that the current fair

labor standards act law requiring a

40-hour work week and time and a half

after that you know when that was

established Brian what year 19 44 yeah

not you think the world has changed a

little bit yeah that the economy has

changed the worker productivity has

changed so what has happened over that

period of time is there has been a

massive transfer of wealth from working

people to the top

1% and the reason for that is that we

have seen great worker productivity but

real inflation accounted for wages have

not gone up in 50 years so all that I am

saying is we are living in an economy

where workers are producing much more

the benefit of those that increaseed

productivity should go to workers not

just the CEOs and the

1% and one way you do it is to

understand that an America our people

are working some of the longest hours of

any people in the industrialized world

and people are often exhausted they're

working 50 60 hours a week you know they

can't get away from their cell phones or

you know if you're working in a in

Factory you could be working 50 60 hours

and all that we are saying is it is time

it is time after all of those years off

all of an increase in worker

productivity to lower the work week uh

to 32 hours which by the way is

something that other countries are

leading Us in moving towards well I know

a lot of people who would uh very much

enjoy that let's finish off with this on

this same issue of companies kind of

exploiting or gouging Americans uh while

they're not doing the same thing to the

rest of the world you've launched an

investigation into Novo nordis which

manufactures OIC for example can you

speak on the extreme price differential

between what they charge in the US

versus what they charge abroad and what

can be done about it and this is an

issue more like that that impacts that

touches the entire pharmaceutical

industry the entire healthcare industry

in this country you got it it's a huge

issue we have spent a lot of time with

some success by the way I'm very happy

to say that as a result of a lot of

factors including the work done by my

committee the health education labor

committee the price for asthma in hell

is

is at the uh counter at the drugstore

counter is going to go down very

significantly to $35 a month a very

significant reduction uh but we have

much much more work to do the bottom

line here is whether it is uh

OIC uh or other drugs we in the United

States pay far far far more than the

people in countries around the world in

Canada for example and I live near the

Canadian border they pay

$155 a month uh for OIC our people are

being asked to pay uh close to

$1,000 uh and in certain European

countries it's even less than it is in

Canada and the reason for that is simply

that in our country uh by and large the

drug companies whether it's SN noris or