CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Senator Bernie Sanders
Interview
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COOPER: Now to our interview with Senator Bernie Sanders. He is campaigning in the Super Tuesday state of Minnesota.
Senator Sanders, thanks for being with us. You just heard Mayor Buttigieg endorsing Vice President Biden. Klobuchar is expected to do the same tonight, as is Beto O'Rourke. How does the consolidation of the moderate vote affect your plans moving forward, especially since Senator Warren shows no signs of getting out?
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, Anderson, I think, as you know, from day one we have been taking on the establishment, whether it is the corporate establishment, you know, Wall Street, the drug companies, the insurance companies, the fossil fuel industry, or the political establishment.
And let me be very clear, it is no surprise they do not want me to become president because our administration will transform this country to create an economy and a government that works for all of the people, not just the 1 percent. It will not be the same old same old.
But the other reason that I am running is to defeat Donald Trump. And the fact of the matter is if we want to defeat Donald Trump, we're going to need a campaign that has energy and excitement that can speak to working people, young people, people who have given up on the political establishment all over this country.
To defeat Donald Trump, we're going to have the highest voter turnout in the history of this country and I think our campaign is uniquely suited to be able to do that.
COOPER: President Trump questioned like night the timing of Buttigieg's withdrawal, tweeting in part, "this is the real beginning of the Dems taking Bernie out of play, no nomination again." He also tweeted this afternoon, quote, "they are staging a coup against you." Is he right?
SANDERS: You know what, I really wish that the president of the United States might kind of spend his time doing his job, maybe just maybe, he might want to worry about the coronavirus, he might want to worry about the stock market, he might worry about the 500,000 people in this country who are homeless or the massive level of income and wealth inequality that exists.
So, President Trump, stay out of the Democratic Primary. Why don't you do your job for a change as president. Stop lying. Stop running a corrupt administration. Pay attention to the American people, not just your own political aims.
COOPER: There's a lot of delegates, as you know, obviously, at stake tomorrow. Your campaign has done a lot of outreach to African- American voters. In South Carolina, you got 17 percent of the African-American vote, that's only 3 more percent than you got in 2016. Do you have any reason to believe you're going to do better with African-American voters tomorrow in some of these states than you did on Saturday?
SANDERS: Look, absolutely. In fact, all across this country, I think we're doing very well outside of South Carolina, maybe Mississippi. Outside of the South, we're doing very, very well. In fact, there are some polls have us leading Biden in terms of the African-American vote.
[20:05:00] What we are trying to do, Anderson, is put together an unprecedented grass roots movement. It is a multi-generational, multiracial grass roots movement of millions of people who today are prepared to fight for economic justice, social justice, racial justice, and environmental justice.
And the reason we are doing as well as we are, taking on all of the super PACs and their negative advertising, is because our agenda is speaking to the needs of working families. And let me tell you something, if we want to beat Donald Trump, I hope people will look at my record as opposed to Donald -- as opposed to Joe Biden's record.
Now I'm in the Midwest right now, which has suffered very, very heavily from the loss of many hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs because of disastrous trade agreements. I helped lead the opposition to trade agreements like NAFTA and PNTR with China. Joe Biden supported those agreements. I helped lead the effort against the war in Iraq, the worst foreign policy blunder in modern history. Joe supported that war.
I voted against the bankruptcy bill, which has harmed many working families. Joe supported it. So I think if you -- Joe has been on the floor of the Senate time and again talking about the need to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans programs. I led the effort to prevent cuts to Social Security. In fact, we have to expand Social Security benefits.
So I think if we're talking about how we defeat Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country, we are going to need a campaign that can speak to working people with a candidate who has a record, a consistent record, of standing with working people.
COOPER: As you know, Senator Warren is going after your record. She said, quote -- she called you a, quote, "senator who has good ideas, but whose 30-year track record shows he consistently calls for things he fails to get done, consistently opposes things he, nevertheless, fails to stop."
SANDERS: Well, I would respectfully disagree with Senator Warren. You know, four years ago, I talked about raising the minimum wage in this country to $15 an hour, and you know what, I was able, working with workers at Amazon and Disney, to get 400,000 American workers an increase in their minimum wage to at least 15 bucks an hour. And now you've got seven states in this country that have raised their minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour. And as president, we're going to do it nationally.
I talked about making public colleges and universities tuition-free four years ago. And now you've got states, cities, counties moving in exactly that direction. Four years ago, I talked about climate change being the great national security crisis facing this country. Other people now understand that.
In terms of my record, I helped pass, along with John McCain, the most significant veterans bill passed in recent history. Along with Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, I put into the Affordable Care Act $11 billion for community health centers, which is now providing primary health care to 9 million Americans.
Working with conservative Republicans, we managed for the first time to utilize the War Powers Act to get the United States of America out of the terrible war in Yemen, which is one of the worst humanitarian disasters on Earth right now. As a member of the House, I passed year after year, more amendments on the floor, roll call amendments, than any other member of the House.
So I am proud of my record. We're going to run on that record. But most importantly, we need a new vision for America, a vision that tells the corporate elite and the 1 percent that this country belongs to all of us, not just the handful of billionaires.
COOPER: I want to talk more about that vision in a moment. We're going to take a short break. We'll be back with senator Senator Sanders.
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[20:13:58]
COOPER: And welcome back to our "Countdown to Super Tuesday." More of our interview with Senator Bernie Sanders.
Senator Sanders, your co-chair, Congressman Ro Khanna, told The Wall Street Journal that he has been trying to convince you to portray yourself differently, as a successor of Franklin Roosevelt and as a New Dealer. Do you ever regret labeling yourself a democratic socialist?
SANDERS: No, I am what I am. And what democratic socialism is about to me is understanding that we have in many ways, Anderson, a socialist society today. But as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us, we have socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor and for other people.
When Donald Trump was a private businessman, he received $800 million in tax breaks and subsidies to build luxury housing. That's called socialism for the rich. When Amazon, one of the largest, most profitable corporations in America, doesn't pay a nickel in federal income taxes last year, that's called socialism for the rich.
When we give tens of billions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks to the fossil fuel industry, whose product is destroying our planet, that's called socialism for the rich.
What I want to do is bring government programs to help working families. We are the only major country on Earth not to guarantee health care to all people as a human right. And yet we're spending twice as much per capita on health care as do the people of other county countries.
We're the only major country not to have paid family and medical leave. We're giving tax breaks to billionaires when a half a million people are sleeping out on the streets tonight, when we have a dysfunctional child care system where under-funding education for low- income and working class families, and hundreds of bright young people can't afford to go to college and others are leaving school deeply in debt.
So to me, what I'm talking about is getting our priorities right.
[20:15:00]
No more tax breaks for billionaires. No more subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. Let's pay attention to the working families of this country. Health care is a human right. We need universal, affordable child care for all. We need to make sure that the United States is leading the world in the fight against climate change, so that we leave this planet in a healthy and habitable way for kids and future generations. Bottom line, that's all that this is about. Government policy that works for the middle class works for working class, works for low-income people and not for just wealthy campaign contributors. And by the way, while we're in it -- I'm sorry - go ahead ...
ANDERSON COOPER: No, no, no - go ahead.
SANDERS: All right, while we're in it, I mean, let's look at what goes on in this campaign. Joe Biden has the support - the financial support of 60 billionaires, you really think that's going to be a campaign that brings about change? We have the support, the financial support, from almost 2 million working people in this country who contributed to our campaign, more contribution than any campaign than in the history of American politics, averaging $18.50 apiece.
So, I think, we've got to beat Trump. I think our campaign is best suited to do that because of our grassroots movement, because of our gender, because of my record, and then, once in office, we've got to stand up for working families, stand up for middle class, and tell the billionaire class, they cannot continue to have it all, we cannot continue having three people on top, owning more wealth on the bottom half of this country.
ANDERSON: Vice-president Biden says people aren't looking for a revolution. He says they're looking for results and getting things done.
SANDERS: Well, if you think it's a revolution, if Biden thinks it's a revolution to do what every other major country does and guarantee healthcare to all people ...
ANDERSON: ... you wrote a book called Our Revolution, so I think he's - he's using the word because I think you used it for your book.
SANDERS: Yes, I understand what he's talking about. What I'm saying, though, is he thinks it's revolutionary to tell the pharmaceutical industry they charge us 10 times more for the same exact drugs they sell in Canada or Europe, if he thinks its revolutionary that we stand up for the fossil fuel industry to try to change our climate policy and protect this planet, I don't think that's revolutionary. I think that's exactly what the American want, and that's exactly what we have to do.
You know, Nelson Mandela made a very profound statement once. He said, "Everything seems impossible until it is done." All right. And I think that if we don't allow Trump to divide us up by our race or where we came from or our sexual orientation. If we stand together, around an agenda that works for all of us, we can bring sweeping changes to this country and give people faith in that the government of the United States works for them and not just for wealthy campaign contributors.
ANDERSON: If you become the Democratic nominee, will you insist that your version of Medicare for all is included in the official Democratic platform voted on at the convention?
SANDERS: Absolutely, of course. Look, this system is so dysfunctional, that it really is pathetic. How do you end up spending twice as much per person on healthcare and have 87 million people uninsured or underinsured, 30 thousand people dying each year because they don't get to a doctor when they should? Half a million people going bankrupt because of medically related debt. This is an absurd system. It is enriching the drug companies, they're doing great. The insurance companies are doing great. The healthcare industry made $100 billion in profits last year. So, I don't think it's a revolutionary idea to say that we do what every other major country on earth does. That the function of healthcare is to provide quality care to all as a human right, not make the drug companies and the insurance companies extremely rich.
ANDERSON: Just finally, you mentioned President Trump and the coronavirus and his tweets. He tweeted today that Democrats are fearmongering when it comes to the coronavirus. How do you respond to that?
SANDERS: Well, look. That Trump would appoint Mike Pence as the head of the task force on the coronavirus just speaks to how far out of touch Trump is with reality or his disrespect for science. We need scientists running our response to the coronavirus and not a politician like Pence who barely believes in science at all. So, I would hope, very much, that Trump understands that the coronavirus is a major, major threat, not only to our country but to the entire world. We've got to work with the international community. We've got to work with the World Health Organization. We have to adequately fund our hospitals, our doctors, the NIH, the CDC. This is despite what Trump may think.
[20:20:00]
You know, Trump is also the genius who told us that climate change is a hoax, so what we need to do is have Congress demand that we adequately fund our response, that we work with the global community, and that we have scientists running the program, not politicians who don't believe in science.
ANDERSON: Just before I let you go. Tomorrow, California and Texas, the two biggest prizes, do you think you'll win there? SANDERS: I never like to speculate. All I can tell you is that we have had a great, incredible group of thousands and thousands and thousands of volunteers in Texas, in California or all over this country. As we speak, they're knocking on doors, they're making the phone calls, they're doing all of the things that you have to do to win, so we have worked really, really hard, and I hope we do well.
ANDERSON: Senator Sanders, thanks very much for joining us. I appreciate it.
SANDERS: Thank you very much.
ANDERSON: Senator Sanders is going to have a rally tonight.
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