CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Bernie Sanders

Interview

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COOPER: All right. Phil Mattingly, appreciate it.

Joining us right now, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. He's been a vocal of well as some Republicans about putting largest stimulus checks into American pockets.

Senator Sanders, thanks for being with us.

So, to the question of direct payments, there's a group of senators, Democrat, and Republican, who are lobbying the Biden administration saying the current plan gives too much money to wealthy Americans, and the threshold should be lowered. President Biden himself has said he is open to that. Are you?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): All right. All that we're talking about here is trimming off some of the spillover money for wealthy people. Right now, small sums of money might go to families who are earning more than $150,000. I don't have a problem with doing away with that.

The bottom line is, in the midst of this terrible economic crisis, we have got to get checks of $1,400 on top of the $600 that we already allocated out to every working class family in this country, and to their kids as well. People are struggling to put food on the table, to avoid eviction, to go to the doctor, they need help now.

[20:20:05] And we need that total $2,000 package.

COOPER: And you've been vocal that COVID relief has to happen fast, and that means passing the bill for reconciliation, so be it.

Can you just explain, kind of layman's terms, exactly what reconciliation is, and why you think that should be an option?

SANDERS: Well, from a political point of view, most important point, is that it only requires a majority vote. To pass efficient legislation in the Senate, you need 60 votes. And, frankly, we do not have 60 votes from Republicans to address the catastrophes that are impacting working families today.

So, the only way that we are going to deal effectively with the pandemic and get vaccines into the arms of people, increasing vaccine production, the only way we are going to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, so people are not working for starvation, wages, the only way we're going to open up schools in a way that is safe, the only way that we are going to put people back to work in restaurants, and protect small businesses, the only way we're going to do that is through reconciliation.

And we expect that we will have a budget bill on the floor as soon as Monday or Tuesday.

COOPER: COVID is an area where Democrats may get Republicans, in some cases, on board. If President Biden and the Democrats do go it alone without Republican support, you know, I guess the counterargument is that it burns bridges with Republican colleagues. Does that concern you? Or does -- at this point, do the end justify the means?

SANDERS: Let's not look at it quite dramatically. I mean, the way you look at it, is should the Congress respond to the pain that tens of millions of families are hurting? Should we be effective, and aggressive in trying to crush this pandemic? Should we make sure that our kids can get back to school? Should we make sure that workers are earning a living wage?

So, the crises we face are unprecedented. We have got to act and act decisively. Now, this is the reconciliation one package. There will be another package coming along. It is possible we can get more Republican support for that one.

That one will deal with more of the long-term structural problems facing this country in terms of a crumbling infrastructure, in terms of transforming our energy system to deal with climate change. And when we do that, we can create millions of good-paying jobs. There will be some Republicans who want to work with us on that.

But right now, this is an emergency bill. It's the pandemic, it's the economic crisis. It's the health crisis. We have to act and act decisively, and as soon as possible.

COOPER: You know, one of the things you talked about a lot over the years is when Republicans have wanted money for military increases, for whatever it may be, that has not been a problem for Republicans. But when Democrats start talking about money for schools, or in this case COVID relief, all of a sudden, there's deficit concerns.

Is this another example of that?

SANDERS: It absolutely is. The hypocrisy is really quite extraordinary.

You all remember just a few years ago when Trump and my Republican colleagues voted for almost $2 trillion in tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country and the largest corporations. Anderson, I didn't hear a whole lot of worry about the deficit there. We are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars going into all kinds of corporate welfare.

We're talking about a military budget with the Pentagon that has never been independently audited. Massive amounts of waste and fraud within the Pentagon budget. Not a problem.

But somehow or another when it comes to feeding children who are hungry, when it comes to making sure that people who are sick in the middle of a pandemic get health care they need, when it comes to reopening our schools in a safe way, expanding the child tax credit, so we deal with a horrendous level of childhood poverty in this country, when it comes to those things, suddenly, my Republican colleagues become very fervent about the deficit.

COOPER: Vice President Harris was doing -- we talked about local television interviews, West Virginia, Arizona, around the COVID bill, something many saw it as putting pressure on Democrats Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, how confident are that you have even enough votes within the Democratic Caucus to get the bill through?

SANDERS: I am very confident.

Look, at the end of the day, you got 50 members of the Democratic Caucus. And we all disagree on something. I have disagreements with this 1.9 project, the $1.9 dollar COVID bill.

[20:25:04]

Other people have different problems with it.

But at the end of the day, I believe that every Democrat is going to go into his or her heart and understand that in America today, there is so much suffering. There is so much pain. There is so much fear, about the pandemic, that now is the time.

So what, we disagree on that issue, on this issue? It doesn't matter. This is a life and death proposal. And it must be passed immediately.

And I will tell you something else, Anderson, from a political point of view. You know, we are in the majority now, barely. It's a 50/50 tie, plus the vice president. We are in the majority because we have two great candidates who won in Georgia. And those candidates promised their constituents in Georgia, it became

a national election. The president was there. Chuck Schumer was there. We said to the American people, you vote for us and we're going to start responding to the long overdue crises facing working families.

Yes, you are going to get 2,000 bucks yourself and your kid. Yes, you're going to get extended unemployment. Yes, you are going to get the kinds of housing help you need so you don't get evicted.

Those are the promises that we made. And it would be unthinkable to me that any Democrat would want to renege on those promises we made. Not just to the people of Georgia but to the people of America.

COOPER: I want to mention, talking about security in the capital after the insurrection, Speaker Pelosi said yesterday the enemy is within the House of Representatives. Democrats are planning directly to Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon supporter. Are you worried about safety from within?

SANDERS: Look, we are seeing -- we saw it in the horrible day on the 6th, with the rioting, in the insurrection effort in the capital. There is no question that there are right wing extremists who are prepared to use violence. So I think we have got to do it, and I want to think the Capitol police, the National Guard, the FBI, everybody else for the great job they did during Biden's inauguration.

But we have got to be very, very vigilant, and making it clear in this country, we can have differences, different points of view. We all disagree with each other. That is called democracy. But you do not have the right to threaten violence, and you certainly do not have the right to commit violence.

And I hope and expect that the Congress and the Biden administration will be very, very strong in making that clear.

COOPER: Senator Sanders, appreciate your time, thank you.

SANDERS: Thank you.

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