MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Hillary Clinton & The Middle Class

Interview

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SCHULTZ: Welcome back to Ed Show. This is a story for the folks who take a shower after work. Don`t you think it`s about time that they get you table issues are really getting some serious discussion on Washington. Progressives need a politician to take the lead on issues when it comes to income inequality, minimum wage, healthcare, and making sure corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share.

The effort is there, but will it intensify? According to a New York Times CBS poll, an overwhelming majority of Democrats, they want Hillary Clinton to run in 2016. The number is 83 percent. But Clinton might not be the choice for progressives looking to back the status quo according to a survey release this week. 40 percent of Americans say they don`t believe Hillary Clinton is offering "new ideas."

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders isn`t sure Senator Clinton -- Former Senator Clinton will be the one to rock the vote in Washington for the sake of the middle class in this country. In an interview with Time Magazine, Senator Sanders called Clinton a very, very intelligent person. No question about it. But if you talk about the need for political revolution in America, it`s fair to say that Secretary Clinton probably will not be one of the more active people. What does that mean?

Senator Sanders is the longer serving independent in congressional history and a proven champion of the people. He`s not ruling out or run of his own. Sanders told Time Magazine, we need candidates who are prepared to present the working families of this country -- represent the working families of this country, who are prepared to stand up to the big money interests, who are prepared to support an aggressive agenda to expand the middle class. And I am prepared to be that candidate. Quite a statement.

For more, let`s turn to the senator from Vermont, Independent Bernie Sanders.

Senator, good to have you with us tonight.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I) VERMONT: Good to be with you.

SCHULTZ: I guess I don`t know how anybody else is taking it, but I`m taking it as an announcement. I`m glad you`re seriously thinking about it. But the comment that got me is you said that you would be a better president than Hillary Clinton. I want some clarification here, sir.

SANDERS: What we`re talking about is ideas and this country today faces more serious problems that anytime since the great depression. Middle class is disappearing, more people living in poverty, and the gap between the very, very wealthy and everybody else is growing wider and wider. What we need in America is not politics as usual, we need a political revolution.

What is that mean? It means that the tens of million of people who are working longer hours for low wages, the people who don`t have healthcare, people who can`t afford to send their kids to college, the people who is seeing their jobs go to China and Vietnam. We have got to come together and say that with increase technology, increase productivity.

The middle class in this country should be expanding. We should be moving in a more egalitarian direction not in oligarchic way. We had a handful of billionaires with so much economic and political palace (ph).

We got to shake that system up.

SCHULTZ: Senator...

SANDERS: And that`s what the political revolution is about.

SCHULTZ: Senator, are you concerned that Hillary Clinton is politics as usual?

SANDERS: Look, I have known Hillary Clinton for many years. I like Hillary. I respect Hillary Clinton. But this -- and I don`t know if she`s going to run, and if she does run, I don`t know what her agenda is going to be. But what I do know is that we need people, and it`s certainly not just me Ed, we need people to say that there is a war going on against working families. We got to stand up. We`ve got to fight back or we`re not going to have much of the country left.

SCHULTZ: You are prepared to be that candidate, how would this work?

You`re an independent. You caucus with the Democrats. How does this work?

SANDERS: Well, that`s a good question and I don`t know the answer to that. There are advantages and disadvantages about running independently or running within the Democratic structure and contesting the primaries. Obviously, there is so much profound discussed with a two-party system that being an independent works well.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

SANDERS: On the other hand, you have to build an entire political infrastructure that is very, very difficult to do. But the bottom line is, now, the working class, the middle class of this country needs to have a voice standing up for them, prepare to take on big money.

SCHULTZ: Well, no one can take issue with your voice on those issues.

There`s no question about it. But, speaking of infrastructure, we have seen the big money packs thrown their support behind Hillary Clinton. Are you worried that she possibly could go unopposed? Is there a chance that no one will step forward because of the infrastructure that the Clinton`s have been able to put together?

SANDERS: Well Ed, that is my fear. I mean, it would be a very sad day if we did not have a vigorous debate on the important issues. And just because some folks have access to huge sums of money should not exclude all the candidates raising important issues. So, I do think it would be unfortunate, you know, if she was uncontested. This is a democracy. We need different voices out there. We need different ideas being heard.

SCHULTZ: Senator Bernie Sanders, thanks for your time tonight on the Ed Show.

SANDERS: Thank you.

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