ABC News "This Week" - Transcript: Bernie Sanders

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

STEPHANOPOULOS: Look at the crowds coming out for our next guest. Nearly 5,000 there in Colorado. And that is not all, so many headlines right now for Hillary Clinton's top challenger, Senator Bernie Sanders. He joins us now from Cochran, New Hampshire this morning. Senator, thank you for joining us this morning.

We looked at the Keene Sentinel. They say you're up with a crowd in Keene, New Hampshire just the other day. And you told them, let me tell you a secret, we're going to win New Hampshire. Care to repeat that prediction now?

BERNIE SANDERS, 2016 DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are going to win New Hampshire. We're going to win Iowa and I think we're going to win the Democratic nomination, and I think we're going to win the presidency. And I'll tell you why, the American people are sick and tired of seeing the disappearance of the great middle class of this country. They're sick and tired of working longer hours for low wages while at the same time 99 percent of all new income generated is going to the top 1 percent and the top one-tenth-of-one-percent now owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent.

George, we have seen in the last 30 years a massive shift of wealth and income from ordinary Americans to the very richest people in this country and the American people are saying enough is enough. We need to create an economy that works for all of us and not just a handful of billionaires.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Rising in the polls, that means you're drawing fire as well, particularly in your record on guns. A super PAC allied with Martin O'Malley put out a video this week. And here is part of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bernie Sanders voted against the Brady Bill?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Bernie Sanders voted against gun manufacturers' protection from victim law suits?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The NRA even paid for ads attacks a Sanders opponents.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bernie Sanders is no progressive when it comes to guns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: I saw you smiling when it was being played. What's your response?

SANDERS: Well, I think the people of Vermont know differently. They know in every single race that I have run, with the exception of one, the NRA and the gun lobbies and the people who are most interested in guns supported my opponent. I have a lifetime voting record with the NRA somewhere between D and F. Coming from a state that has virtually no gun control at all.

I cast what I think was a pretty brave vote banning assault weapons, doing away with the gun show loophole and fighting for instant background checks so that we make sure that guns do not fall in the hands of those people who should not have it. So, it's a strong record.

But let me tell you this, George, in terms of gun control, if we are finally going to have any serious success, what we need to do is bridge this cultural divide between rural America -- and I represent the very rural state -- and urban America and come up with some common sense legislation which includes everything that I've just voted for and may be more.

But one thing we can't have, we can't have people demagoguing against folks just because they go out and hunt and they own guns. On the other hand, rural America has got to understand that guns in Vermont are not the same thing as guns in Chicago where they're used to kill kids or shoot at police officers.

So I think we need a national dialogue. And frankly, coming from a state that has virtually gun control, but having voted time and time and time again for strong gun control, I think I'm in a position to make that happen.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You also come from a state, I believe, that is about 95 percent white as well. And we have a great racial divide in this country as well. And it -- a poll out this week showed how this might be affecting you and your potential race right now. It asked for support among non-whites. This was a "Wall Street Journal"/NBC News poll. It said Clinton has 91 percent, Bernie Sanders just three. How do you close that gap?

SANDERS: Well, I'll tell you how you do that, George. You know, as somebody who has been involved in the civil rights movement for my entire adult life. I was arrested when I was a student protesting segregation of schools in Chicago, fought against segregated housing in Chicago, marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in the great march on Washington.

I have a long history in fighting for civil rights. I understand that many people in the African-American community may not understand that. But I think the issues that we are dealing with, combating 51 percent African-American youth unemployment, talking about the need that public colleges and universities should be tuition free, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, creating millions of jobs by rebuilding our infrastructure. These are issues that should apply to every American.

But to be honest with you, given the disparity that we're seeing in income and wealth in this country, it applies even more to the African-American community and to the Hispanic community. And what we are going to do is make a major outreach effort to those communities, let people know my background, let people know my record, and I think we're going to do just fine in those communities.

STEPHANOPOULOS: How -- how about the issue of health care coming out of the Supreme Court case, saving Obamacare for the second time. The Supreme Court led by Chief Justice John Roberts. You've consistently called for a single payer system, Medicare for everyone. Now, if you were president, would you continue to fight for that and is that responsible -- would it be a more effective use of your time and energy, presidential resources, to actually strengthen the Obamacare that is already in place?

SANDERS: Well, let me just say this. You know, I have not been a great fan of the Supreme Court. Their decision on Citizens United, opening up the opportunity for billionaires to buy elections will go down in history as one of the worse decisions ever made. But applaud them for the two decisions they made this week on the Affordable Care Act and on gay marriage.

In terms of the Affordable Care Act, I'm on the committee that helped write that bill. This was really a no-brainer. Nobody thought that we should look at the exchanges -- the federal exchanges any differently than state exchanges. But here's the point, today, despite the gains of the Affordable Care Act, which is certainly voted for, we still have 35 million Americans without any health insurance and many more who are under insured. Meanwhile, we end up spending almost twice as much per capita on health care as do the people of any other country.

So I do believe, George, that we need to join the rest of the industrialized world. We are the only major country on earth that doesn't guarantee health care to all people as a right and yet we end up spending much more than they do. So I do believe that we have to move toward a Medicare for all, single payer system. I think it's not going to happen tomorrow, but that certainly should be the goal.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, so you said right at the top of this interview, you're going to be the next president of the United States. If that's true, you'll be the oldest president ever elected, 75 years old on Election Day, I believe. What do you say to people who might be concerned about your age?

SANDERS: Well, why don't you follow me around this weekend in New Hampshire where we're doing seven separate events and understand that thank God I -- I am blessed with -- with very good health. I don't think I've taken a day off because of sickness in -- in several years. So I believe as somebody who has -- when he was a kid, a long distance runner, I'm blessed with endurance, I'm blessed with health, and we are going to do everything that we can, A, to win this campaign, and, B, as good a president as I possibly can be.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And I know you're going to be back on the campaign trail this afternoon. Senator Sanders, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

SANDERS: Thank you.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source