NBC News "Meet the Press" - Trump Campaign
Interview
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CHUCK TODD:
Welcome back. Tuesday was another primary night. Four states last Tuesday and it turned out to be a big night for women candidates and progressives. Like Kara Eastman, who defeated an establishment, former member of Congress, a Democrat in Nebraska. Also this coming Tuesday, another progressive, Stacey Abrams appears poised to win the Democratic nomination for governor of Georgia. She hopes to win the general election without relying on the state's more conservative white voters. Democrats worry though that while progress candidates fire up the base, that they may be too liberal to get elected. Joining me now is someone who knows something about firing up democratic primary voters - it's the Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Senator Sanders, welcome back to Meet the Press, sir.
BERNIE SANDERS:
Good to be with you, Chuck.
CHUCK TODD:
So let me ask you to respond to the concern now that you've heard from national Democrats, and I know technically your organization didn't back Ms. Eastman in Nebraska but many other progressives did - and they're now - they're not writing the race off but they are now backing off in their hopes of it. They think, "Oh, she's not electable enough." What do you say to national Democrats who say, "You know what, be careful of this - of nominating folks that are too progressive?"
BERNIE SANDERS:
I think that they are wrong and I think they are misreading where the American people are at. You know, Chuck, many of the issues that I campaigned on two years ago -- issues like Medicare for All, raising the minimum wage, the fifteen bucks an hour, taking on the pharmaceutical industry, making public colleges and universities tuition free, legalizing marijuana - few years ago those were seen as radical, fringey ideas. Well you know what? In every instance those ideas are now supported by the American people, by a majority of the American people - overwhelming percentage of Democrats. So, I think what candidates all over the country are now beginning to understand is that it is more important to reach out to the people in your community, working people, the middle class, lower-income people, than rather than just worry about what wealthy campaign contributors want you to say. So, I think candidates who run on a progressive agenda, which demands that we take on the billionaire class, that we end the movement to an oligarchy in this country, that we fight for the rights of working people, I think that's not only good public policy, I think that's good politics and I think many of those candidates will win. Because you're going to see voter turnout go up at a level of excitement that - that conservative Democrats don't raise.
CHUCK TODD:
Do you - do you buy the idea that there is such thing as "electability?" That that should be part of a primary argument?
BERNIE SANDERS:
Well sure, we all want to win. The question is, what constitutes electability? Four years ago, as you will recall, Republicans won a landslide victory all across this country - and the reason was, primarily, that we had the lowest voter turnout since World War II - some 37 percent of the American people voted. Because establishment Democrats don't generate excitement. And I think when you have progressive candidates - and we have seen this now for the last year, last year and a half, since Trump has been elected - we have seen progressive candidates, seeing voter turnout go up because the people in their communities know that it's time to stand up and fight. That's what they want to see. So the goal of the Democrats, it seems to me in 2018, has got to be significantly raising voter turnout and you do that by talking about the issues that working families care about.
CHUCK TODD:
Well, it's funny that you talk about - you got to messaging there. And I know - I think I have an idea where your answer is going to be but we spend a lot of time, I spent a lot of time just now talking about the Russia investigation, the Mueller probe, there's a lot of serious allegations that are being investigated. At the same time, you hear from rank and file voters, Senator Klobuchar, for instance, a Democrat from Minnesota said recently, "They're not asking me about Russian bots, okay? They're asking me about things like soybean exports." How much should Democrats talk about Russia, and the Mueller investigation, on the campaign trail in your opinion?
BERNIE SANDERS:
Well I don't think, Chuck, that it's either/or. I think you've got to do a lot of things if you are a serious candidate. I think it's appropriate to talk about the need to protect American democracy - to make sure - and examine fully and support the Mueller investigation to determine whether or not the Trump Campaign colluded with the Russians. I think that's terribly important. I think that when we talk about preserving and fighting for American democracy we've got to stand up to voter suppression, which Trump and many Republican governors all over this country are pushing - trying to make it harder for people to vote. We've got to deal with excessive gerrymandering. So, when we talk about protecting American democracy, absolutely you've got to look at what Mueller is doing, but that's not all that's going on in this country.
CHUCK TODD:
Right.
BERNIE SANDERS:
What you are seeing all over America - in my state and all over this country - is people trying to survive for 9 or 10 dollars an hour. They can't afford housing, they can't afford prescription drugs. They have no health care or they can't afford health care. They can't afford to send their kids to college. They're sick and tired of seeing the growth in income and wealth inequality. You must talk about those issues as well.
CHUCK TODD:
Do you believe it's still jumping the gun to talk impeachment? You still discourage - Nancy Pelosi said the talk of impeachment on the campaign trail is actually a gift to the Republicans and President Trump. Do you agree with her?
BERNIE SANDERS:
Yeah, I do. I mean I think you allow the investigation to go where it goes. I'm a member of the United State's Senate and if Trump is impeached I will have to be making a decision, voting on that. You can't jump the gun and determine that somebody should be impeached when you're going to be voting on the impeachment issue. So, I think that you allow the Mueller investigation to do its course, you fight against anybody who wants to impede that investigation, but I think it is too early to talk about impeachment.
CHUCK TODD:
Alright, I want to move to the tragedy from Friday, because there was a -a young high school student who- who said something that, I think, really touched a lot of people. Here's one of the survivors, Paige Curry, take a listen Senator.
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CHUCK TODD:
What does it say that we have high school students -- "Oh, yeah, I expected this.' How did we get here?
BERNIE SANDERS:
Chuck, it is unspeakable, it really is to see that kids that all over this country, who go to a place where they should feel safe, where they can focus on learning, are now worrying about things that we've seen Texas or in Florida a few months ago. It is unspeakable.
CHUCK TODD:
Have you guys done enough in the Senate?
BERNIE SANDERS:
Of course not! Of course not! But it's like every other issue, the American people are united, overwhelmingly, gun owners, non-gun owners, on common sense gun safety legislation. Expand background checks, do away with the gun show loopholes --
CHUCK TODD:
Then why are -- if they are, how come this stuff doesn't ever pass?
BERNIE SANDERS:
It's a three-letter word, it's the N-R-A! And it's Trump and the Republicans who don't have the guts to stand up to these people, and that's pretty pathetic. And what you are seeing in general, it's not just the NRA, it's tax reform, where you give huge tax breaks to billionaires, where Republicans want to throw 32 million people off of healthcare. You got a Congress dominated by a handful of billionaires, and the NRA, and all the right-wing organizations, and that is enormously unfair to the children of this country, kids in these high schools, and the American people in general.
CHUCK TODD:
There was a time that you weren't so tough on the NRA back in the "90s. Do you believe that they've changed or you've changed?
BERNIE SANDERS:
First of all, in 1988, I probably lost an election because I called for a ban on assault weapons in a state that had no gun control, but the NRA frankly, which once was, believe it or not, a gun safety organization, teaching kids how to use guns safely, has moved to be part of a -- become a right-wing political organization, far beyond guns as a matter of fact.
CHUCK TODD:
Senator Bernie Sanders, the Independent who caucuses with the Democrats from Vermont. Thank you for coming on, sir, and sharing your views. I appreciate it.
BERNIE SANDERS:
Thank you.
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