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

Interview

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COOPER: Senator, I want to get to your new trade pledge in a moment, but first I know you tweeted about the California synagogue shooting over the weekend. I just spoke to Rabbi Goldstein, head of the congregation. He was adamant it should be a turning point, that America has to have some sort of a reckoning over violence and hate speech.

Do you see that happening?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is what must happen, you know. I was at the synagogue in Pittsburgh where 11 people were killed. We're seeing a nation today, Anderson, where the number of hate crimes are going up, hatred against Muslims, against Jews, against African-Americans, against gay people and that has to come together.

We need a president -- you know, one of the reasons I'm running for president is we need a president who brings people together as Americans, not tries to divide them up. So obviously we need a turning point. We need to reach out to our brothers and our sisters and to the minority communities in this country and just try to tamp down that horrible hatred which is growing every single day.

COOPER: I want to talk about your new trade pledge. You're asking President Trump and all of the Democratic primary candidates to sign on to it. Just explain what it is. And, obviously beyond the substance, which is reducing the trade deficit and scaling back job outsourcing, do you think it is actually realistic your chief rivals, whether it's Warren or Biden, would sign on to something of yours or put out their own plan?

SANDERS: Well, look, mostly this is directed to president Trump. What we have seen over the last many years is one disastrous trade policy after another, and that is NAFTA which I helped lead the effort against, cost us about a million jobs. It is PNTR with China, cost us approximately 4 million jobs.

It has led to a race to the bottom, Anderson, where companies now understanding that they can go abroad and hire people for a buck an hour are cutting back on wages that American workers receive. So what I am saying to Trump and everybody else is, look, we need new trade policies which protect the interests of American workers and not just the CEOs of large corporations.

I will give you the thrust and the heart and soul of what we are talking about, is that we have profitable corporation after profitable corporation shutting down in America, throwing American workers out on the street, going abroad, and then they line up at the federal trough for contracts.

And what I am saying is if you want a contract and you are a major corporation, you know what? Don't think you're going to get a contract if you layoff, shut down plant and layoff American workers. Don't think you're going to get a contract if you don't allow workers to organize into a union, if that's what they want to do. If you are cutting back on their health care, you have to be corporate citizens, good corporate citizens.

I think one of the ugly things we're seeing in America today is while the rich get much richer, while corporate profits are soaring, you are seeing tens of millions of workers struggling to make ends meet, people working two or three jobs, and corporate America now has got to understand that they've got to pay attention to their workers, not just to their stockholders.

COOPER: You talk about unions. Former Vice President Biden was in front of firefighters union, obviously organized labor is a critical support in a Democratic primary.

Are you concerned that Biden can make inroads there, that Biden has a leg up there?

SANDERS: Well, look, I'm running against, I think, 19 other people. So I'm concerned about everybody.

But I think when people take a look at my record versus Vice President Biden's record, I helped lead the fight against NAFTA. He voted for NAFTA. I helped lead the fight against PNTR with China. He voted for it.

I strongly opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He supported it. I voted against the war in Iraq. He voted for it.

So I think what I hope, Anderson, what this campaign is about -- and I have to tell you, I like Joe Biden. Joe is a friend of mine. But I think what we need to do with all of the candidates, have an issue- oriented campaign, not personal attacks, but talk about what we have done in our political lives, what we want to do as president, and how we're going to transform our economy so that it works for all of us and not just the 1 percent.

COOPER: And just finally, I want to get your reaction to something the president tweeted over the weekend. He said, quote, the Democratic National Committee, sometimes referred to as the DNC, is again working its magic in its quest to destroy crazy Bernie Sanders for the more traditional, but not very bright, sleepy Joe Biden. Here we go again, Bernie, but this time please show a little more anger and indignation when you get screwed, end quote.

Insults aside, do you know what the president is talking?

SANDERS: Not usually. I think most of us don't know what the president is usually talking about, but our response to that, Anderson was, yes, I do feel indignation and anger against a president who told the American people -- you remember this -- he would provide health care to everybody and yet he worked overtime to try to throw 32 million Americans off of the health care that they have. He was a president, a candidate who said he would not cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, then he brings forth a budget with massive cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and cuts to Social Security as well.

So our indignation is at a president who lied to the working families of this country when he said he would stand up for them.

COOPER: Senator Sanders, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

SANDERS: Thank you.

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