-Our first guest tonight
is a United States Senator
from Vermont
and former
Presidential candidate.
Please welcome back to the sho
Senator Bernie Sanders.
Welcome back to the show,
Senator. How are you?
-I'm great.
Good to be with you.
-You were our first
quarantined guest on March 30th,
and I really hoped the next time
we talked it would be in person.
But I do appreciate you
making time for us again.
How are you --
I know you're a man who like
to be around your constituents
You like to be around people
How are you getting throug
this telephone/Zoom era?
-I would be being dishones
with you
if I didn't tell you
that it's difficult.
You know, I thrive
and I get my oxygen
from being around people.
I miss being in
the kind of physical contact
I would like to be
with my grandchildren.
So, it's hard, but, you know
we're doing the best
that we can do.
-You have been through
many protest movements
in your long career
as an activist.
What is your take on
the protest movement
that we're going through
right now?
Is it as Earth-changing
as many are saying it is?
-It is a very big deal.
It is really unprecedented
and it's extraordinary
and especially taking plac
in the midst of the pandemic
And what you are seeing
in large cities
all over the country
and in small towns
is people saying,
"Enough is enough,"
to police brutality
and police murder,
that we have to rethink
the whole nature of policing
in America,
that we have to deal
with institutional racism.
And that is just
an extraordinary moment
in our country's history.
-You have clarified
that you are not for
abolishing the police,
which a lot of people assume
"defunding the police" means
Where are you
on that sliding scale
between the idea of no polic
and --
-I don't think --
Seth, I don't think that,
at the end of the day,
most people think we should no
have any police department
in America.
But I think what most people
think is
we have to reallocate resource
and rethink the function
of policing.
Obviously, for a start,
we have to do away with
police murders
and police brutality.
That goes without saying.
But the other thing that
I think we have to do
is to ask ourselves,
"Should police be forced
to deal every day
with issues like mental illness,
drug addiction,
alcohol addiction,
homelessness?"
Police spend a whole lot
of their time and energy
doing things that they are not
necessarily trained to do
and that take
a lot of resources.
So I think what people wan
when we talk about defunding the
police or reallocating resources
is also to put money into
the causes of crime.
Why do we have more people i
jail than any other country?
Should we be
legalizing marijuana,
which, in my view, we should
Should we be investing
in jobs and education
rather than just locking u
more and more people?
So I think this moment makes u
rethink the function of policing
and the reallocation
of resources,
something I very strongly
believe in.
-President Trump today
signed some executive orders
on police reform.
And even, you know, Democratic
leadership over the years
has called for reforms
like body cameras,
like anti-bias trainings.
Does the President's steps today
make you optimistic?
Or do you feel like they are
short of what we need?
-Oh, Seth, we're short
of what we need.
And we are working
in the Senate,
and I have introduced
a set of proposals
which go a lot, a lot further.
I mean, the bottom line here
is that
police officers need to be hel
accountable for their actions.
And that's something that ha
not taken place in the past.
We need to make sure that police
departments around the country
receive the training to
understand that lethal force
shooting somebody,
is a last response,
not a first response.
So there are a whole number of
things that have got to be done.
I think Trump is responding from
the pressure
of the American people.
Not just Democrats
or independents.
Republicans, as well.
But we have to go a lot furthe
than Trump is talking about.
-Another thing, I imagine,
you feel the government
needs to go further on
is how we're taking care o
people during this pandemic.
Obviously,
Congress has passed some bills
It's been a while since
they passed another one.
What steps need to be take
moving forward?
Because, obviously, things
like unemployment insuranc
aren't gonna go on forever
And we can see a real spik
in what people need,
not just in the virus,
but insofar as what people nee
from the government.
-Well, Seth, I would hope that
out of this terrible momen
in American history,
which is really unprecedented --
I mean, you're looking at
110,000 people dead alread
from the virus.
You're looking at 30 million
people having lost their jobs.
You're looking at people
who have lost, by the millions
their healthcare,
people unable to
pay their rents,
worried about
losing their homes,
kids not being in school.
It's an unprecedented moment
in American history.
And I would hope that
we take this opportunity
to say and ask ourselves,
"How did we get to where we ar
right now,
and where do we want to be
in the next couple of months
and in the future?"
Now, in the next
couple of months,
what we have got to do -- no
in the next couple of months
the next couple of weeks,
immediately --
what we have got to do is pass
what we call a "corona fall,
piece of major legislation
which says that when 30 millio
people have lost their job
and millions have lost
their healthcare,
we have got to stand up
and protect them.
Various ways to do that.
But at the very least,
working people
need to continue to get
decent unemployment checks
when unemployment is so high
In my view, during the midst
of this crisis,
while we work toward
Medicare for All,
clearly, right now,
everybody must be entitled t
healthcare as a human right.
I think that
a $1,200 one-time check
is not enough during the crisis.
We should make sure that
every individual in this country
gets at least $2,000.
Because so many of our peopl
are hurting.
$2,000 a month.
That's some of what
we got to do.
Long-term, we have got to
ask ourselves,
"How does it happen that whe
so many people lose their jobs
they also lose
their healthcare?"
Should healthcare in America
just be a job benefit,
or should it be a human right?
Obviously, I think it should b
a human right.
I hope more and more peopl
understand that.
Second of all,
before the pandemic,
we had Trump, as you all recall,
telling us what a great econom
we had.
Well, how great is an econom
when half of our people
are living paycheck to paychec
and, when the paychecks stop
hunger and desperation set in?
So we have got to make sur
that we raise the minimum wage
in this country
to at least 15 bucks an hour
make it easier for workers
to join unions.
You know, we have got to
make sure that all of our kids
get the quality education
that they need.
So what I'm saying, Seth,
is that
in this terrible moment
in American history,
when so many of our people
are hurting,
it is time to rethink
some of the basic priorities
of our nation,
some of the basic institutions
in this country,
and, as the wealthiest country
on Earth,
ask ourselves where we want to
be in the future.
-We'll be right back
with more of my conversation
with Senator Bernie Sanders.
