- [Mike] If you wanna
stop to get water, we can.
- [Bernie] Yeah.
- [Mike] If you need whiskey,
we got some in the back, too.
- [Bernie] We'll stay
with the water for now.
- I truly believe in your ideas.
One of my very conservative friends,
well, more libertarian, Shelley
Winters was a black guy,
he had a phenomenal show
here years ago on W-A-L-K.
I talked to him this morning,
'cuz I consult both sides.
I have very liberal friends,
I have very conservative friends.
I'm a capitalist that's backing
a socialist for president.
I found that my politics is very mixed up,
because, you know, it's pragmatic stuff.
But Shelley was saying, he said,
"Mike, make sure that you
know that Bernie can win.
"Make sure that, in your
pressing to get his ideas out,
"that you're not pressing to
make sure the ideas are out
"in case he falls outta the race,
"because he can beat Hillary,
"and he can win this presidency."
Now, this is a friend of
mine who's conservative.
This is a friend of mine who doesn't agree
with all of my or your politics,
but the ideas that you have talked about
so greatly affect the
community we're from.
I can't say he's endorsed you,
but he damn sure wanted to make sure
that I provided people on
the other side of that camera
hope that it can happen.
- Let me say, all right,
let me say a word on that.
What anybody who knows anything
about politics understands
is democrats win when people vote.
- [Mike] Yeah.
- Republicans win, like
they did last year,
when nobody votes.
Obama in 2008 ran a brilliant campaign.
Not only did he win--
- [Mike] Yeah.
- He brought in a lot of people with him.
- [Mike] Absolutely, okay.
- What I can tell you is...
I don't know how many people
we'll have out tonight
in Atlanta, maybe five,
six thousand people, okay?
We have brought out hundreds
of thousands of people
all over this country, we have
more individual contributors
than any candidate in American history.
More than Obama, at this particular point
in the election, okay?
So, when you look at...
We are generating excitement,
and the only way democrats win
is when young people
and working class people
start coming out and voting.
I think we can do that.
- I've spoken at MIT this year,
I've spoken at Florida State University,
I've spoken at Morehouse.
I've been on many campuses this year.
Every campus I have went on,
there have been devout followers of yours,
overwhelmingly, in my audience.
Can I talk about something
we might disagree on?
- Let's do it.
- I'm from the south, I like guns.
I like guns a lot.
- [Bernie] Mm-hm.
- I own guns, my father
was a police officer
and was a gun owner.
He was a police officer,
also was a union steward,
which is another reason I'm
so on the bandwagon with you.
- [Bernie] He was a union
steward within the--
- No, no, he was a union
steward with the gas company
after he left the police force.
- Okay.
- [Mike] But I have two
cousins that are currently
on the police force.
- Yep.
- And both are police union members too.
So, I support you wholeheartedly
when it comes to unions.
- Let's talk about guns.
- And I don't wanna...
But guns, and I'm not saying I digress.
I represent a group of people
only 50 years into freedom.
I represent a group of
people who are being killed
by the people who their tax money pays.
I represent a group of
people who are in urban areas
because of poverty and
because of being ignored
by government in places like Chicago.
Certain areas have become
pockets of violence.
Less violent than 20 years ago,
but it's certainly harder,
if I'm a husband and a
father and a homeowner,
to defend my homestead in case of things.
What is your true stance to guns?
Speaking to my community directly now,
because we have a different
view of gun ownership
where I'm from.
- Okay, well, my state...
Do you know how much gun control there is
in the state of Vermont?
- [Mike] How much?
- None.
Virtually none, okay?
In my state, what a gun
means is you go out hunting,
lotta people hunt.
- Here too, absolutely.
I got some deer meat in the freezer.
- All right, let's sit down and eat it.
- We should.
(laughing)
- All right, so you got a lot of hunters,
you got a lot of guys
who do target practice,
you got a lot of gun shows,
people into antique guns and stuff.
- I know you wanna close those loopholes.
- Right, so here's the story.
Do people have a right to own weapons?
Of course they do.
- Okay.
- But what don't people
have a right to do?
Should somebody who has a criminal record
or has a record of beating up his wife,
should they be able to get a gun?
I don't think so.
So, what you need is enforced and strong
instant background checks.
You got a problem with that?
- I don't have a problem with that.
- [Bernie] Okay.
- And Bill O'Reilly can't
own a gun, so that's good.
(laughing)
'Cuz we know what he does.
- Yeah, all right.
So, instant--
(people laughing)
This guy's trying to get
me into real trouble here,
I can see that.
- I want you to be my president.
- All right, all right.
(laughing)
And, all right, so you got
instant background checks.
- Gotcha.
- Now, question, this is
where we may disagree.
Some guy walks down the street
with an assault weapon, military weapon.
Does he have a right to have that gun?
- [Mike] I say yes.
- I wanna--
- [Mike] And I'm gonna tell you why.
- Okay.
- I really believe the
part of the Constitution
that says that's our last
defense against tyranny.
I believe that if you're
involved in the voting process,
that's your first defense against tyranny,
to be actively and politically engaged,
and I definitely believe,
because I represent
a group of people that's
only 50 years into freedom,
and I also represent a
group of people where,
if we judge by the last two years,
it's okay to shoot 'em down in the street,
whether you're an officer or not,
based on the Zimmerman
case down in Florida,
and I don't want the people I pay
to be able to own something I don't.
And I do also know this
about assault weapons
or military-grade weapons.
The AR-15 replica that I
can buy from a Wal-Mart
is not the same thing the servicemen use.
It's not fully automatic,
I don't have, oftentimes, the
magazine capacity they will,
and more likely than not,
I'm not gonna be engaged
in a situation where
I'm actually using it,
so I don't see the need to have it.
- Okay, well, that's what we disagree on.
- Okay.
- All right?
- Respect.
- All right, next one,
the gun show loophole.
- Yeah.
- All right, I think we ought to end that.
- I can't get mad at
you for straw purchases.
- That's right.
- I can't argue with that.
- So, the gun show
loophole is a way to avoid
the instant background check.
- It is.
- And then you got another one,
is with the strawman situation.
You go in there, you're perfectly legal,
you buy 20 guns--
- 20 guns, absolutely.
- And you give 'em out to--
- I can understand closing
the loophole, absolutely.
- Those are my views.
- Absolutely.
- That's it.
So, we disagree on assault weapons.
- We do.
- All right, that's fine.
Now, I think what I want to do is to--
- And let me say this.
That doesn't jump me off your boat.
For people who may see this conversation,
that's not enough to get me
off the Bernie Sanders bus.
And I'd just like other
gun owners to know that.
- Right, right.
So, I have gotten
criticized, as you may know,
by my opponents, than
I'm a hack of the NRA,
and all of that stuff, and that's--
- [Mike] And I'm an NRA
member, and I have a tremendous
amount of respect for you.
- Okay, so that's where we are, all right?
- They didn't send that question, either.
And I'm not a fan of Wayne LaPierre.
More of a fan of Colin North,
the black guy they got over there.
They got a great token black guy.
(laughing)
He's a lawyer, he's young,
he's smart, he's progressive,
he probably, maybe secretly, voting you.
I hope he is
So, I mean, thank you for your honesty
and your candidness on that,
because I know that's
another one of the things
that people hold up to try to get people
to be afraid of you, and after
I read up on your stance,
I pretty much knew it was
liberal enough for me to say
I could still go with this guy,
because what happens if
assault weapons do get banned,
at the end of the day, still
one of the only countries
in the free world where citizens
are allowed to own guns,
and that's something, as
I do travel through Europe
and places like that, that's
one of the questions I get.
I get two questions, I get,
"Can you guys own guns
for real?" and yeah,
and then I get, "Do you know Gucci Mane?"
You probably don't, but
kids always wanna know
if I know Gucci Mane.
(laughing)
I'm glad to have you here,
I'm glad to have you in this city.
I hope that this city with
the legacy of Dr. King,
I figured you already went.
We're looking at the top of
Ebeneezer Baptist Church there,
not the historic one but the new one.
Reverend Vornach may
be running for senate.
He's the only minister
whose church I stumble into
a couple times a year, because
he preaches the same thing
that you are doing
politically, social justice,
and I'd be interested
to see more preachers
from our community talk
about social justice.
I think that during the Bush years,
somehow they got caught
up in federal money,
and I think that without the black church,
the black community,
politically, is suffering,
because the black church
used to serve as a place
where organizing happened,
and organizational tools
were taught, and again,
I hope the black church
kind of gets with your campaign also.
I hope they see that the
things you're talking about
are the things that the
Biblical Jesus talked about.
Look at your face!
- Oh, now you're goin' into another area.
- But it's the truth of it.
You can't call yourself,
and I'm not a religious...
You know, I'm the guy
in the back of the room,
smokin' a joint, saying,
"I wonder if anything
"is really out there."
You know, I'm the guy
that's watching as much
Carl Sagan as probably
my Christian neighbors
are watching Joel Osteen.
So I can't promise you that I have faith
in any of the three major
Abrahamic religions and that,
but I do know the philosophy of Jesus
has so touched my community--
- Do unto others.
- [Mike] As you would
have them do unto you.
- That's about it.
- So, I hope the church from
my community gets behind,
because what you're
preaching, social justice,
is what they're talkin' about on Sundays.
- Well, all right.
- I know you're hungry, I'm not
gonna keep you here all day.
We probably should grab food, I hope,
and keep talkin' on some candid stuff.
- Okay, this was great.
I really enjoyed it.
All right, look, we're gonna
continue this conversation.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
("Blockbuster Night Part
1" by Run the Jewels)
