CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Bernie Sanders
Interview
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SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vermont/@BernieSanders/2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate): See, it's like somebody setting a fire to a basket full of paper and then putting it out. He helped create the crisis and then he stopped the attacks. The idea that we're looking at the President of the United States who, number one, thinks that a war with Iran is something that might be good for this country.
MARGARET BRENNAN: He was just doing a limited strike.
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: Oh, just a limited strike-- well, I am sorry. I just didn't know that it's okay to simply attack another country with bombs just a limited strike--that's an act of warfare. The war in Iraq, Margaret, was a disaster I believe from the bottom of my heart that the war-- a war with Iran would be even worse, more loss of life never ending war in that region, massive instability. So I will do everything I can, number one, to stop a war with Iran. You know let's remember what we learned in civics, you know, when we were kids. It is the United States Congress, under our Constitution--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: --that has war making authority not the President of the United States. If he attacks Iran in my view that would be unconstitutional.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So if you are commander in chief, you will ask Congress for permission--
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: Yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: --before you engage in any kind--
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: No, no.
MARGARET BRENNAN: --of military action?
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: Look, there are some times emergency situations, okay? That-- that I understand.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Defensive actions.
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: Yeah. If you're attacked immediately, you have to respond. Nobody believes that we are in that type of emergency situation with Iran right now. So I'm going to do everything we can to stop that and what the function of a President should be is to say to Saudi Arabia which, by the way, is a horrific dictatorship, a brutal dictatorship, that kills dissidents, that treats women as third-class citizens. Our job is to say to Saudi Arabia, you know, "We're not following your lead--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: --you're going to have to sit down with Iran. We will play a role. Work it out. The United States does not want to continue to lose men and women and trillions of dollars in never-ending wars in the Middle East. Work it out."
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MARGARET BRENNAN: According to the CBS News polling we've done, the CBS Battleground Tracker indicates your supporters are backing you without considering other candidates. How do you expand beyond that?
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: I'll tell you how. I'm feeling-- I got to tell you, honestly, I'm feeling very good about this campaign. And, again, it's different. Last time around you have to win 51 percent of the vote. This time I don't believe anyone is going to come close to fifty percent, so it's a very different race with twenty-four candidates. I think we have a strong core of support out there. Often young people, working-class people who understand that to bring about real change in this country; ultimately, you're going to have to take on the powers that be.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But to move beyond those young voters, the working class, don't you still need to expand--
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: Sure you do.
MARGARET BRENNAN: --and win over those Blue Dog--
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: Absolutely, absolutely.
MARGARET BRENNAN: --Democrats and moderates?
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: I think we have. This is what I think. I think that our message of guaranteeing health care to all people resonates with a significant majority of people who are going to vote Democratic. I think making public colleges and universities tuition free and, very substantially, lowering student debt, which is an incredible burden on an entire generation of people--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: --is going to win us a lot of support. I think my strong stance that a woman, and not politicians, a woman has the right to control her own body will resonate with many women. I was stance on immigration reform and criminal justice reform. I think those ideas are going to bring in new voters.
MARGARET BRENNAN: For those who might feel uncomfortable with the term socialism, you don't think that's going to inhibit those voters?
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: No, I think I have got to do more work in explaining what that means. And what that means to me is carrying on the legacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He said, you know, economic rights are human rights and we have got to guarantee all Americans fundamental economic rights: the right to a job that pays you a living wage, the right to health care, the right to education. And we have expanded that to say that--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: --economic rights are human rights, that means a clean environment. So, what Democratic socialism, in that sense, means to me is guaranteeing all of our people in the wealthiest country in the history of the world a decent retirement, a decent standard of living.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Aren't you concerned that someone more familiar like Joe Biden will be more acceptable--
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: Well, but you see, everybody--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --to those moderates in the middle of the country?
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: You got twenty-four candidates. I think every single one of them will tell you they have work to do, including Joe Biden. I mean, you know, Joe has to defend his record. And, you know, I help lead the opposition to the war in Iraq, which in my view was the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history in this country. Joe voted for that. I led the opposition against disastrous trade agreements which cost the workers of this country millions of good paying jobs. Joe voted for those. I voted against the deregulation of Wall Street, which in my view led to the great economic recession of 2008. Joe voted for that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Congressman John Lewis, the civil rights icon, said this week that Joe Biden's comments about in the past having done some work alongside and with segregationists wasn't offensive. Why do you disagree?
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: I think Joe owes the country an apology on that and that it is one thing to work with people in the Senate, as you have to do, as every senator does, I do, with people who you have fundamental disagreements with. That's one thing. You do that. That's your job, but it's another thing to kind of extol that those relationships. You cannot be extolling people who really were part of a disgusting system that oppressed and terrorized millions of African-Americans in this country.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But don't you think he believes those things?
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: Yeah, do I believe-- if your question is I think Joe Biden is a racist? Absolutely, not. No I don't. Not for a second. Joe is a friend of mine. I like Joe and I hope very much that this campaign will be about the real issues facing the American people and not, you know, ugly attacks.
MARGARET BRENNAN: There are ICE raids set to start, estimates of some two thousand people or so who will be targeted, is this appropriate?
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: No, it's not. It is absolutely not appropriate.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But, specifically, on this point the two thousand that are supposed to be targeted haven't shown up for a court date so, essentially, they're-- they're not following the asylum process, the legal standards when they're here.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: So should they be prosecuted, should they be deported?
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: I don't like this deportation thing at all and I think Trump uses this as a beginning to do worse things to come. Trump thinks that he can win re-election. And this is his political game, it's not an accident that he announced this the same time he went through his-- his announcement that he was seeking reelection.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You think this is purely politically motivated?
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: Yeah, I do. And I think that-- look, it's not to say that we don't have a serious problem but there are ways for serious people to deal with serious immigration problems. It is a problem. But what he is doing and this is his entire political strategy is to divide the American people up.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I appreciate you making time.
SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: Margaret, thank you very much for having me. I was just getting warmed up, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I know.
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