CNN "Anderson Cooper 360" - TRANSCRIPT New Details On Classified Documents Found At Pence's Home; US Pledges 31 Abrams Tanks For Ukraine, Germany And Allies To Send Approximately 80 Leopard 2 Models; Trump Reinstated On Facebook And Instagram; One-On-One With Sen. Bernie Sanders On Trump's Social Media Accounts, Ukraine, Debt Limit And Rep. Santos; Prosecutors, Defense Spar On First Day Of Alex Murdaugh Trial; Govt. Minders Follow CNN Reporter Through Rural China While Covering Covid Reality. Aired 8-9p ET

Interview

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Joining me now, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Senator Sanders, appreciate you being with us.

Just briefly, do you think it's the right choice for Facebook and Instagram to have President Trump back?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): You know, it's look, you have a guy who is a pathological liar, but he happens to be the former President of the United States and he has a right to express his views.

COOPER: In your meeting with President Biden today, did the war in Ukraine come up? Do you support the President's decision to send 31 to Abrams tanks?

SANDERS: No, it didn't come up. Mostly Anderson what we're talking about is my assuming the position of chairman of the Health, Education, labor and Pensions Committee and the issues that we're going to be working on in that committee.

COOPER: You said today that President Biden is absolutely right to refuse to negotiate with Republicans over the debt ceiling. Why do you think that? And if Democrats simply refuse to come to the table, won't they be culpable if the U.S. defaults on its debt as well?

SANDERS: Well, I think once the American people understand what the Republican agenda is, I think they're going to retreat from that agenda. Look, we are living in a moment of massive income in wealth and equality. Billionaires are getting richer, working people are struggling. Something like half of older workers in this country have nothing saved for retirement. So the idea that under Trump, as you recall, we gave a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the very rich and large corporations and now Republicans are coming back and saying, oh, guess what, we're really worried about the deficit, the national debt. We want to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other programs that are vital importance, life and death importance to working families. I don't think they are going to get away with that. I think the American people say, no way, you're not going to do that.

COOPER: You're obviously strong support of expanding entitlements like Social Security. The Congressional Budget Office says that without intervention, the program will become insolvent as soon as 2033. Some lawmakers have floated the idea of this bipartisan panel to look at how to save those programs. Would you support that approach or do you have conditions?

SANDERS: Well, no, I wouldn't support that approach because the last time around the conclusion they came up with was major cuts to Social Security, et cetera. Look, the solution to this problem is not very hard to understand and we've got legislation and to address it. Anderson, right now if you got one person who makes $100 million a year and another person who makes $160,000 a year, both of those people put in exactly the same amount of money into Social Security. This is a ceiling on how much your taxes will be paid into the program.

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If you lift that cap starting at $250,000, you can make Social Security not only solvent for the next 75 years, 75 years, you can increase benefits for lower income elderly people who are struggling really hard right now to get by. That's the solution to the problem. And I hope that we will get a larger amount of support for that.

COOPER: On the debt ceiling, though, I mean how does it end, how does this problem get resolved?

SANDERS: I think it ends very simply the way it should end in a democratic society. And that is the American people make the decisions. Do you really want to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid several years after Republicans gave huge tax breaks to the richest people and the largest corporations, and at a time when we have more income and wealth inequality than we have had in 100 years? Really? Is that what you want to do? Is that what you think the American people want to do? And none other than our old friend Donald Trump, who I disagree with, needless to say, on everything, Trump told the Republicans, hey, you're crazy. You can't cut Social Security and Medicare. I think they're going to listen to him.

COOPER: Just finally, I mean, you know, you've seen a lot in your time in public service. Does it make sense to you why Republicans in the House are standing by congressman George Santos?

SANDERS: Who knows? I honestly don't pay a whole lot of attention to that. I doubt that the American people are. Look, what I'm worried about, Anderson right now is we got a committee called Health, Education, Labor. We had a dysfunctional healthcare system. We spend twice as much per capita on health care as the people of any other country. You got 85 million people uninsured or underinsured. That's what we're going to work again. You got an educational system where primary, where childcare and PreK is in real trouble, in real disarray. We're losing hundreds of thousands of teachers a year because salaries are much too low, classroom conditions are bad. We got to address that issue, got to deal with student debt. And in terms of labor, you got 60% of our people who are living paycheck to paycheck.

So, what I'm going to try to do is not get involved inside the Beltway gossip. I'm going to try to pay attention to the needs of working families, many of whom are struggling right now, just to put food on the table.

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

SANDERS: Thank you.

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