MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Syria

Interview

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We now see that the Republicans care about phone calls to their office. Senator, are Republicans not voting for a strike to make President Obama look bad?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I) VERMONT: Well, I think that`s certainly the mode of many of them. On the other hand, Ed they are getting calls from their districts which are saying that people are tired of war. They were lied to about Iraq, they were lied to about Afghanistan where they are now 12 years and as you`ve just indicated very passionately incorrectly what the people of this country want right now is a focus on the part of the Congress and the President to start ending the collapse of the middle class, wrecking high property levels, growing income and wealth inequality in America, and most importantly the need to create millions of decent- paying jobs and to put out people back to work. That is what the American people want.

Are the Republicans interested in those issues? Absolutely not. And you`re quite right that on every significant issue facing our country where the American people want action, the Republicans are saying very much the opposite. Whether it is saving social security, Medicare and Medicaid, asking the wealthy to start paying their fair share of taxes, doing away with corporate loopholes, rebuilding our infrastructure the Republicans are saying "No, no, no." So you`re right in saying that if they are serious about listening to the American people, they certainly have not been doing that in the past.

SCHULTZ: Senator, what is the remedy to turn this around? What do you suggest? What`s the solution?

SANDERS: All right, let me be very, very honest with you. And I`ll tell you this that what the President of the United States has got to do, and I got to tell you a lot of people are disappointed in the President in terms of this war effort, in terms of the NSA business, et cetera.

This President has got to say and be honest about it and say, "Look, our country today faces enormous crisis. We are moving in the wrong direction. We used to be number one in terms of college graduates, today we are number 16 et cetera, et cetera." And the reason that we are not moving forward is that we have right wing extremists who are now controlling the House of Representatives and this country is never going to go forward unless we end right wing rule in the House. He`s got to point a finger at them, he has got to work with us in coming forward with the progressive agenda you have raised virtually all of the issues. Not to mention this is the fifth anniversary of the Wall Street disaster. The need to break up out large financial institutions to have them invest in the real economy.

The issues are out there. But with this President has got to understand. He cannot be sitting down with right wing extremists and trying to talk about how we`re going to cut social security, cut Medicare, not raise revenue as a result of corporate tax reform. He`s got to say like Franklin Delano Roosevelt did that I stand with the working families of the United States, and if the billionaires hate me so be it.

He`s got to draw the line in the Senate not on Syria but on the class warfare that is going on in America. If he does that, he will wake up people who have given up in the political process. The vast majority of the people as you`ve just indicated on issue after issue after issue are on our side. They know the richer are getting richer, corporations are making record-breaking profits, Wall Street is doing phenomenally well while the middle class disappears.

The President has got to draw that line, stand with working families, support a progressive agenda in that case I think we can win and do some phenomenal things.

SCHULTZ: Senator, I don`t think anybody could have said it any better and that`s where the country is right now. So in the midst of all of this conversation about this Rightist out there and saying that well their listening to their constituents and so that`s why they can`t give the President the vote on to strike or the power to strike or the legal of approval whatever you want to call it to strike Syria because they`re listening to the people. I think they are hypocrites if they go home and they turn their back on a 70 percent approval rating to get a jobs package
done.

I mean it`s just is amazing and the only way this is going to happen is if local media people around the country hold these Rightist accountable. Well, you wanted this when it was a high percentage but you didn`t want the background checks at 91 percent.

So they`re playing to the corporate world, they`re prying to the people who are lining their pockets to get them re-elected, that`s what they`re doing.

SANDERS: That is exactly what they are doing. And that`s what Citizens United makes even worst. I mean, you know Ed sometimes commentators say that we are a very divided nation and on some issues we are, but in all of the issues you talked about, the need to protect social security, Medicare and Medicaid, the need to create millions and millions of decent-paying jobs. Do you know what African-American youth unemployment is in this country?

SCHULTZ: Staggering low, yes.

SANDERS: It`s over 40 percent, that`s a generation of kids who we are leaving behind. The American people want to deal with that. They want to raise the minimum wage to a living wage so that all kinds of issues out there that bring us together, but the big money interest, the Wall Street guys are on the other side. What we need is a President and Congress to work together to rally the American people.

SCHULTZ: Senator Bernie Sanders, great to have you on the Ed Show always. I appreciate your time, sir. Thank you so much.

SANDERS: Thank you.

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