Transcript of Bernie Sanders Comments About "Democratic Establishment" on MTP

[Vidal]

Do you want to know what Bernie said to Chuck Todd on Meet the Press yesterday?

Here is the transcript:

CHUCK TODD: Well, I think another way of looking at it is you have to win, right? And you have to -- I think one of the cases you need to make to the Democrats is when -- you know, the former head of the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania, and I gather that Joe Biden has a lot of support in Pennsylvania. But here's what he said about you. He said this. "I'm supremely confident Bernie Sanders could not win Pennsylvania. When Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren open their mouths, many, many Democrats in Pennsylvania stick their fingers in their ears." Tell us how you win Pennsylvania.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: Look, you know, let me just say this to Ed, who I've known for many years, and to the entire Democratic establishment. Let me tell this to Ed, that there are millions of people who are sick and tired of that Democratic establishment. What Ed should know is that a recent poll that came out had me, if I'm not mistaken, eight points ahead of Trump in Pennsylvania. We've had polls which have me way ahead of him in Michigan and Wisconsin and, in fact, all over this country. Now, the reason that we can beat, that my campaign can beat Donald Trump is we're going to create the kind of excitement that we need to bring out the large voter turnout. We're going to bring out young people, who not only are interested and are going to fight for real climate change, they want to raise that minimum wage to $15 an hour, a fight that I have been helping to lead. They want healthcare for all through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program. They understand that it is absurd that young people should be leaving college 50,000, 60,000, 100,000 dollars in debt. They want public colleges and universities tuition-free. They want criminal justice reform. They want immigration reform. And the truth is that our campaign, I think, can generate that excitement. Our generation can talk to some, some of the Trump supporters, who now know that they were lied to, when Trump said he was going to provide healthcare to everybody and then tried to throw 32 million people off their healthcare. I think we are the campaign that can beat Donald Trump.

CHUCK TODD: Senator, I would argue, you made a very similar case against Hillary Clinton four years ago. And you came up short. Why do you think, this time -- especially when it seems like you have an exhaustive -- I'm just saying, you have, you have a part of the Democratic Party -- that seems to be gravitating toward Biden. Go ahead.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: You know, we came up short. Yeah, we took on the entire Democratic establishment. We took on the Democratic National Committee. We took on every Democratic governor. We took on every Democratic mayor. And we ended up winning 22 states and 13 million votes and, in fact, bringing forth an agenda that transformed the Democratic Party. Four years ago, people were not talking about the issues they're talking about now. So I understand that our campaign is unique in the sense that we're going to try to win the Democratic primary. We're going to try to beat the -- Trump. But you know what else we're going to try to do? We're going to try to transform the United States of America, deal with this massive level of income and wealth inequality, deal with Wall Street, deal with the greed of the drug companies and the insurance companies and the fossil fuel industry. So our campaign has a different goal. It's to transform this country. And we're taking on the entire establishment, when we do that, including Ed Rendell.

[Vidal]

1. Link

Here is the link to the transcript.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/05/19/sanders_beating_trump_is_not_good_enough_we_have_to_beat_the_fossil_fuel_industry.html

[DownriverDem]

2. I only support

true members of the Democratic Party.

[George II]

3. Lost in all his words is the same poll where he says he's 8 points ahead of trump in Pennsylvania...

....(it's actually 7, but whatever), has Biden ahead of trump by ELEVEN points.

[myohmy2]

4. I like Bernie...

...I have to ask myself, "..will I be voting once again for something or against something?"...and I'm very tired of voting against something...

...if the Dem establishment looks like they're in the least bit way putting their heavy thumb on the scale again, we'll have only them to blame for four more years of trump...

...out here in the real world, 'stopping trump' is a weak battle-cry

...many of us are tired of playing this old game...it's time you do something for us, or get the hell out of the way...


" We're going to try to transform the United States of America, deal with this massive level of income and wealth inequality, deal with Wall Street, deal with the greed of the drug companies and the insurance companies and the fossil fuel industry. "

...

[comradebillyboy]

5. Oh my God!!! How dare the Democratic establishment

support actual Democrats over a man who has shit on the Democratic party for the last 40 years.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-politics/12163433/Bernie-Sanders-had-no-intention-of-becoming-a-Democrat.html
https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/sanders-in-1985-i-am-not-now-nor-have-i-ever-been-a-liberal-democrat

[justie18]

8. Exactly!

Bravo!

[myohmy2]

9. suit yourself...

...I hope you don't think trump is going to be easy?

...I suppose we could take the high road, keep our powder dry and re-elect trump...

...but I'd rather not do that...

...

[Maru Kitteh]

20. Only Dennis Kucinich

could more swiftly and easily deliver this country over to Trump than Bernie Sanders.

[Demsrule86]

33. Sanders has my vote in a general, but he would lose in a landslide.

We might even lose Virginia.

[Skya Rhen]

14. Why did Bernie go back on his word of promising to never become a Democrat?

I see where Bernie wrote:

“No I am not a Democrat and have no intention of becoming one,”


Question: What was the reason for him going back on his word?

[comradebillyboy]

16. Could it be opportunism?

[displacedtexan]

11. The Dem Party Platform spells out what we vote for.

Here's the 1960 platform: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/1960-democratic-party-platform

And here's the 2016 platform: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/2016-democratic-party-platform

Pundits & wingnuts who say Dems aren't "for" anything haven't been paying attention to anything but sound bytes and divisive FOX drivel.

[myohmy2]

12. out here...

...we need less talk and more action...

...I think most would agree...

...

[Demsrule86]

34. You won't have action until we win elections. If we stop the pugs we its the house and the

presidency that is about all we can do...the Senate is a reach for us.

[myohmy2]

35. yes...

...but how are we going to win elections?

...if you'd ask me, I'd say we could start by humbly admitting NAFTA was forty years of complete anti-Union deindustrialization that has decimated the middle-class...all most of us have gotten out of NAFTA-like trade deals is an even richer more powerful 1% and plenty of cheap Chinese plastic buckets at Walmart...what's next?

...many still don't get it...

...many still don't get why trump resonates...

...

[Demsrule86]

37. Not just NAFTa either...but apologies never work...how you going to fix it...Trump had a bullshit.

We need a better one...to bring green jobs to the Midwest, punish those companies that build overseas with tariffs...along with foreign competitors who won't take our cars...stop rewarding gambling by taxing Wall Street...only give them breaks when they invest in this country.

[Cha]

47. Sorry, he's too divisive.

[Blue_Tires]

6. If I hear anyone say "establishment" one more fucking time

I swear to Christ

[Tiggeroshii]

17. Establishment

[Cha]

22. Ikr! I bet BS doesn't even

realize what a tired and stale buzzword he Keeps Using.. Ad Nauseam to insult the Dem Party..

BS thinks John Lewis is.. the E word..

BS' press sec on John Lewis..

Link to tweet

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. A guy who's been a career politician for some 40 years -

about the same length of time as Joe Biden - should STFU about "the establishment," since he's as much a member of it as anybody else.

[NastyRiffraff]

38. I know!

That and that fucking wagging finger make me crazy.

I vote for real Democrats.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. .

[honest.abe]

10. He speaks as if Democrats are the enemy.

"Yeah, we took on the entire Democratic establishment. We took on the Democratic National Committee. We took on every Democratic governor. We took on every Democratic mayor."

[Cha]

23. And, he's Losing.

[Demsrule86]

32. Wevare his enemy. His dislike of Democrats is legendary

[NastyRiffraff]

39. To him, Democrats ARE the enemy.

But he's happy to use their $$ and resources.

[Vidal]

13. He is always playing the victim

Bernie is always complaining about how he is mistreated. this is part of his appeal to angry white men who think they have been victimized by feminists and racial minorities and "the establishment."

He never had a chance to win in 2016, even without superdelegates.

He will always have a following but will never win a Democratic Party nomination for president.

[Skya Rhen]

15. Never!

[Cha]

24. Yeah, how's that

working out for him?

Link to tweet

[betsuni]

27. +1

[JudyM]

21. He's been taking action on a broad range of issues, like a dynamo.

Last edited Tue May 21, 2019, 09:58 PM - Edit history (1)

[Hortensis]

46. :) Such a dynamo. He's a U.S. senator, should be powerful but

is one of the least effective in the senate and has been his entire career. Entirely his doing. He's always preferred to behave in ways that offended and repelled his colleagues, instead of forming working alliances, and killed his chances to be a person of influence in the senate or even to be a significant part of teams creating legislation, negotiating with business, anything. Even the ACA was done essentially without him, although, like others, he was allowed to add a provision or two to tell his voters about by the legislators who were making it happen.

What's not to understand about the value of checking the records of politicians who want us to vote for them? He's always been a +1 vote to the Democratic caucus he badmouths. Anyone could do that. Everyone here could. But, bottom line, that 96% record of voting as Democrats lead means he's badmouthing himself.

And now we read that a U.S. senator, who could tell a staffer to arrange meetings with any of the top Walmart people, with some of them in his office at his convenience, is going to do a photo op at the stockholder's meeting pretending to be a demonstrator!

Give us a break! Just how gullible does he think we are?

Rant over...

[Gothmog]

19. Who is surprised by this?

These attacks on the Democratic Party will not help sanders

[Cha]

25. He keeps trying the

same thing over and over again to build himself up.

[betsuni]

28. "Four years ago, people were not talking about the issues they're talking about now."

Huh?

[Demsrule86]

31. Four years ago ,we didn't have two youngish GOP Scotus picks. 2016 was an unmitigated disaster.

I will never get over it

[peggysue2]

29. So . . . the secret sauce for Dems is to use Bernie grievance to fight Trump grievance.

We'll have an election based on victimhood: Bernie's fighting the Democratic Establishment and those who don't agree with him and Trump's fighting the Democratic Establishment and anyone who doesn't adore him and . . .

Oh wait. That strategy sounds remarkably the same.

Same old, same old. Didn't work in 2016. But replaying it again for 2020 is sure to be the Eureka Moment.

Don't think so. We've seen this picture show before.

[still_one]

30. No ambiguity there. We will see how that works out for him in the primaries,

just like his hiring of people who voted for Jill Stein to his campaign

Real swift move Bernie, alienate a whole group of Democrats

As far as I am concerned it is beneath contempt to try to divide Democrats what ch is exactly what he is doing

[Scurrilous]

36. ...

[RandiFan1290]

40. I LOVE that Bernie is out there speaking for me

Thank you for the post!

We can't wait to vote FOR Bernie again!

[Cha]

45. BS is being divisive again..

Link to tweet

[cynatnite]

41. This reads like he's making a play for the unhappy 2016 tRump voter...

Bash the Dems and tRump.

Not a good strategy, Bernie.

[aikoaiko]

42. I love this about Bernie. He's doing things I like.

I know he is not perfect and some people have legit issues with his rhetoric, but still, I love him.

[Cha]

44. Many of us have "issues" with BS..

Link to tweet