Jeff Merkley on Hayes MSNBC responding to allegation Sanders hasn't done anything...so he lists them [View all]

[snowy owl]

Chris' allegations that people don't think much of him. Personally, I think Hayes lied. I think he's doing right here what MSNBC has all their hosts doing: totally unprofessional and dishonest shilling for Clinton. No video clip of this exchange was available that I could find. Scroll down for entire interview.

Excerpt here:
HAYES: Let me ask you this. As you talk about those issues which have
sort of come center piece in this campaign, when I`ve talked to other
members of the Senate caucus on the Democratic side, they would say the
following thing to me. They say, well, we`ve worked with both of them,
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and I`m endorsing Hillary Clinton – and
I was left to think they didn`t think much of Bernie Sanders frankly as a
senator. They thought he wasn`t particularly effective.

What are you seeing in him that they are not?

MERKLEY: Well, actually, I think that`s way off the mark. Bernie`s
comments are deeply listened to and widely respected and he has this record
of effectiveness that many people are aware of, particularly those who
served in the House. When he was mayor of Burlington, he preceded to
reshape the waterfront. He had a baseball team. He set them up as a
lovable city, as a kind of a model for the nation.

When he was in the House, out of 435 members of the House, he was known as
the king of amendments, the single House member most effective in getting
amendments past, and these were things relevant to working Americans.

And in the Senate, he has proceeded to be the leader on expanding our
federally qualified health centers, which are the front door for millions
of Americans to our health care system. And he put together a bipartisan
veterans bill that is the most important veterans bill we`ve had in years,
and he`s taken the lead and taken on chained CPI to make sure that our
seniors didn`t get shortchanged. And the list goes on. So –


Later Sherrod Brown chimes in but moves the conversation in another direction. He doesn't really focus on Bernie even though that was the question asked by Hayes. My take: Brown doesn't really want to get into it or diss Bernie at all.

HAYES: Behind the scenes, an unnamed senior adviser was feeling not quite
as magnanimous and telling “Politico” last night, quote, “We kicked his ass
tonight. I hope this convinces Bernie to tone it down. If not, F him.”

Joining me now, Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat from Oregon, so far the only
member of the Senate to endorse Bernie Sanders.

Senator, tell me – tell me about your timing in this. One of the things
that struck me when I saw the news of your endorsement was the timing.
You`re the first senator to endorse him. You`re endorsing fairly late in
this cycle and you`re endorsing at a time when it seems his odds of winning
have receded considerably, which is the opposite of what politicians
usually do.

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D), OREGON: Yes, I`m just not a very good politician,
Chris. That`s what it boils down to.

I really felt that I should make an endorsement as we were preparing to
vote in Oregon. We vote by mail. The ballots go out on April 28th. They
will be out for a better part of 2 1/2 weeks and so I wanted to endorse two
weeks while – basically before the ballots go out and while Oregonians are
really starting to pay attention.

HAYES: I want to get your reaction to what Jeff Weaver said last night,
which has caused quite a stir. As the Sanders supporter, the idea that the
Sanders campaign would essentially after June 7th, were it to be behind in
pledged delegates and super delegates, attempt to persuade super delegates
to come over to them and take that to the convention. Do you think that`s
a good strategy?

MERKLEY: Well, it really reflects different messages coming out of a
campaign, which, you know, happens in a complicated, rush campaign, because
the core of the message is look, there is still a path to victory here.
Yes, yes, he lost in New York, but he lost by less in New York than
President Obama lost eight years previously. He did a percent better. So,
it`s all how you frame it.

And, certainly, Hillary Clinton home state senator, home state turf, she
campaigned in her Senate races, in every village and borough. And she knew
the state inside out, so it was an extraordinary challenge.

There are other challenges ahead that present different circumstances and
right now, there are just a massive amount of citizens and grassroots
organizations who are saying, we have to change the model of how our
economy and our political system works, and the person who understands the
fact that we must change that is Bernie Sanders.

For – we`ve now been through this period of 40 years, four decades, in
which nine out of ten citizens have seen no benefit from the increase in
American wealth. That is 100 percent of the new income has gone to the top
10 percent. There`s something wrong – people understand there is
something wrong when nine out of ten citizens and families are not
benefitting while the wealth of the nation grows up. So –

(clipped part repositioned above)

HAYES: You just named a bunch of fights that are a good reminder of some
of the fights they`re having right now in the U.S. Senate. I want to
follow up with our next guest about that.

Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, thanks for joining us tonight. I
appreciate it.

MERKLEY: You`re very welcome.

HAYES: All right. Joining me now is Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat from
Ohio, who has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.

Great to see you, Senator.

Let me start with your reaction to last night and what Jeff Weaver said. I
mean, are you one of the people who thinks that there`s some danger that
the Sanders campaign has entered into in the territory its in, in terms of
possible lasting damage they could do to Hillary Clinton should she become
the nominee.

SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D), OHIO: No, I applaud Bernie for what he`s done.
Jeff, in fact, Senator Merkley and I, Jeff and I, on the floor, had a long
conversation today about sort of his reasons for Bernie, my reasons for
Hillary. It was clear that it really is – we should be talking about what
unites us, not what divides us. I understand the political campaign,
debate after debate after debate.

HAYES: Right.

BROWN: There is contentiousness. But contrast our side with theirs, where
they call each other names and attacked each other`s families. You know,
ours are talking issues.

And I – you know, there`s some slight differences on Dodd-Frank, for
instance, but both candidates, like Jeff Merkley, Jeff sits with me on the
banking committee, he fights hard to protect what we`ve gained with Dodd-
Frank. I`d like to go a little further, I think what regulators did this
week on something called living wills is a big, big deal. It will mean the
banks very likely may get smaller because of federal rules about their
capital standards and about their stability and safety and soundness. I
think we`re doing that right. I think we can move a little faster.

One of the things I do in banking committees is put pressure on them and
one of the other things I do is through my website through outside pressure
and I ask people to come and help us join that fight where we can get
people outside to keep putting the pressure on the Senate to make sure
there are no compromises and weakening of Dodd-Frank.

HAYES: Yes, I want to talk about that because one of the issues in this
campaign has been about the sort of what threats a new Democratic president
might face in terms of retrenchment, in terms of consolidating some of the
accomplishments of the Obama administration. I mean, there are attacks all
the time happening right now in the Senate on Dodd-Frank for instance, on
regulatory structures that have been put in place that have to be beaten
back ceaselessly.

BROWN: Yes, last week, and of all places, the agricultural committee. And
that`s where we regulate something called the Commodities Future Trading
Commission. It`s where we regulate derivatives. The Republicans have
created – tried to create this huge Koch brothers loophole where farmers
need to hedge risks to be sure on crops and weather and price and all that,
but the Republicans want to make the farmers exception, farmers and
ranchers, turn into the Koch brothers exception on the oil industry, which
turns into billions and billions of dollars. We fight back against that.

The Republicans because they`re so controlled by a few big mega donors,
especially the Koch brothers, are always going do their bidding and there`s
always a Koch brothers loophole when regulatory issues, my position on
banking and ag, agricultural, are the places to fight back and I will
continue that. I expect Republicans because of the fuel of their party is
their interests groups we`ve got to be ready and continue to fight
regardless of when Hillary Clinton I believe will be president and when she
is president.

HAYES: All right. Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, thank you for
joining us. Appreciate it.

BROWN: Thanks.

HAYES: Still to come, the first criminal charges to come out of the Flint
water crisis were announced today, but the attorney general says they`re
only the beginning. We`ll look at that just ahead.