Sen. Bernie Sanders went on CNN today and knocked down questions that were nothing but thinly disguised Republican talking points by using facts, truth, and the history of Republican obstruction.
Video:
Transcript via CNN:
CUOMO:…Senator, great to have you on set here at NEW DAY. Let me ask you this. What’s your answer to the basic question of should the president do this?
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I) VERMONT: Look, Chris, this country faces enormous problems. Our middle class is disappearing. We have more people living in poverty almost at any other time in the history of this country, and massive wealth and income inequality. And what we’ve seen over the last six years is Republicans doing hundreds and hundreds of filibusters. We passed legislation. We got a majority vote to raise the minimum wage, to do pay equity, to do a jobs program. Republicans filibustered, filibustered, and filibustered.
I think what the president is finally saying, look, immigration is a serious problem. We have got to do something. And if you guys don’t do it — remember, the Senate last year passed a reasonably good bill. What has the House done? Absolutely nothing. So what the president is saying, this country has problems. I’m going to go forward. If you pass legislation, I’ll rescind the executive order. But do something, address problems.
CAMEROTA: Even if it means that by acting unilaterally he threatens the relationship for any possible compromise. If election meant that there was a new beginning that now they will once again be at loggerheads, there could be a government shutdown, and all the other ripple effect.
SANDERS: Threaten, compromise. Is that what you said?
CAMEROTA: Well —
SANDERS: For six years we are trying to get the Republicans to support anything. Look, the Republicans — I have to say I’m an independent. I’m not particularly partisan. But any objective observer understands they have become a right wing party, not a center-right party. They have a right wing base. They have an agenda can which does not want to work with the president.
And I think what the president is saying, look, we’ve got problems. We have got to move. To say that we’re going to break the wonderful harmony and working relationship that we’ve had six years, that did not exist.
CAMEROTA: It’s not that. It’s that they are threatening shutdown, that they won’t work with Democrats and the president if he were to do this.
SANDERS: Then the American people have to make a choice. If they think the government shutdown is a response to the enormous problems facing this country. Look, the American people in poll after poll and on Election Day said we could raise the minimum wage. Do you hear Republicans talking about that? The American people in poll after poll say women should get paid the same amount of money as men. Do you hear the Republicans talking about that? The American are disgusted with Citizens United.
CUOMO: They heard something, though, senator, because they just voted in the Republicans in a very big way. And I think there’s a political calculation here to be made. You’re certainly right about that. But there are a lot of lives in the balance.
What I don’t understand here is there’s an absence of leadership by the party and president. And by the party I mean the Democratic Party, because you can’t play the same game the Republicans are. You don’t have the leverage. So you’re dealing with need of these families being separated. Everybody should be able to agree that’s horrible. How does the party that you caucus with and leader of the country find a way to make that salable, which should not be so difficult?
SANDERS: Chris, I agree with you. It should not be so difficult. I think the vast majority of people in this country want immigration reform. We passed it in the Senate. We have kids who are born in this country that are going to see a situation if we don’t act that their parents may be expelled.
CUOMO: It’s happened before. Presidents Bush and Reagan both did this. But here’s the difference. The difference was that the Congress had been massaged in those two situations in the direction of the ultimate reform, so that when the president signed these executive orders stopping the families from being separated, Congress undid it quickly. They were moving that way. That leadership, that compromise has not been found here.
SANDERS: I don’t think it’s leadership and I don’t think it’s compromise. The Republican Party is today a very different party than it was back then. That’s just the simple reality. And you pay attention to this every day. Have you heard Republicans talking in a serious way about immigration reform? They have not.
So the president again on all of these issues, he is sitting there and saying, we have problems. We have got to act. And what he has said over and over again is if you pass legislation, I’ll rescind executive orders. Everybody knows executive orders are not the best way to do things. We know that. But you have a party now, I have to say this, which is really recalcitrant in terms of wanting to do much.
Sen. Sanders went on to explain to the CNN hosts why the Keystone pipeline is not a good idea, with host Chris Cuomo falsely arguing that the pipeline would lower U.S. dependence on foreign oil and create commerce.
The pro-Republican talking points were obvious. The idea that President Obama and Democrats have been unwilling to compromise. The false notion that Obama’s executive orders will poison the well and make it impossible for Republicans to pass an immigration bill. The whole mentality of Democrats lost so Republicans get to do whatever they want. These Republican talking points were all reflected in the questions that Sen. Sanders was asked.
Sanders knocked down every single Republican talking points based question with facts and history. In the media’s eyes, the six years of obstruction before the 2014 never happened. Sen. Sanders (I-VT) was correct to point out that John Boehner has refused to allow a vote on the Senate passed immigration reform bill.
The CNN interview demonstrated that the left is going to be battling both a Republican majority in Congress and the a corporate run media who will be cheering them on. Bernie Sanders brought the truth to CNN, and the rest of the left could learn a valuable lesson in how to handle the blame Obama media from the Vermont Independent.
Mr. Easley is the founder/managing editor, who is White House Press Pool, and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
Somebody has to slap the corporate media echoing Republican talking points down. If Faux News wasn’t bad enough, the corporate owned news outlets are mimicking them now. Most Democrats seem too cowardly to stand up to them, so I’m very happy Senator Sanders isn’t afraid to.
They tried so hard to put across those Republican talking points, and he put them down each and every time. CNN is a joke anymore.
He should have told them, they had a huge majority of a small % of the voters population.
2014 voters election was only 36% & they didn’t get all 36% (37M) which don’t entitle them to a mandate.
2012 election was 58% which PBO won w/ 65.7M votes, which gave him a mandate.
JOHN BOEHNER TOLD OBAMA TO USE EXECUTIVE ORDER ON IMMIGRATION! HE SAID THIS THE DAY AFTER SUEING HIM FOR USING EXECUTIVE ORDERS! But it’s all Obama’s fault?
This is EXACTLY why the common, ordinary citizen needs to understand the value of THEIR involvement in the process. The ONLY reason money wins politics is because too many people are *ignorant* of their role in all this and of how government works, and too many are simply too *lazy* to go research candidates and topics for themselves. Instead, many rely on mainstream media and on commercials, etc. to tell them how to vote, and many others don’t vote at all because they think their vote “won’t make a difference.”
As we saw in the last election, it DOES.
What we really need is a campaign among the common people to get behind other parties and oust both the Republicans and the Democrats, because both parties are run by big money. I researched platforms, and found that the Green Party official platform is actually what the Dems’ *should* be but isn’t.
While enough of us still have the right to vote, we need to exercise it before it’s taken away.
CNN= FAUX NEWS! Making big bucks more important truth having any values.
As he was born and raised in New York, he does not have a Vermonter accent. His being a flatlander came up when he first ran for mayor of Burlington, and then when he first ran for Senator.
“They heard something, though, senator, because they just voted in the Republicans in a very big way.”
This (by Cuomo) is not an intelligent analysis of the election, since it completely ignores the historically low voter turnout. While the Republicans legitimately won these various elections, they clearly benefited from low participation by voters. Cuomo ignores this and suggests they have a broad popular mandate. It simply isn’t true and if he doesn’t understand this, he is not in the right job.
If the pipeline reduced our independence on oil, then that pipeline would not be carrying that oil to the sea and waiting ships.
I repeat for anyone who will listen, its our responsibility to shut CNN down by not listening
when Cuomo said this, “They heard something, though, senator, because they just voted in the Republicans in a very big way.” Sen. Sanders missed a great opportunity to debunk this. he should have pointed out that only 30% of the electorate voted and those who made the difference were the very ultra-Right Sanders talks about. the media & the Repugs say they were given a ‘mandate’ but they use the word incorrectly. have their own definition of ‘mandate’ and it’s not in any dictionary…
And he should have told them that the KXL Pipeline won’t do anything to get US off foreign oil. That’s Canadian oil on its way to China. What commerce? Refining at Kinder Morgan? More Koch profits? It’s Canadian oil that can’t get to its own east or west coast because Canadians don’t want it. So let’s have it wreck our plains states? No way.
The Republican Party has stated that their basic agenda for the next two years is to make sure nothing Obama wants gets passed. This is a strategy to enable them to dump on the Democrats in the 2016 election. They really don’t care what damage they do to the American public as long as they can get the power to impose their will.
Aahh Politicususa.com, quit picking on CNN! They are a part of the “Liberal Media” that hate Republicans! What’s that you say? There is no Liberal Media? But, but, but Fix, I mean Fox News says there is. There isn’t a “Liberal Media?”
Get outta here! Well bust my buttons! So Bernie was a guest on a Right Wing cable network and kicked @$$? GO BERNIE!!
I would love to see an independent run and he seems sincere on putting the people first. The sad part is that since he is liberal and sides with the dems he will split the vote and the republican candidate will win.
Get money out of politics and do away with political parties. That is a start to fixing the problems that we face.
Run Bernie Run…….you can win!!!!
There is no liberal commentators..none of them are journalists. They ‘re just millionaires feeding propaganda for their paychecks. All of them on CNN. I stopped watching them. Too RW for me.
That’s a Brooklyn accent and not a Vermont accent. CNN can’t even get the little things right.
I’ll vote for you Senator Sanders.
So if the Republicans have a so called mandate, why hasn’t CNN been pushing the fact that Obama won… AGAIN (he won twice) and he therefore has a mandate?
When the GOP talks about compromise what they really mean is no resistance from the Dems to any bone headed, corporate-driven bills they introduce..
Bernie missed a hanging curve over the plate there. The comment that KXL is about energy independence is false. It’s Canadian oil in that pipeline and it is merely going to go to the Gulf ports to be shipped, or refined and shipped, around the world, not used in this country.
And worse it will be picking up our own oil from the mid west to go over seas too. The oil that is now being used in the mid west
The two “hosts” are so OBVIOUSLY partisan. The faces they make are smug, condescending, and beaming with arrogance. Disrespectful doesn’t even begin to define such behavior. Bernie Sanders was a model of civility under attack by these vacuous models of privilege and thinly-veiled hostility.
Cuomo is a pipsqueak. The woman is … let’s just say a mess.
Bernie seems to be the only Bull Dog the Democrats have who is willing to go into the Lion’s den and fight for the Democrat’s cause. Point by point. And he is an INDEPENDENT! McCaskil is the female counterpart of Bernie, she has the balls (err, when you know what I mean).
If he runs I’d vote for him! It looks like he has the courage to stand up for his beliefs and convictions. I’m not sure that the other cowards we call democrats will. Perhaps it’s time for independents and progressives form their own party and dump the husk of the democratic party in the dustbin of history.
Run Bernie, run! As a democrat since it is the only effective way. You must be in the primaries and in the debate. And, yes, our next President.
I love when Bernie makes fools out of these asses. Or rather, goads them into making fools of themselves.
Evil is alive and well in America and evil men do evil things to those that they feel are expendable. After the oligarchy steals the White House, with the help of it minions (the media and republicans), just what do the American people think will happen to them? The lengths that evil will and can go to was clearly shown to the world during WWII. And the sad part is, that republicans are so worried that Democrats are out to get them when in fact its the very people who they vote into office, the very people who has nothing but disdain for them/us, the 47%.
I like that when Cuomo ran out of GOP talking points, he made fun of Sanders’ accent. Classy!
I agree with you completely Algernon. Also, it appears that Chris Cuomo as gone the way of FAUX NOISE, and we all know that Alyson Camerata was at FAUX NOISE before coming to CNN! I would think Mario Cuomo would be ashamed of his sons Chris and Andrew, current NY gov. for teir FAUZ NOISE/republican views!!!!!!!
Cuomo: “…there’s an absence of leadership by the party and president…I mean the Democratic Party, because you can’t play the same game the Republicans are. You don’t have the leverage.” Leadership? The President bent over backwards, particularly during his first term, to find common ground with Republicans on health care, the budget, immigration, etc. What did he get in return? Obstruction, which the Republicans had vowed in 2009, at every flippin’ turn. To state the obvious, Reagan and Bush faced Congressional Democrats willing to find common ground. And what, may I ask, leverage did the Republicans have for the past six years? In the face of the 2008, 2010 and 2012 elections, Cuomo and his willfully ignorant media brethren essentially are asserting that deliberate Republican obstruction of historic proportions that silenced the will of the American people for six years is acceptable.
Continued: However, Cuomo and his ilk hold Democrats to a vastly different set of standards. They seem to believe that the results of the 2014 elections demand Democrats not only listen to the electoral voice Republicans have ignored for six years but also find common ground with a party of extremists who have very openly and steadfastly refused to compromise with Democrats on anything.
I agree with Mr. Sanders on so many points, however Immigration Reform at this point in the game is not one of them. With unemployment at 14%, America needs to be put back to work. I suggest a MUCH higher tax on foreign made products sold here in the United States, a 5% cut in foreign aid every year, putting this money back into education, the infrastructure of the country, and the health, and well being of its citizens (that includes environment). The age of large retirement packages for all municipal employees on the backs of the tax payer should end. Like everyone else, they should plan for retirement.
Our military should be required to be educated, during a four year enlistment, two years of college should be put out of the way. With the threat we now face, our military should be guarding our ports of entry. Buy American, Your Jobs Depend on It.
WTF !!!
Do the 2 CNN hosts believe any of those taking points ?
A child would know the difference in math on the turnout of the election.
Their view on the XL Pipeline is just that, a view, the facts are all wrong.
The far right has control because of money and the financial means to create fear.
That’s why people stayed home, and why a small slice voted Republican.
They made the middle turn off and clock out, that was the plan, and it worked !
Of course it did, they have lots of devious masterminds in think tanks hard at work.
Wolf-pac.com
First step, get money out if politics.
Les xo
Why does the media keep trying to characterize the Keystone pipeline as moving the US off import oil? The oil is already sold to the Chinese. We won’t see a drop of it. On top of that it is dirty dirty oil. Europe won’t let it be brought there, so why should we allow it here. We take all the risk and none of the gain. The only one’s getting anything out of this is the oil companies and refineries.
So CNN offered up some lobs and according to the far left, Sanders slammed them home. Shocking [wink]
I used to have CNN on all the time, now I can’t stand to watch them, with the one exception of Fareed Zakharia on Sunday mornings.
The best is where this asshat closes by poking fun at Sanders “Vermont accent,” when Sanders is from Brooklyn. Do three minutes of research, bud.
Chris Cuomo should have checked the facts before he began this conversation with Bernie Sanders. Chris thinks he is this hotshot newsman who’s tough and people are scared of him. Bernie took him and his cohost to school with facts. Chris would be perfect for Faux Fox news.
The hypocrisy of the GOP after the midterms would be shocking if it weren’t so predictable: McConnell, Cuomo, and others are pushing their agenda by claiming that the midterm election results show the opinion of the American people. However, when Obama was elected and re-elected by numbers much greater than the midterm results, somehow those election results were meaningless and the GOP openly vowed to cause his presidency to fail and to block legislation. Apparently election results prove what the American people want only if they favor your side.
Since the midterms on Nov.4th the Independent senator from Vermont has been the strongest most steadfast supporter of the president in every media interview from Nov. 5th until today. He has been doing an amazing job at it and I think he has put a lot of democrats to shame.
BRAVO Bernie. You did an outstanding job explaining the Right Wing agenda and you also proved to me how far right CNN actually has gone over these last eight years. I used to watch CNN all the time for the unbiased reporting but that have changed dramatically so bye bye CNN. Until you return to your “middle” talking points, I will not return and watch a tuned down Fox News. No thanks….
Keystone Pipeline
is nothing buy a blatant “pay to play”
payback to the Koch Bros for buying
Congress in the last election.
(where only 24% of the voters voted
and most of the races were in Red Districts in Red States)…
KSP gives 100B in profits directly to the Koch Bros….
It is the dirtiest of the dirty oil
pumped from the tar sands in Canada
across the American heartland to
refineries in Texas…to be refined
and then shipped directly to China..
Koch Bros get the windfall profits.
China get all the dirty oil.
US and American people get all the
environmental risks including spills
that will be worse than the Exxon-Valdez
and the BP Gulf spill combined
and very expensive to American taxpayers..
And, the project creates only 500 permanent jobs compared with 10’s of thousands of permanent good paying jobs being created by solar and wind power..
Thanks, but no thanks!
Cmon Cuomo, reduce dependence on foreign oil? you do know that pipeline goes to another country right?
Spot-On! Join Wolf-Pac, together we can save America!
http://www.wolf-pac.com/
Since when did CNN become Fox News? They didn’t even try to disguise it.
Climate change is not the whole of it. This crosses many major aquifers, farm lands, and homes. None of which needs to deal with oil leaks. TransCanada has already admitted that thousands of jobs will not be created. Further TransCanada used imminent domain to forcibly take land with the help of our senate and congressional leaders. This still has to be ironed out. Keystone XL will ruin a country that needs to heal from the raping and pillaging done by corporations over the course of a century.
^hese two people were not even listening;they wanted spew repg talking points ; we are scrd no independent press any longer.
You do know, don’t you, that Jon Stewart was asking his viewers to join him in purchasing CNN. I THINK he was kidding, but with him you never can tell. If he is still willing, I’d put in whatever I could.
Oh yeah. FOX lite,where you can hear the same BS by another messenger.
Good god this is what is on CNN= corporate news network! Frightening!…..good job Senator Sanders, much love to you.
I’ll be writing in Bernie in 2016 if he doesn’t run.
“Pick your favorite President from the last 50 years and present their stats. They won’t be better than Barack Hussein Obama’s because – just like in sports, you can like/love your favorite player or team all you want and insist they’re the best – but then there are the actual stats that let everyone know who actually is the best. So pick your favorite President from the last 50 years and present their stats. You are certainly entitled to your own opinions but you are not entitled to your own facts. You are also allowed to re-write a play or re-write a Bible – but you are not allowed to re-write history.
I liked Mario Cuomo. How he could birth two such asshats as Chris and Andrew is a sad statement on genealogy and money in politics/ media.
I’ve noted a LOT of the American media has followed the fox(hole) news mantra, because of the BLACK MAN IN THE OVAL OFFICE…..the racism, bigotry and COMPLETE IGNORANCE of these media types are no surprise, considering that they are sucking at the feet of the kotch money, and the hatred of the republicaNazi party……..CNN is no different than the aforementioned propaganda “news” channel, and are showing themselves to be another of the talking points for the aforementioned NAZI party.
Goebbles would’ve been proud of those bastards.
Being half Cherokee and not having one single person, Bernie included, telling how they are simply trying to take Indian reservation land AGAIN is beyond me. None of the tribes out there have any voice in DC.
His accent? That was the parting shot? The American public has lots more to worry about than whether or not they like Sanders’ accent.
The American media is looking for a show down: The government shutdown, and impeachment or any other big confrontation is exactly what they all want.
I can’t think of any media outlet that is actually interested in the well-being of the nation because they don’t do any research. What they do is market research to see what people will watch.
The corporations and paid news space doesn’t buy a president. Sometimes, you have to answer the call. We are calling Bernie Sanders to stand up, represent us, and take that passion and conviction to the White House.
I love this guy. Straight talk, common sense, facts– not rhetoric.
I think Cuomo was playing the devil’s advocate. He pretty much played the set-up Guy for Sanders.
The only “leverage” if that is what you want to call it CNN, that the GOP has is Koch money and Rove money behind them. That’s it.
If they did not have the billionaires feeding them, they would have nada. No ideas, nothing. They are empty, coreless, people.
A dream team for democrats in 2016, Warren/Sanders.
I love this guy. maybe he runs.
Bernie Sanders does NOT have a Vermont accent!
my guess is New York City area.
and it does not really matter.
I would vote for Bernie in a blink of an eye!!!!!!!
The whole 27 people that “did not like this article” are ignorant people who listen and believe Fox lies. They are in La La land until they will deserve what they get from their voted in GOP. If it weren’t midterms and all the voters showed up they would have been gone.
I agree with your comment. I would bet Bernie is about to through his hat in the ring for 2016.
Bottom line — it takes 2 people to have a relationship but only 1 person to prevent one. If the Republicans prefer preventing a relationship with the President, there’s NOTHING he can do to change that. Clearly a relationship that relies on one person becoming the slave or puppet of the other is no relationship.
When 19% of the American people control Congress, this country is in trouble. People must participate in their democracy or we will lose it. Congress is just as, if not more, important than the presidential election.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bernie-sanders-for-president-of-the-united-states
She’s a Coulter wanna be. Even looks like her.
And what’s Cuomo saying? That you have to sound like a phony Texan like “W” to win the Presidency?