Bernie Sanders Busts Chuck Todd’s GOP Bias While Shattering Enthusiasm Gap Myth

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 01:56 pm

During MSNBC’s Bernie Sanders town hall at the Ohio State University, Chuck Todd asked Sanders about the “enthusiasm gap.” Sen. Sanders rejected Todd’s Republican talking point premise and told the truth about Democratic turnout.

Transcript via MSNBC:

CHUCK TODD:

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You’ve talked about your campaign as a revolution. The turnout excitement that’s happening on the Republican side hasn’t happened on the Democratic side. We haven’t seen the high turnout numbers that you’ve wanted.

BERNIE SANDERS:
No, that is absolutely incorrect.

(OVERTALK)

BERNIE SANDERS:
The numbers are very clear. We had– look, when you talk about that, you’re comparing us to 2008 and Barack Obama, all right? Barack Obama ran a campaign that was unbelievable. It was one of the great campaigns in American history, all right? But you know what? Despite that, h–

CHUCK TODD:
A revolution?

BERNIE SANDERS:
Well, in terms of the nature of his campaign, the turnout was off the wall. Iowa, they ran out of ballots, you remember that. All right, so let’s talk about it. In Kansas, actually the numbers in the Kansas caucus were higher this year than they were in 2008. In Maine, they were higher. In Michigan, it was the highest turnout since 1972.
Colorado, I think it didn’t break the record, it came pretty close. So in fact– if you only want to compare us to 2008, which was the exception, okay. But in fact, the turnouts have been extraordinary in this campaign, and I’m proud of them.

Chuck Todd’s question was rooted in a Donald Trump talking point that Republicans are drawing millions more voters than Democrats. The truth is that Hillary Clinton has gotten more votes than any Republican candidate, Bernie Sanders is bringing more new voters to electoral process than Donald Trump, and polling of critical swing states shows that if Trump is the nominee, ten percent of Republican voters will support Hillary Clinton.

Listen to Sarah Jones and Jason Easley discuss how Trump may win the primary, but lose the war to Democrats:

The mainstream media’s pro-conservative bias has been replaced by a pro-Trump bias. Bernie Sanders didn’t take the bait and called out Chuck Todd for his misleading question that was based on a partisan talking point.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a 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