'His administration is blatantly CORRUPT': Bernie Sanders goes after Trump's grifting efforts

[0:00] So you have endorsed more than 70 people in Democratic primaries and 75 percent of them have won their primaries. [0:07] That is those are impressive numbers. Not bad. Not bad. Those are impressive numbers. [0:14] The Wall Street Journal looked at your endorsement strategy and they called you a kingmaker. [0:21] That's not a word you often hear in progressive politics. Are you comfortable with that? [0:25] Did they get it right? I'm not a kingmaker. I'm part of a movement of fantastic people. [0:31] I'm one of many. I have a role to play and I ran for president. I'm better known than most that I play my role. [0:37] But this movement does not succeed without thousands and thousands of grassroots activists who are busy knocking on doors and, in fact, have the courage to run for office. [0:47] You talked about people who voted for you and then voted for Donald Trump. [0:51] Yeah. [0:52] Your dear friend. [0:54] My dear friend. [0:55] Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did something interesting. [0:57] She did this exercise where she used social media and said, you know, I there are people who voted for Donald Trump and people who voted for me. [1:04] And while people were scratching their head wondering about this, she just went to the source and said, help me understand how you could cast a vote for me and cast a vote for Donald Trump. [1:12] I'm certain that there are a lot of people who supported you in your presidential elections, presidential campaigns, who also drifted into that camp. [1:20] What needs to happen to win some of the match? [1:23] Well, Alexandria is great on social media. [1:25] I mean, she is extraordinary. [1:26] That was a brilliant thing to do and the right thing to do. [1:29] I'll tell you what I did. [1:31] I went to West Virginia where I think Trump got 70 percent of the vote. [1:36] I went to the to the county where he did the best just to answer that same question. [1:41] And what did you hear? [1:42] It was Mingo County, Mingo County, West Virginia. [1:46] OK. [1:47] And we went and it was a remarkable meeting. [1:50] I loved it. [1:50] It was a town meeting. [1:52] People got up. [1:52] They said health care is a disaster. [1:55] We're worried about our educational system, worried about the environment, all that stuff. [2:01] What I learned is if you go to West Virginia, just as one example, there is no Democratic Party. [2:06] There's no alternative. [2:07] Virtually does not exist. [2:09] And that's true in a number of states in this country. [2:11] Doesn't exist. [2:12] But many of those people probably look at the Democratic Party and wonder if they represent them. [2:16] That's right. [2:16] Where did Democrats go wrong in losing them? [2:18] That's right. [2:19] What I think what Trump did. [2:20] Again, this gets back to my view that the Democratic Party failed working class people on economic issues. [2:28] I think they have a lot to be proud of in terms of fighting for civil rights, for women's rights, for gay rights, for environmental stuff. [2:36] But in terms of working class issues, no, I don't think they've done a good job. [2:40] So a lot of workers out there say, well, you know, we voted for you. [2:42] Our fathers voted for you. [2:43] They held with you. [2:44] Trump is, you know, we don't know about Trump, but he's loud. [2:47] So what does Donald Trump understand about reaching working class voters? [2:52] About what does he understand about fear, about anger that Democrats don't understand? [2:57] You are asking very good questions. [3:00] All right. [3:01] Trump understands that the American people are angry and he has given them a way to express their anger in exactly the wrong ways. [3:12] All right. [3:13] In other words, in my view, Trump is there to represent his fellow billionaires. [3:18] You see them around him all the time. [3:20] That's his job. [3:21] That's what he does. [3:22] But what he says to people, you can't afford health care. [3:25] You can't afford housing. [3:26] You can't afford prescription. [3:27] You know what the answer is? [3:28] It's the undocumented people. [3:30] It's the trans people. [3:31] It's black people. [3:32] It's the Canadians. [3:34] It's the Mexicans. [3:35] Every day there's a new person that we are supposed to hate. [3:38] And people say, ah, that's the reason why damn undocumented get rid of all of them and I'm going to have health care. [3:45] Well, it doesn't quite work that way. [3:46] But he's doing what demagogues have always done. [3:48] It's what they did to the Jews in Germany, right? [3:50] Come up with an enemy. [3:52] But it makes people feel good in the short term. [3:54] It doesn't necessarily solve their problems. [3:55] So what do Democrats need to do to understand that anger and harness it in a constructive way? [4:01] I hope we don't lie. [4:02] We tell people the truth. [4:03] And that's what I try to do. [4:04] And the truth is that the complicated issue, a lot of factors, the major reason that the working class has gone nowhere, in fact, declined in the last 50 years, has to do with the greed of the people on top. [4:18] We have seen a massive transfer of wealth over the last 50 years from the bottom 90 percent to the top 1 percent. [4:24] Today, you've got one guy, Mr. Musk, owning more wealth than the bottom 53 percent of American households. [4:29] So our whole economic policy in the last 50 years, in many, many ways, has been to make the very rich richer and leave working class families behind. [4:38] But those people in that county in West Virginia, are they reacting to that message? [4:41] Yeah, they reacted positively. [4:43] Did they? [4:43] Yeah. [4:43] Yeah. [4:44] People want, look, my experience that I've been doing this for a while, is people are a lot smarter than politicians think they are. [4:54] Politicians think, oh, yeah, I'll come up with a slogan. [4:57] What's the message? [4:58] Give me five words. [4:59] What's the tweet? [5:00] People are looking at this world. [5:01] It's a crazy world. [5:02] They want to get an understanding of why the hell their kids are going to have a lower standard of living than they do while Mr. Musk owns half the world. [5:10] What's going on? [5:11] Why are they pushing AI on us when it may result in millions of jobs being lost? [5:15] Who has the power? [5:17] That's what they want to understand. [5:18] And Democrats, A, have got to explain, but you can't explain it if you're taking money from these guys. [5:23] That's the problem. [5:24] So when you're talking about explaining, you're talking about messaging. [5:26] And as you noted, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who everybody calls AOC, I don't know what she thinks about that. [5:32] We'll have a chance to ask her. [5:33] I call her Alexandria. [5:34] I wonder what she thinks about, you know, when your name is shrunk that way. [5:36] But she is very good at communicating. [5:39] She is great. [5:40] And when you first ran for president in 2016, she was still tending bar in New York City. [5:45] And she is now one of the most influential people in American politics. [5:50] And she's your buddy. [5:52] You two travel together. [5:54] You hold rallies together. [5:55] You go to concerts together. [5:57] And you're on stage together. [5:58] And she has a big decision to make. [6:01] And I imagine that you're in her ear when she makes big decisions. [6:04] And I'm not going to ask you whether you think she should run for president, because that's one of the things she's weighing. [6:09] We know that. [6:09] She's talked about it. [6:10] I'm not going to ask you if she should run for Senate, because she's a grown woman. [6:14] She can make that decision on her own. [6:18] But I wonder if you have allowed yourself to imagine a world in which someone like AOC is the president of these United States. [6:31] I think we are moving in that direction. [6:35] I think if you just look at the polling that's out there, recent Wall Street Journal poll on virtually every issue that people like Alexandria or I talk about, widespread support, didn't used to be the case. [6:50] Today, I think people recognize that our health care system is broken, dysfunctional. [6:55] Sixty three percent now support Medicare for all. [6:59] Very strong majority of Americans support taxing billionaires. [7:04] Tremendous number of people support raising the minimum wage to at least $20 an hour, et cetera. [7:09] So the agenda of the people like Alexandria, Roe Conner and others, and I have been pushing, I think, is now the agenda that most Americans think makes sense. [7:21] And I think once you have it's attached to socialism, even if it's attached to democratic socialism, even if it's sold in the person of a woman, because Americans have had, you know, a difficult time. [7:33] The rest of the world has no problem electing women to its highest office. [7:38] No question about it. [7:39] Sexism is alive and well in America. [7:41] But if you're asking me, do I think a woman could win under a strong, progressive platform? [7:45] Yes, I do. [7:46] What are the factors she should consider in making that decision? [7:48] Well, you know, she is young. [7:52] She has to make choices. [7:53] She can stay in the House, move up the ladder there. [7:55] She could run for the Senate. [7:58] Which means she would be challenging another one of your buddies, Charles Schumann. [8:03] Yeah, she would be challenging Senator Schumann. [8:06] Would that put you in a difficult position? [8:08] No. [8:08] I would support Alexandria if that was the case. [8:11] Okay. [8:13] Or she could run for president. [8:13] But as you said, that's a decision she will have to make, and nobody can make it for her. [8:18] I'm tempted to ask whether you think she should. [8:21] I know I wouldn't, but now... [8:21] No, don't ask. [8:22] Okay. [8:22] All right. [8:23] It's, you know, it's hanging out there. [8:24] You know, you're cute. [8:25] You want to... [8:26] No, it's her decision. [8:26] Hey, it's Rachel. [8:28] I am so glad to see you at the end of that clip, because this is where I get to tell you [8:32] about a new way to watch all our clips and all of our shows and everything on MSNOW on [8:38] your phone or your tablet or your laptop. [8:40] You can watch things live or recorded. [8:43] Plus, you can ask me and all the other hosts and reporters questions in our weekly live chats. [8:48] You can go to ms.now slash membership or just click below. [8:54] Thanks.