Sanders: I Can Defeat Trump By Speaking To His Base, “Exposing Him For The Fraud He Is”

Sen. Bernie Sanders told MSNBC on Thursday that his strategy for defeating Donald Trump in 2020 will be to speak to his working-class base and “expose him as the fraud that he is.”

“Trump essentially lied to the American people,” Sanders said. “Who were hurting, and for too many years the Democratic leadership ignored that pain and ignored the midwest and the flyover states.”

STEPHANIE RUHLE, MSNBC: Can your ambitious, progressive plans pull in all Democrats? Nancy Pelosi has said the number one priority for the Democratic Party should be to defeat Donald Trump. Do you believe your plans can pull the party together? Since Joe Biden officially entered the race we’ve seen you drop in the polls.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: Absolutely. Look, what I believe is the way you beat Trump, who is the most dangerous president I expect in modern history if not the history of our country, is bringing more people into the political process. That means speaking to working people who out of frustration in some cases voted for Trump. It means getting young people involved in the political process and voting. What we saw in 2018 was a good step forward, and as more young people voted than in previous years but we have to do a lot better than that.

So you expand the base, talking to working people and young people, and we expose Trump for the fraud that he is when he said that he — when he campaigned on being a friend of the working people. You do that, I think I can win. I can defeat Trump and every poll that I have seen suggests we are ahead of Trump, and I think that is the correct way to go forward.

STEPHANIE RUHLE: Can you swipe his base? President trump believes — and many do — that his base is bulletproof. But you and he had a similar message in the last election that it was economic populism. He hasn’t delivered for those voters. Can you take them from him?

BERNIE SANDERS: Absolutely. Look, Trump essentially lied to the American people who were hurting, and for too many years the Democratic leadership ignored that pain and ignored the midwest and the flyover states. So when Trump tells the American people during his campaign that he is going to provide health care to everybody — remember that? Everybody. Well, then he fights to throw 32 million people off of the health insurance they have.

He said, hey, I’m a different type of Republican. I will not cut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. Look at his budget. Massive cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, billions in cuts to Social Security. So I think that we can expose him for the fraud that he is and provide an alternative progressive agenda, which really does speak to the needs of working families.

More news/videos/tweets/etc. in the comments.

Bernie Sanders on trade with China, health care and student debt

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., slammed the Trump administration’s approach to trade policy in a PBS NewsHour interview Tuesday, arguing that the U.S. needs to do more to protect workers but “not the way Trump is dealing with it.”

The remarks come in a week when President Donald Trump threatened the harshest tariffs on China yet, causing stocks to plummet Tuesday.

“I think we do need new trade policies that are fair to the working people of this country not just to the CEOs, but as usual, I think Trump gets it wrong in terms of implementation,” Sanders told the NewsHour’s anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff.

Sanders, who has opposed many of the same trade deals Trump has, including the Trans Pacific Partnership and the North American Free Trade Agreement, said his policies are aimed at stopping companies from sending jobs overseas.

On “Medicare for All”: The 2020 presidential candidate pushed back on a recent Congressional Budget Office report that said moving to a single-payer health care system “could be complicated, challenging, and potentially disruptive” and could deter people from entering the medical field.

Sanders called the nation’s current health care system “dysfunctional,” and said most of the pushback for his Medicare for All plan is coming from insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

When asked whether Americans would be able to choose their doctors under his plan, Sanders argued that Americans do not have true “freedom of choice” right now because insurance companies decide which doctors are included in their networks.

..

Sanders also dismissed concerns among some Democrats that former Vice President Joe Biden could win more support among moderate, middle-class voters. Biden, who entered the presidential race last month, is already polling above Sanders, who was the front-runner before Biden entered the race. Sanders has slipped to second place in most polls in recent weeks.

“At the end of the day, we are going to be fine because I think our message is going to appeal to working people,” Sanders said.

More news/tweets/videos/commentary/etc. in the comments.

Bernie Sanders announces rural America plan that targets corporate farms

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders announced his plan to support rural America on Sunday, promising to hold factory farms and corporate agribusiness accountable by strengthening regulations to protect smaller family farms.

“I come from one of the most rural and the most beautiful states in the United States, I will not write off rural America,” the Vermont senator told a cheering crowd in Osage, Iowa. “Maybe I’m kind of radical here, but I think a farmer who produces the food that we eat is maybe almost as important as some crook on Wall Street who destroys the economy,” he added.

In his remarks, Sanders lamented how many small farmers are often at the financial mercy of a single buyer or supplier setting prices.

“Agribusiness conglomerates extract as much wealth out of small communities as they possibly can while family farmers are going bankrupt and in many ways are being treated like modern day indentured servants,” he said.

Sanders promised “an immediate moratorium on agribusiness mergers” should he be elected and an attorney general willing to “break up large agribusiness corporations.”

He committed to sweeping anti-trust protections for family farmers from “corporate middle men” and seed companies, as well as new laws that protect small farmers from “predatory patent lawsuits,” and allow them to sue companies that contaminate neighboring farms with genetically altered crops.

Sanders also vowed to restore the agency that enforced anti-trust laws in the meatpacking industry — which Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue slashed as a stand-alone agency in 2017.
On pollution emissions, Sanders said he would hold factory farms accountable for such pollution by strictly enforcing the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act.

He also slammed corporate agricultural lobbyists, promising to combat their efforts funneling Agriculture Department subsidies toward a handful of powerful farmers or landowners.

“We will cap those subsidies coming from Washington and make sure they are targeted to the farmers who need that help, not to these profitable agribusiness corporations,” he said.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders previews agricultural policy

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is ready to roll out a major agriculture policy Sunday in Iowa.

“I come from a small rural state, and what’s happening in Vermont is happening in Iowa,” Sanders said.

The Vermont senator said he has a plan to make life better here by investing in rural communities and supporting family farms. That includes a moratorium on mergers in the ag industry and breaking up large processors.

“We need a policy that says we need to grow enough food in the U.S. on a regular basis. That means strengthening family ag, making sure people from other countries don’t own too much land, make sure young people can do farming for generations,” Sanders said.

As for trade wars, Sanders recently accused opponent Joe Biden for downplaying China’s economic threat, but he said they’re friends.

“Joe and I have different opinions. That’s why we’ll talk about it,” Sanders said. “Joe voted for NAFTA, permanent trade relations with China. I lead the effort against trade agreements. I think it’s an area that needs discussion.”

Sanders supports Medicare for all, which he said addresses everyone’s health care needs.

“There are people who want to keep their private insurance. Is that possible under the plan? No. I think we need to consider right now how many people lost their health insurance because they leave their jobs. Medicare is a very strong program. It is a popular program,” Sanders said.

Sanders also told me he supports the House calling on Attorney General William Barr to release the full Mueller report to Congress or face contempt.

“If he does not testify, I think Barr should be held in contempt,” Sanders said. “I could add my voice to the other 80 voices. That’s not going to matter. I think holding him in contempt, that means Barr has got to testify and give Congress the information it requires.”

More news/videos/tweets/etc. in the comments.

‘We Teach, We Vote!’: 10,000 Teachers Rise Up Against Republican Legislature in Deep Red South Carolina

Demanding an end to austerity measures that have kept classrooms overcrowded and educators underpaid, about 10,000 teachers, students, and supporters staged one of the largest protests in recent years at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia on Wednesday.

Led by the grassroots group SC for Ed, teachers from across the traditionally deep red state took personal days to stage the walkout. The protest is aimed at forcing the Republican-controlled legislature to fund higher wages and more hiring in order to reduce class sizes and staff schools with support staff.

“For too long we have allowed our schools to go underfunded while taking the blame for the host of issues that come with that,” SC for Ed said in a statement Wednesday. “We hope the state of South Carolina will commit to starting over the process of reform with current classroom teachers at the table.”

Many of the teachers chanted, “We teach, we vote” as they marched to the Statehouse Wednesday morning.

Former educator Sariah McCall, who cited a chronic lack of resources when she resigned from her job at Charleston County School District in November, was among the speakers at the rally.

McCall’s resignation letter was printed in the Washington Post last month.

“The public has to demand that they receive the time, funding, and resources they require,” McCall wrote. “We need to prioritize education, not just offer it lip-service. Until enough people decide that this is worth making a fuss over, those that are in power have no reason to listen to our hurt, pleas, and fears to make any changes.”

..

Wednesday’s protest marked the second time this year that South Carolina teachers have walked out of their classrooms to decry their chronically low pay and overcrowded schools. In January many teachers took a day off work to lobby at the Statehouse for a 10 percent pay raise.

South Carolina teachers are paid an average of $50,000 per year, with entry-level teachers earning as little as $32,000. The state ranks 38th in the nation for teacher salaries.

Teachers don't have basic resources they need while billionaires get massive tax breaks. That's a disgrace.@NinaTurner and I stand with South Carolina teachers who are striking to change our priorities. pic.twitter.com/NnPILx92Xs

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 1, 2019

More news/tweets/videos/etc. in the comments.

Site/signup issues can be sent to the tpwhelpdesk@gmail.com