Sanders interview

On the new Intercept podcast "Deconstructed."

On corporate media not covering issues:

"What is their function? Their function is to make money. And also their function is protect their own interests. You think the people who own the major corporations, whether it’s media or elsewhere, want to talk about income and wealth inequality, ant to talk about disastrous trade policies, want to talk about Wall Street? That’s not the issue they want to talk about. They want to keep us entertained, and, in fact, in many ways they want to deflect attention away from issues that might bring about real substantive changes in this country, politically and economically."

On reforming the Dimcrapic Party:


"Who are the Democrats? Are there some who have the guts to take on the billionaire class? Yeah. Most don’t. So it’s not that they are, don’t know how to develop — they don’t believe it. All right?
In my view, obviously, and we’re working very hard for, is a transformation of the Democratic Party, to make it a party which stands with the working class, that is prepared to take on the billionaire class. That is not rhetoric. Guess what? There is a billionaire class. There is a Wall Street which puts huge amounts of money into politics. There is the Koch brothers, and we’ve got to deal with that reality."

 On the tax scam:

"I don’t have any objection to tax cuts that benefit small business or the middle class. But I damn well will do everything that I can to see that we repeal tax breaks that go to large, profitable corporations, that go to Wall Street, that go to billionaires. And the vast majority of people understand that. I mean, what the Republicans always do is they give, you’re a working person, hey,, good news you got $100 tax break! You’re the Koch brothers? Oh, you’ve got $1 billion a year tax break. That’s what they do. And I think we can expose that. and I think the American people will understand that."

On a bold progressive agenda:

"What you need is an equal level of boldness on the part of Democratic leadership, except that boldness works for the working class, for the middle class, not just the one percent. What does it mean? It means we are going to go forward with a Medicare for all, single-payer program. We are going to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. We are going to establish pay equity for women."

On Dump firing Mueller:

"I’ve been very reluctant to talk about impeachment until we have all of the information coming in from the investigation. But that would be a major, major, major obstruction of justice. That would be an impeachable offense, in my view."