Bernie Sanders last time around in the primary  won 46% of
  the pledged delegates. People said that  was impossible. He got more than a
  million individual donations, an average  of $27. Famously. I mean, the
  accomplishments. He completely changed  the dialogue around the Democratic Party
  and what's possible in America.   The guy who did it all, Bernie Sanders, has
  announced this morning is running for president.  And Bernie, welcome back to the program.
  [Sen. Sanders] Hey great to be with you Thom.   [Thom] It is so great to have you here, and it's so
  great to hear that you are officially  running for president. Tell us about it.
  There's there are so many  issues that you literally have been the
  guy who was at the lead of, you know.  Whether it's Medicare for all, or the
  $15 minimum wage, or breaking up the big  banks, or free tuition, or lowering drug prices.
  All the work that you've done  over the years for veterans. Where do you start?
  [Sen. Sanders] Well I think we  start where we left off and I think
  you raised the right point. As a result  of millions of people standing up and
  fighting back, we have changed the  definition of what is possible in the
  United States of America. And as a result  I think of the 2016 campaign people are
  saying, you know what, every other major  country on Earth has healthcare as a
  right not a privilege, why can't we?  Countries around the world provide free
  tuition at their public colleges and  universities why can't we?
  Countries around the world pay their workers a  decent wage. Why can't we? And also what
  is even more significant now, is the  understanding that we have got to be
  extremely aggressive in dealing with the  global crisis of climate change.
  And that's an issue we're going to be  talking a whole lot about, because from a
  existential perspective, if we do not  transform our energy system away from
  fossil fuel to energy efficiency and  sustainable energy and by the way, when
  you do that, you can create millions of  good-paying jobs. If we do not do that,
  we're gonna be leaving our kids and our  grandchildren, and I have seven grandchildren,
  a planet that is increasingly unhealthy  and uninhabitable.
  So Thom, those,. you know, certainly are some  of the issues out there. Criminal justice,
  immigration reform, but the other obvious  issue, is the need to deal with the most
  dangerous president in certainly the  modern history of this country. And it
  gives me no pleasure to tell the  listeners what they already know.
  That Trump is a pathological liar. It doesn't  matter what he says today, he will say
  something different tomorrow.
  He is a racist. He is a sexist.   He is a xenophobe.
  He is a religious bigot. And, you know, it  honestly gives me no pleasure to talk
  about a President of the United States  in those words. But that is that is the
  simple truth. And Trump must be defeated. And I believe, after a lot of thought,
  that I am the strongest candidate to  defeat Trump. I think we can win, in
  states that Hillary Clinton lost. States  like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, other
  states. And the third point that  I would make Thom, about maybe what makes
  our campaign a little bit unique. Is it  is one thing to talk about health care
  for all,  another thing talk about raising the
  minimum wage, or the need to transform  our energy system. But what I believe
  from the bottom of my heart and you have  heard me talk about this for many years
  on this show, is that the powers that be,  the special interests, in the fossil fuel
  industry. On Wall Street. The military  industrial complex. The pharmaceutical
  industry. All of these special interests  are so powerful, that the only way they
  can be defeated is through an  unprecedented grassroots movement of
  millions of people who are standing up  and fighting back. So it's not just ideas.
  Ideas are important, but we need to  mobilize people. Today, what we are
  asking of people. We're asking  people to contribute money, that's great.
  But more importantly, we are asking one  million people in the next week or so, to
  sign up and work on campaign.   Put together an unprecedented,
  historic grassroots campaign, which not  only will win the Democratic nomination,
  not only wins the general election, but  also begins the process of transforming
  American society so that we have a  government that works for all of us and
  not just a few.   [THOM] This is the second part is the really
  big challenge. I mean Franklin Roosevelt  became president and then in 1936 when
  he was running for re-election he was  coming right out and saying, never before
  have the forces of greed hated such a  candidate as much as they hate me and I
  welcome their hatred. That pulling  together of a coalition pulling together
  the people of the country, is really  going to be the biggest job of of the
  next president assuming that, you know,  and of Congress and everything else.
  How do we most effectively do this?   [Sen. Sanders] Well here's what we do.
  What Trump does, is what demagogues  historically have done. I don't want to
  give him too much credit, he did not  develop the strategies what demagogues
  have done for a long time.  You represent the wealthy and the
  powerful, and you do that by dividing  people up often picking on minorities.
  That's kind of history in this stuff.  And our job is do exactly the opposite.
  It's to bring blacks and whites  and Latinos, Native Americans, Asian
  Americans, women, men, gay ,straight  native-born immigrants. We bring our
  people together and we demand a  government which thoughts working for
  all of us or not just wealthy campaign  contributors. So we have a fight in front
  of us, to transform our economic and  political life. To create a democracy of
  one-person, one-vote. Not the Koch  brothers and other billionaires buying
  elections. Not voter suppression.  Not excessive gerrymandering. To create an
  economy, which does not allow three  people, and this is really unbelievable,
  and very few people talk about it we got  today Thom, you got three people owning
  more wealth than the bottom half of America.   You got the top 1% owning more
  wealth than the bottom 90%. You got 46%  of all new income going to the top 1%.
  And you got a billionaire classes "oh,   that's not enough,
  I need massive tax breaks let's cut  Social Security Medicare and Medicaid".
  It is really out of control.   So we need to mobilize the American people
  around an agenda which people already support.   And, you know, I hope that we can
  even reach out to some of Trumps  supporters, who now understand that he
  lied to them, as he often does.   He told them that he would protect working
  families and then he proceeds to try to  throw 32 million people off of
  the health insurance they have. That's  not protected working families. He comes
  up with a budget after, campaigning on  saying, I'm not gonna cut Social Security
  Medicare and Medicaid.   Here's a budget last year. A trillion dollars cut in Medicade.
  500 billion in Medicare.  72 billion in Social Security.
  He lied. So, we got a  lot of work in front of us. But to answer
  your question. Our challenge is to bring  people together around a progressive
  agenda, an agenda that in many ways is  supported by the vast majority of the
  American people. Defeat Trump and then  roll up our sleeves and take on the big
  money interests, who exert so much  influence over our economic and
  political life.  [THOM] Amen. And last question.
  I'm assuming that BernieSanders.com  is your campaign website. So if
  people go to the website and they say,  "Yes I'd like to be one of those million people".
  What is the range of kinds of help   that people can offer?
  [Sen Sanders] That's a  great question and I hope everybody
  understands us. Look we know that there  are some people, have three kids
  and they're working full-time. They don't  have a whole lot of time. We will take
  whatever you can give. If it's an hour a  week, two hours a week, two hours a month,
  that's great. If you have more time  that's great. So yes, we would love, you
  know, small campaign, donations.  But more important at this stage is
  to do what has never been done. Can you  imagine Thom, if in a couple of weeks, we
  can announce, that we have a million  people who are prepared to work hard on
  this campaign?  Wow, if we can do that I think there's no stopping us.
  [Thom] Amen. Well said.   Well Senator Sanders, I wish you the very best.
  I am so pleased that you are in  this race. BernieSanders.com
  is the website.  [Sen. Sanders] Thom, thank you very much for all the
  great work that you do. in  terms of being one of the great
  progressive voices on on radio so thank  you keep up the great work.
  [Thom] Well, thank you Bernie and thank you so much for being a part of this show
  for so many years and for being on our show today.   We'll talk again soon I hope.
  [Sen. Sanders] We will.
     
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