Bernie Sanders
Appearances
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
It's a simple question. And there are some people say, hey, yeah, that's okay. It's a dog-eat-dog world. Elon's a brilliant guy. He's a hardworking guy. Other billionaires start their own companies. They're really bold and brave. Fine. They deserve it. And if you are trying to get by on $40,000 a year, well, tough crap. How do you think Elon feels about it? I don't know him.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
I've only talked to him many years ago, so I don't know him personally. But I'll tell you what I do think. I think there is a new breed of uber-capitalists out there. really believe, and they write about this as well, really believe that they are superior human beings.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
This is the quote-unquote high IQ guys who say, look, we work hard, we're smart, we have started these businesses. To the victor go the spoils. Not only that, I think what, that's yes. It's a dog eat dog world.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
You didn't make it. Hey man, that's the way life goes. It's deeper than that. You have some writing on the right, on the far right, which really diminishes democracy. And that really the smart and the wealthy and the powerful have the right to rule. So this is not just, oh, I want a tax break. There's nothing new about that. This is, we have the right.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
It's the divine, you know, used to be the divine rights of kings. Manifest destiny. Exactly. All right. Back in the 19th century, the 1850s, you know, I am the king. God made my family king. And sorry, you're starving to death, but that's the way life goes. God told me my family rules.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Okay. Look, I just... I mean, these guys are very competitive. They're very smart. They're very innovative, hardworking. And I really think it's very competitive. And I think they want it all. I really do. And I think what is, if you stop for a moment, and I hope we can talk a little bit about a corrupt campaign finances.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
All right. Getting back to the Democrats and the Republicans and all that stuff. Understand, I mean, I'm in the middle of it. I work in Washington, D.C., So you're just using Musk again as an example. He's only one.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
I don't mean to pick on Mr. Musk, but the guy contributes because of a broken and corrupt campaign finance system, which as a result of Citizens United Supreme Court decision, if you're familiar with that, allows billionaires to start super PACs.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
When you grow up as a kid, you have a thing called the Brooklyn Dodgers. Of course. Yeah. So when you're a kid, the idea that it could be moved someplace else. When you're a kid, you can't. That is privately owned. Yeah. run for profit, and then it can be moved to California, was literally beyond your comprehension, beyond my comprehension. So it was a real shock.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
We have the First Amendment that says you have freedom of speech. Okay. So wealthy individuals in a case called Citizens United, I don't remember all the details, basically said, look, we had at that point, Citizens United, I think is 15, 20 years, that decision from the Supreme Court, Supreme Court decision. So people go into the court and say, look, I have a First Amendment right.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
to tell the people of America how I feel about an issue or a candidate. Absolutely. I don't like Andrew, and I want to spend $20 million on television ads telling people what a jerk he is, okay? You're making me feel like Jamal Bowman. All right, that's another story. All right. And the Supreme Court says no. We have campaign finance.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
There's campaign finance law, which limits the amount of money you can spend on a campaign. So there's already law in place. There's already legislation that you cannot do. That's what Citizens United did. It said the Supreme Court ruled that billionaires that... Advertising is freedom of speech, and you can't limit my speech.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
So if I want to spend $100 million on TV ads, I have the right to do it. They say, you're right. So the issue is democracy versus billionaires being able to spend unlimited sums of money. Supreme Court went with that. And then the form it took. was what's called a super PAC. You saw their organization, Americans for Freedom, okay? And billionaires can put as much money as they want into that.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
That organization then runs ads on television. It does political stuff. That's what it's about. So bottom line, though, most importantly, is if you are a billionaire, you can put as much money as you want into a super PAC. And in Musk's case, he spent $270 million to help Donald Trump get elected president. Do Democrats have billionaires putting money into suit packs? Absolutely. All right.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
What does that mean in real life? This is what it means. Right now, we're dealing with a bill called the reconciliation bill. It's a fancy Washington term for a very big bill, which will have a lot of stuff in it. In any case, if a Republican stands up and says, you know what? in the House of Representatives.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
I don't like this bill because, you know, it's giving tax breaks to very wealthy people and it's going to cut Medicaid and cut nutrition programs. It's a bad bill. What do you think happens the day after that Republican stands up and says he opposes it?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
It is enormously effective. If you have, sure. Right now, you're a Republican. Yeah. Wait, what? No, I don't mean you. I'm being generalist. It's going to go viral. All right. So you have... Two elements. Trump is enormously popular within the Republican base. Yeah. Elon Musk has unlimited sums of money. Right. Double whammy. Double whammy. So it is very hard for any Republican to sustain.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And if you're asking me, did that have an impact on my political views? It did, actually. It did. Because the Dodgers were a cohesive force in Brooklyn, bringing people together, Jackie Robinson, et cetera, et cetera. So yeah, that had an impact on me.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Give you another example, because I don't want to, I'm an independent, right? Caucus with the Democrats. Democrats are better than the Republicans, to my mind. But Democrats, I happen to believe they're providing more military aid to Netanyahu's extreme right-wing government to do the horrible things that are going on in Gaza right now. As you may know, as we speak, it's horrible. Absolutely.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Children are starving to death. Absolutely. Malnutrition growing and all that stuff. I introduced legislation to say we're going to block the sale of certain military weaponry to Israel. I got 15 Democrats to support me. I got zero Republicans. Why do you think more Democrats didn't support me? Because if Democrats support me, they will have to take on AIPAC. You mentioned Jamal Bowman?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
I learned something from that. But again, I mean, you think about it. He was something so important. Yeah. There's so many people. This guy didn't give a damn. To make more money, let's go to California.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
That's what you're talking about.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
You got him? Okay. Cori Bush in Missouri, St. Louis, was defeated. A woman in the state of Washington, Pramila Jayapal's sister ran. So if you want to speak out against Netanyahu's government and oppose military sales, AIPAC, which is also funded by billionaires who support both Democrats and Republicans, will go after you.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
You don't talk about the issue.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
I was up in Westchester campaigning for Bowman. Yeah. And I supported Cori Bush as well. To the best of my knowledge, and I'm 99% sure I'm right, they didn't say one word about Israel. The argument was he's a bad Democrat or whatever the usual negative advertising. Didn't talk about Israel.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
All right. I mean, I think they should not have unlimited amounts of money. But your point is, hey, if that's what your goal is, be honest about it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
You're right. So your point is right. If somebody says, look, I love Netanyahu. I think they're doing a good job. You oppose him and I'm going to oppose you for that reason. Yes. Be honest about it. Exactly. But you know what? I think one of the reasons they don't do that, you know why? Because it wouldn't be supported. That's right.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Sure. There was a huge market out there in California, right? Right. Everybody, they can make more money. I think he starts baseball on the West Coast. Yeah, he and the Giants guy. That's right. That's right.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
That's a great question, man. Thank you. You're asking really good questions. We're working on it right now. And here is without going too much into the weeds. We need to end Citizens United. That's not going to happen tomorrow. But what you can do is within the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, you can have rules that says you want to be the candidate of the Democratic Party.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Well, guess what? You tell—and this is, again, tricky— You tell that you announce very clearly you do not want any super PACs supporting you. And by the way, if super PACs support you for every dollar they put in, we're going to put another dollar in supporting you. There are things you can do. We're going to run air.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Oh, wow. Okay. They were sitting there. We had a lot of young people. We had people of color. And they create this kind of myth with the help of the corporate media and all that stuff.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Yeah, that's what the liberal elite China does. They run away. Look, getting again. I would hope that everybody who's watching the program is that we as a nation have got to end all forms of bigotry, right? Yes. And I start off as a basic assumption. Unless it's to your close friends, right? Whether it's racism or sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, whatever it is.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
But and, you know, liberal Democrats talk about that all the time. And then you get to what we call identity politics. You're black. You're wonderful. You're tremendous. You're gay. You're the greatest human being on earth. Yeah, yeah. And rather than say, what do you stand for? Exactly. Well, gay, that's fine. Who cares? But what do you stand for? Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
You know, is every gay person brilliant and wonderful and great? No, of course not. Everybody's human being. Yeah. So the issue is what you stand for, which gets you back to what we discussed earlier, class politics. Yes. In the sense of which side are you on? Are you going to stand with working families? Are you going to raise the minimum wage to a living wage or not?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
That raises a whole other issue. But, you know, sports and professional sports and all that stuff. But, yeah, it was a big deal.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Are you going to fight to guarantee health care to all people or not? Are you going to demand that the wealthiest people start paying their fair share of taxes or not? Those are the issues. No one cares what color you are, what your gender is, et cetera, et cetera.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
This is a very well, this is a good discussion. Why are you shocked? I'm shocked because I do a lot of things.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
It's a painful issue. I deal with it every day in Washington. You're running for office. If you, in your heart... understand what's going on in Gaza right now. And again, it's almost painful to talk about it. The United States is complicit in the starvation of children as we speak right this moment. Mass malnutrition, et cetera. And you say, that's wrong, man.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And, you know, what you're seeing today, and it's something we haven't looked at enough, it's something I want to, is it hasn't really changed. You have the, what is the function of professional sports? All of these teams are owned by billionaires. Yeah. And if Baltimore doesn't give you enough money, you're going to move someplace else.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And I'm not going to give Netanyahu another nickel, but I know that the day I say that, AIPAC is going to pour a huge amount of money. So what's the choice you have? The choice you have is, okay, they're going to throw a lot of money at me, but I'm going to make this a major campaign issue. I ain't going to run away from it. What do we stand for as a nation?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And I'll tell you something, getting back to the Democratic Party, what the Democratic establishment was like, well, Gaza, yeah, it's an issue out there. It's not the main issue. It's not the pocketbook issues, you know, more important. Health care is more important. But you know what? I'll tell you this is my own view.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
is what people have a sense, consciously and unconsciously, if you are turning your back on starving children in Gaza, why the hell am I going to trust you on anything? It's a great point. Is that a fair point?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Well, that's what politics is about.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
I do. And Gaza then becomes a moral issue that you cannot run away from. But at the end of the day, You know, we have to ask ourselves, why are we are where we are? And it's a funny thing. I was talking to my staff when we were driving in today and reviewing. There was a, I think it was Pew, P-E-W. They do these studies. Yeah, they do things. And they ask the question.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
I may be a little bit wrong here, but they said they do it. And they say, are you better off today than somebody in your situation, middle class, whatever you are? War 40 years ago. That's the question.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And the matter, you know, you break the hearts of kids, nobody cares. Yes.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
I don't mean that. I don't even mean statistically. I'm going beyond that. Are you better off than somebody in your position? How do you feel? Do you think somebody in your condition? No. Was living better 40 years ago, or are you living better today? I think the average person would say no. That's right.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
That's an astonishing— All right, so let's go through the economics of it, and then we'll go through the broader issue. Economics, this is an amazing fact. And again, it's something that people don't talk about because you've got a lot of— The Republicans want to make change. It's almost always the wrong kind of change. And the Democrats want to maintain the status quo, which is unsustainable.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Yeah. That's what the choices that people have. Yeah. All right.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
I don't feel sorry for you.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
It's just a refusal to look in the mirror. That's exactly right. Here's a fact. This is an astounding fact. Nobody talks about it. And this is the other thing. More important than anything else is people want to say, do you know what is going on in my life? And if you don't talk about that reality, no one's going to trust you at all. Yeah. All right. Fact. But let's call people Latinx, Bernie.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
That's right. That's right. That's the issue. All right. Over the last 52 years, I may be off a little bit here, but more or less I'm right. Over the last 52 years, there's been an explosion in technology, right? This stuff that we're looking at did not exist. Every worker in America is more productive, correct? Absolutely. Okay. Computers, et cetera.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Well, now you're raising another question. I was mayor of Burlington. And Burlington, Vermont. We'd love everybody to visit us in Vermont. And we had no professional baseball at all. I got elected way back in 81. I said, one of the things that I want to do, see if we can bring back the Brooklyn Dodgers. That was a little bit too ambitious.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
How much have real inflation accounted for wages increased in that 52-year time? Obviously, with all of that worker productivity increasing, we must be making a lot more money, right? Nothing. Zero percent. Zero. Yeah. In fact, there's an argument it's a little bit less in real housing costs.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
But take a deep breath about that fact. What does it say? Meanwhile, during that same period of time, there was a massive, according to Rand Corporation, not a socialist organization, there was a massive transfer of wealth from the bottom 90% to the top 1%.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Right. But that is getting back to this important issue, which I kind of started, you know, what is reality? So if you're the average worker out there. Yes, sir. You're seeing people on the top getting phenomenally rich. You're no better off. And by the way, the likelihood is your kid is going to be worse off than you are, right? Yeah. That's a tough reality. Why is that?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Who the hell is even talking about? Hey, why is that?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Essentially, Democrats say status quo is working OK. We're going to tinker around the edges to make a little bit of a change here. Trump says the whole system is broken. Yeah. But I will fix it. Yeah. Well, his solutions will make it worse. But he at least acknowledged that the system is broken. Democrats often don't.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
That's a great question. And the answer is that we do know. And that is during the 70s, 60s, Democrats called out that you could raise a lot of money from wealthy people. And it gets back to campaign financing and all that stuff. So you got a Democratic establishment now, which is funded by wealthy people. You have consultants.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
who are really way out of touch with reality, who make a whole lot of money in campaigns, and working class is ignored. Donald Trump comes along and says, you know, I care about you, which was a lie. I don't know if that's a lie.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
You've got it. So that was her bloody console. I mean, I know Kamala. She's a friend. She's very smart. That was what I did. Bloody consultants told her to say, I begged them. I'm just between you. Why can't she push back? You're right. Look, there's no argument.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
But could we bring professional baseball? So we got to work on it and we ended up getting a double. I think it was a double A team. Very good team. in the Cincinnati Reds for its size. And we were talking hard about how we can municipally own it. And we actually... Oh, wow. Love it. Yeah. And we would have put public money into it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Look, but you have, in the world that I live in, you got a choice. And I mean, a lot of people, including my wife, agree with you. But, you know, you're down to a choice. Is it going to be Hillary Clinton or is it going to be... Donald Trump, not a great choice. But it ended up being him anyway, so why don't we burn it down?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Well, because it's easy to say burning it down means that children are not going to have... you know, food to eat, that the schools will deteriorate, people will not have health care. I got it. And I, you know, I'm an elected official. I got to represent the people. That's fair. And I can't turn my back on.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
That is, that is, yeah, I'm not going to argue with that point. And that's why I'm proudly an independent. What we're trying to do now is, And I will just reinforce the point both of you made. The hatred that we felt in 2016, 2020 from the Democratic establishment. I'll give you an example.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
We would do rallies and we have thousands of people, often young people, people of color coming out, working class people coming out. They were great, full of energy. And then we'd go to Democratic Party events. There'd be a few hundred people, mostly older, whiter, wealthier.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
and you saw the clash and they the establishment did not want to open the door they hated the idea but all these people whose hands were a little bit dirty who didn't have phds or weren't wealthy imagine walking in it's my party man you ain't getting in yes we will fight you in the most ruthless ways that we can and that that's the struggle are they going to open the door
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Or are they prepared to lose elections literally and maintain the status quo, go down with the Titanic? Do you think you're forcing the door open? Because it seems like that's what's happening right now. Exactly what we are trying to do right now. In the last month, we have enlisted some, I think, the latest 7,000 people who are prepared to run for office from school board to Congress.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
You know, not all of them will run, but they've shown interest. There are training programs that we're undertaking with other groups right now. And by the way, a good percentage of them don't want to run as Democrats. They want to run as independents. Mm-hmm.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
They realize they can't ignore it. Orphan lip service. Yes, they will. They will take on the ideas. But these guys... They want to protect what they have. So your question is a, you would say, look, okay. And by the way, Joe Biden, to his credit, I know everyone beats up on Biden. But what Biden did, unlike Hillary Clinton did, is he and his people saw that we had a movement.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
It would have been... We would have made money off of it and all that. So we ended up losing it on the city council. But it was an effort that we tried to make. Anyhow, we brought the team in. It was really good for the community. But years later, they left it, et cetera, et cetera. But the idea that... And taxpayers are putting huge sums of money. Hundreds of millions of dollars.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And what he did is was prepared to put together task forces. We sat down with their people. And we brought people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and some of the strongest. We sit down with with, you know, establish and come up with a program. A lot of what went into the American Rescue Plan, which got us out of the covid pandemic economically pretty well and some other stuff.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
So the Biden people were more open to sitting down, understanding that we represented millions of people than other people in the past or are right now.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Oh, there are a number of people. Look, one of the successes that we've had that doesn't get a lot of attention is is in the House of Representatives now. There are dozens and dozens of young, often people of color, often women, who are there. I mean, Alexandria is maybe the best known. Pramila Jayapal from Washington State, Greg Cazar from Texas, Mark Buchan from Wisconsin.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
There are many of them, and they're doing a great job. And they don't take corporate PAC money, and they stand up for the working class.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
I don't own any stock, so it's not my thing to follow it. I'm not sure that that has... You know, if the implication is that these members of Congress are aware what's going to happen tomorrow and are putting their stock, I'm not sure how. I'm sure it happens. I don't know how prevalent it is.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
But what was interesting, by the way, on that subject, as you may recall, just was it a month ago where Donald Trump said something like, well, today is a great day to invest. And all the changes his views on the tariffs. Do I think insiders knew something about that? Probably. That felt awesome when he did that. Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
If school systems are falling apart, they're putting billions of dollars or huge sums of money to build these huge stadiums. These guys make a fortune. And then, you know, 10 years later, they move out.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
All right. Let me ask you a question. All right. Do we talk enough about where we want to be as a nation? And I think culturally what Trump represents to me is He lies all of the time. He is interested in himself and more money. And almost what bothers me is that is the kind of culture that we advertise to young people. This is the world. If you lie and you cheat and you steal, you sue.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Someday you can be a multi-billionaire. Is that where we want to go as a nation? And what's the alternative?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
is what the melting pot city, in a sense, where my father came from Poland. He dropped out of school at 14. He came here at the age of 17, really incredible, without any money. All right, and that's the story of millions and millions of families. We all came different ways. But what I'm getting at is should the goal—and everybody wants to live comfortably, right? Yes, absolutely.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
There's nothing to be ashamed of. You don't have to worry about whether you can pay the electric bill. You want to make sure your kids get an education. Absolutely. All right. But does the culture have to suggest that to be a success, you need to be a billionaire? What I'm getting at is, you know, I'm the former chairman of a committee that deals with all this stuff.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
So we don't have enough doctors in America. We don't have enough nurses. We don't have enough dentists. I brought in several billion dollars into the state of Vermont for infrastructure to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. We did that all over America. We don't have enough construction workers who make good money, by the way. You want to be a sheet metal worker. You want to be a welder.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Part-time low-paying jobs, by the way. This whole thing of professional sports owned by a small number of very wealthy people is something that... What's the irony? You want to go to a Red Sox? We go to Red Sox games. You go to Yankee games. How much does it cost to take a family? Husband, wife, two kids. Hundreds of dollars. Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
You want to be an electrician. You want to be a – we don't have enough. What I'm saying is I would like to see us say, you want to make America great? Good. Dude, I want to have doctors so you can have to wait two months to get into a doctor's office.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And then you go even deeper than that. And that is, I mean, now you're going really deep, is you get into the issue of human happiness. All right. These guys sit in Wall Street. They get up, you know, four o'clock in the morning to see what the stock market is in Japan. And they make zillions of dollars doing crap. I mean, what's the usefulness of the society? Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And you got a kindergarten teacher here in New York City. Who is nurturing and making life better for some low-income kid, right? Yeah. Who's doing more important work?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
That's exactly the question I want. I want, I mean, again, getting to the, it seems to me, you know, you talk to, I'll tell you something. We do a thing in Vermont. It's called the Burning Buzz. It's a newsletter that goes out. Did a interview with a woman who works in a nursing home. God knows what she makes. It's not a lot of money.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And she talked about her satisfaction helping seniors fixing their hair, the women getting their nails and all that stuff. And the pride. She's a religious woman. Okay. And the pride she had and how she feels good. I want us to feel good about doing good stuff. Yes. Not just ripping off other people. I don't want to be.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
You buy a Coca-Cola, it costs you five bucks, 10 bucks, whatever it is. I mean, that's kind of crap. I mean, when I was a kid going to Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, you remember Ebbets Field? You know what it was? No, no, I'm a little bit younger than you.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Exactly.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
This is the kind of discussion we need to have. And it gets back to this thing, you know, this blew me away, this Pew poll about whether you feel better off. And we got diverted a little bit. It's not just economics, whether you're better off inflation accounting for dollars today than you were 40 or 50 years ago. It's more than that. It's you feel part of your community. All right.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
or you're feeling isolated and alone, and you're spending half your time on your goddamn cell phone. Yeah. Right? And, you know, how do we... I mean, the craziness is we have more potential wealth now with all of this exploding technology, so we don't have to be working 50 or 60 hours a week. We can be thinking about how do we... What does it mean? A, should we be dealing with the economic issue?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Should everybody have a decent standard of living in America? Can we do that? The answer is yeah, we can.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Yeah, I do. I happen to believe that we should not have billionaires. All right, so you want to get rich, fine, get rich. How much do you need? All right. Yeah. So I would have a very steep tax. $999 million. Something like that. All right. Maybe $900 million. But we want to change the culture around. You know, I talked to Bill Gates. I did an interview with him on Netflix.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And the same was with the Dodgers. Yes, of course. All right. You're kidding me. Absolutely. So we used to sneak in and get 60 cents, you know, sitting in the bleachers. And during that period, you know, a family could go to a game. Yeah. And now it's, you know, pretty on. Yeah. And that's unfortunate. Really, it's great athletes out there. People want to see them. Yeah. Can't afford it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And I said, Bill, you know, you're worth a zillion dollars. Were you motivated as a young man with the dream that you'd become? He said, no. He said, I love computer programming. That's what I loved. That was his passion. Then he ended up making huge amounts of money. So, you know, I don't begrudge people making a lot of money, but I think there is, should be a limit there. to how much you make.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And also, and then getting back to economics, is we are looking at a nation today, not only with massive income and wealth inequality, but incredible concentration of ownership. Want to hear a fact? Yeah. You got three Wall Street investment firms BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard. Vanguard, yes. Who combined are the major stockholders in 95% of the corporations in America.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Go look at your favorite corporation, see who owns it. It'll be one of those. Who's the major stockholder? They'll be there. What do you think about that? That's power. What is the impact of that? How does that power wield? It means that you have three entities with boards of directors who have significant control of every major corporation in America. What that means is, do they stay in America?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Do they go abroad? Do they pay their workers a decent wage or do they treat them like crap? That's what it means.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
That's right. That's your retirement goes into Vanguard. But that's one thing. But the other thing is that Vanguard, State Street and BlackRock have enormous economic power, which is not a good thing. And they're not using it benevolently. They're not. They're using it to make more money. So the issue is that we got to take a look at.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
is we ought to ask questions that I got to tell you in Congress is very rarely asked and in the media is very rarely asked. In the wealthiest country on earth, should everybody have a decent standard of living? Americans, yes and no. Some people will say, no, hey, it's a tough world out there. I'm sorry. I'm smarter than you. I work harder. My dad gave me a lot of money. You don't have it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Tough crap. At least they're honest. Yeah, that's what some people will say. Most people will not say that. Most people will say, you know what? Yeah, I don't think anybody should be sleeping out on the street. I don't think anybody should not be able to go to a doctor. That's what most people will say. Okay? What does that mean in terms of practical politics?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Uh, it means among other things that we need an educational system, which is very strong from childcare to graduate school. All right. You want to become, I know your dad wants you to become a doctor, but if you want to become a doctor, you may leave school half a million dollars in debt. You know that? Absolutely. All right. Does that make sense? We need doctors.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Should we as the richest nation ever say, good, you want to be a doctor? You want to be a nurse? You want to be a dentist? We need you desperately tuition free. We love you. Yeah. Do it because we desperately need you. Subsidize it. Yeah, of course.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
That's a very good question. And I'm not sure that that's a legitimate question. I think a right question. I don't know that they think about it that way.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Well, that is the debate. Good. And that is the honest debate that we should be happy as a country.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
It was awesome.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
I echo what you're saying. Some of these folks born with huge amounts of money think that they have the right to be telling everybody else what they can be doing and have enormous power.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
What we used to do is hang out after the games to see if we got autographs. And I remember him coming out. He had problems with his ankle or his foot or something. He came out holding his shoes. How did you know it was Jackie Robinson? Hard one. You talk about impact as a kid. We used to do, this is true, I mean, the Dodgers will like your family. Yeah. So I can tell you today, the Dodger lineup.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Well, I happen to think that education itself is something that should be a lifelong pursuit. My wife tells me this every day. I mean— And I don't mean to be romanticized, but learning is a pretty good thing. And I tell my grandchildren that. And schools sometimes almost discourage them from learning. I hate school, Grandpa. So I think learning is important.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And I think we probably have to, in this day and age, revolutionize education. But I personally believe, in my soul, is if you want to get a graduate degree... We need you. And I don't you shouldn't be going in that there should not be impediments. You know, we've got to figure a way to fund it. But bottom line is anybody I want to say to every kid in America, you're interested in physics.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
You're interested in science. You're interested in engineering. You're going to do it. I don't care what your income is. We will in one way or another. You're going to achieve that. And you know why? Because as a nation, we need we need. Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
We need engineers. Yeah. All right. We need people who know how to build tunnels.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
In case you haven't heard, there is a climate crisis. All right. How do you transform our energy system? Easier said than done. We need some really, really smart people to figure out how we create cheap, sustainable energy. Right? Yeah. All right. I will send you to graduate school. Thank you. Daily. Yeah. He needs it. We need you. We need you.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And that's what we should be thinking about as a nation. And as far as subsidizing that, do we have room in the budget? And where is the best place to pull it from? Subsidize. What does that mean? We're subsidizing this bill right now, the so-called reconciliation bill, Trump's big, beautiful bill. We got 200 in the House. The Republicans are putting in $235 billion over a 10-year period.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
to go to the top two-tenths of 1%. So if your billionaire father is going to leave you money, the exemption is now up to a married couple of $30 million that you don't have to pay any taxes on. So this goes to the top two-tenths of 1%. Do we have enough money? This is what you got to get in your head. We have enough money in this country to do any goddamn thing you want to do.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
In this particular budget, we're now spending a trillion dollars on the military. They want to spend $150 billion more. We're spending more than the bottom, the next nine nations combined. So what we're doing is giving tax breaks to the rich, spending more money on the military, and then we're going to cut Medicaid.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
So the way in this country, literally, and by the way, when I say these things, they're not radical ideas. All right. How much does it cost to go to college in Sweden? Nothing. Oh, wow. No kidding. No. But that must be the health care system is really expensive, right? It must be. How much does it cost to have health care in Sweden? Nothing. Oh, my God. Nothing.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Child care must be really off the wall. In other words, if you start off with a value system that says we're going to use, and there are rich people in Sweden, believe me. But it's a value system that says, look, we're in this together as a people. We want the best educated people. We want our kids to do well. We want everybody to have health care for a lot of reasons. Sweden does it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
How's that? Wow. Everyone here, Gil Hodges in first place? No. Jesus.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Norway does it. Finland does it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Is that true? That is the pushback. And we're a multicultural, multiracial, and they're kind of homogeneous. Yeah, so what? We're richer than they are, as a matter of fact. Well, Norway is particularly rich. They have a lot of oil money, but we can do it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Well, I think you make a very good point. The problem is the people in the insurance industry and the drug industry understand that as well. So they're not dummies. They understand, oh, Jesus, Vermont managed to provide free health care to all of their people. That will become a model for the rest of the country, and we're up the creek.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
I told you the educational system is falling apart. We didn't learn that. Gil Hodges is a great guy. Very quiet guy. He coached the, he managed the Mets years later.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Oh, my God, Jesus. In a small state, you just have lobbyists there up the kazoo and put advertising on. Look, I am an advocate of what we call Medicare for all, expanding Medicare to cover every man, woman, and child in the country. All right. Oh, and the argument, we had 30 second ads. Bernie Sanders wants to raise your taxes.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
outrageously take away the health insurance that you have well what they forget to tell you is that you're not going to be paying any more out-of-pocket any more deductibles any more premiums you're going to get higher wages because your boss doesn't have to spend a fortune on health care to cover you they forgot to tell you that that's like your taxes go up six grand but your health care yearly cost goes from 12 grand to zero that's right you just save six grand
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
All right. And the health care system, we're going to be going on that one. We're spending twice as much per capita as the people in Sweden who have a better health care system. Why? Well, maybe coincidentally, insurance companies, you know, made, what did they make? $100. I think it made $70 billion last year. Drug companies, the charges, the highest prices for drugs made $100 billion.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
So it is a health care system designed to make what? Drug companies and insurance companies rich.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
The U.K. is under a lot of pressure right now. And that's true. And that's a political decision. They got the same factors that would impact the state. The big money interests are putting a lot of pressure trying to destroy the UK health care system, and its quality is going down, although it is still a very beloved institution in England. In Canada, there are waiting lines.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
It ain't a perfect system by any means. But don't believe all the right-wing stuff. In Canada, if you ask the people in Canada, do they like their health care system as opposed to America's, theirs come out much better.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
You believe what you saw in the paper.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
junior gilliam nothing yeah yeah peewee reese i think very friendly with jaggie robinson right he like really like took the movie they probably played it up a little but he was he came from kentucky yeah uh you know it's a southern end that point a lot of racism he befriended robinson's yeah third base was billy cox left field was gina manske center field was duke snyder um
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
What he did is say, we're going to give the drug companies a certain period of time to tell us how they're going to lower drug prices. And if they don't, we're going to do A, B, and C. We're not quite sure what A, B, and C will be. But the likelihood is that A, B, and C will be thrown out in the courts because the president doesn't have a right to tell... companies how to fix prices.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Just coincidentally, Bobby Kennedy, the secretary of HHS, was before the committee that I'm the ranking member of. And I asked Bobby and I said, look, the president talks about substantially lowering prescription drug prices. You do. We're going to introduce legislation that will do just that. And will you work with me? He said they will. So to answer your question, the president talks a lot.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Don't believe what he says. We're going to put him to the test. We are going to bring forth legislation that would make sure that Americans don't pay taxes.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
If I didn't say it, that's exactly right.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Trump's idea of substantially lowering prices is exactly right. It's exactly what I fought for for years. Yeah. Okay. So if Trump is willing to work with us, we'll do it. Absolutely. Do I think he will? Probably not. But I may be surprised.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Yes, but don't get me going on the drug industry.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Get going.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Well, I've got to get going to the airport. They've got a plane, as a matter of fact. We'll fly you private. All right.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Look, you've got a pharmaceutical industry that made $100 billion in profit last year. We had a guy before the committee, CEO of a major company, makes 50 million bucks a year. They do stock buybacks.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
So, you know, it is a, meanwhile, the same medicine that you buy in this country, whether it's Ozempic or Wegovy, whatever it may be, is in some cases five, eight times more expensive than it is in Canada or in Europe. It's insane. It is insane. Of course it's insane. And they do it because they can do it. Because we are the only—you know why they do it? All right. Question.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
15,000. 1,500. All right. So you got 535 members of Congress, 1500. These are former leaders. So that's a lot of power. And then the campaign contributions. So up until Biden, and I work with Biden on this, we have never, what other countries do is say, good, you got a drug. That's great. Let's negotiate the price you're going to charge us, right?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
That's what they do, every other country on earth. For us, you got a drug, you charge any price you want, doesn't matter. For the first time, what we did is now have a law that says we are going to negotiate, Medicare will negotiate drug prices. We started off with 10, it'll be expanding. Is it enough? No. Is it a start? Yes, it is.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Probably heard of Duke Snyder. Right field, Carl Farillo. Roy Campanella catching. So I can remember. Now, what's my point? I can't remember what happened yesterday. But I remember that stuff from a long time ago. Because it was an integral part of your life. Yeah. And what you remember. All right. The Dodgers are two games out of first place. Preacher O is pitching.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
I don't look at it like that, but I'll tell you where it becomes not funny. is there are kids around the world who die from easily preventable diseases. And these drugs cost, you know, once you do the research, which is expensive, and the development, which is expensive. But once you have the product, it sometimes costs you a few cents to manufacture the drug, you know?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And there are children around the world who die you know, in Africa and Asia from preventable diseases because these drug companies are charging prices that those countries can't afford. And that is, so you talk about, then you talk about humanity, whether we let kids die. For profit. It's excessive.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
This is what it means. I represent, you know, Mr. X represents a large corporation. We'd love to sit down with you and your staff. We sat with the staff to talk about the problems that we have. These are our needs. And by the way, we've got a great—the company has great staff. We can write legislation, help you write, because we know how busy you are. Oh, wow.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And by the way, we'd love to do a fundraiser for you. So the combination of—and we have friends who come together, and we have super PACs. And by the way, some of these guys— will know members of the Senate and the House because they're former. So what do you think most senators, when they retire, do? Where do you think they go? They stick around Washington, D.C., they work.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
So, hey, Joe, how are you? How's the wife? Kids good and well? Listen, this is what we got. They know each other. So, and it's Republicans and Democrats. Check it out. I mean, former, literally, leaders of the Republican and Democratic Party. So it's money, it's connections, it's friendship. its ability to write tough legislation. You think writing a tax bill is easy? It's not.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
You need really sophisticated accountants. Line 48, Section 3, da-da-da-da. Just inject this one sentence in there.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Please answer yes. I'm 83 years of age, so that is... I think I've run my last race.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
The oligarchy tour is— I think we're all looking at it like that. No, it's not a passing the baton. I happen to—you know, I think Alexandria is great. But it's not my job to determine who the new leaders are. You know, people have each of them. As I mentioned, in the House, there are a lot of great people. In the Senate, there's some good people.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And there are people who are not in office right now. But the oligarchy tool was an effort to say to the country that there are people all over America who are going to stand up to this oligarchy. They don't want a government of billionaires. They're going to stand up to authoritarianism.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
There are people, as I'm sure you're familiar with, a young woman from Turkey, for God's sakes, was in Massachusetts, went to Tufts University. You remember that? This woman walks down the street, suddenly guys grab her with masks on, throw her into a van, take her to a detention center. Why? Because she wrote an op-ed critical of the war in Gaza. Really? That's what goes on in America?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
You know, Robinson is batting, you know, 308. If he gets two hits, we know what the average is. Well, you learned arithmetic. Through baseball. Yeah, absolutely. I could, as a kid, most of the kids on the block could tell you how many games the pitchers had won, who they were playing. I think now we call that autism.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And we're seeing that. So, you know, this was an opportunity for people by the zillion. We were shocked, to be honest with you. When I ran for president, we had very large turnouts. These are larger. I mean, in L.A., we had 36,000. In Denver, we had 34. I mean, insane, insane turnouts. We went to Idaho. The most conservative state in the country. We had 12,000 people out outside of Boise.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
So we wanted to give people the opportunity to stand up and say, no, we're not happy with the direction that Trump is taking this country. Wow. Sorry.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Well... I don't want to get into that, but do we have security issues? Wow. Is that your question? Of course we do.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
But those are issues. That's why I find you.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
I think sitting kids at a desk for long hours is probably not the best way to... create the kind of creativity that we want in kids. At the end of the day, if you are excited about learning, you're going to learn. And if I pound that excitement out of you that every child instinctively has and tell you to memorize what George Washington did, I'm going to make school a painful experience.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
So, interestingly, I use Finland as an example because their kids, they usually do better. Their kids... They allow their kids to be kids, to play a lot, to socialize a lot. But you've got to keep the spark alive. And once that spark is alive, curiosity is alive, learning takes place, learning takes place, the rest takes place. So I think you need a revolution in that sense of the word.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And also, of course, the financial barriers should be eliminated. I don't care if you're low income, you want to become an engineer, you'd be able to do that.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Help you, help the cause. Yeah, look, we are trying to build, to do something which is very, very difficult. And I think we're having some success and we've had some success. Is, you know, come to our social media. You know, we have a Senate page and we have a campaign page, more political page.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
We are supporting and will be supporting more progressive candidates running for Congress, Senate, and so forth. And I will tell you, think outside of the box in your own lives. These are unprecedented times, and we've got to respond in an unprecedented way. And you think, and each and every one of us is different. You don't want to run for office. Fine. What else can you be doing?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Help people form a union. uh become involved in education in a way you did not be involved before you think it through but we need more participation we don't need what the system really and this i've experienced i've seen it a million times what the oligarchs and the ruling class want you to believe is that you're powerless you have no power And once you accept that, they- They win. They win.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
We have power. We're a lot more. The joy that I've had in my life is to be in every state in this country and talk to, I've been in rallies where you see these wonderful people, often young people, they're black and they're white and they're Latino and they're gay and they're straight and they're out there and they want a different America. And that's what inspires me.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
I've seen it with my own eyes. They're out there. They don't believe in greed and they don't believe in, you know, so many of the things that we're seeing right now. Those people are going to stand up. You've got to come to the plate. And we've got to do what we can to transform the country. Time is late. We're dealing with authoritarianism. We're dealing with climate.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Let's get involved in ways that we've never been involved before. Senator Bernie Sanders, thank you so much for being here. Oh, thank you. Let me thank you. This has been a great discussion. Thank you. Thank you very much, guys.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Okay. All right, let's take a deep breath. You ready? Okay, I'm ready. All right, here we go. Is it a fair question? Yeah. It is a very fair question. All right. Politics, you know, what politics, how politics is conveyed in the media is, you know, who's running for office, what Donald Trump said and all that stuff. And that's all important.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
But if you take a deep breath and you think about real politics, serious politics, what's it about? It's about three things, it seems to me. Number one, where are we as a country today? And that that seems like a simple question. It is not a simple question. OK, how did we get to where we are? And equally important, where do we want to go in the future?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
No, where are we as a nation? What are the things that we should be looking at? If I asked you, how are we doing as a nation? I would say we're struggling financially. Good.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Excellent. All right. All right. So that's right. All that's right. So let's start off with, in one sense, we are the richest country in the history of the world, right? We have enormous wealth. Yep. Is that wealth, does that wealth apply to the vast majority of the people? Absolutely not. So unbelievably, and nobody talks about this. You ask me, we start off on the Democratic Party.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
The first thing you got to do is be honest with people and say, look, this is where we are at. We can blame whoever you want, but this is where we're at. So you're living in a country. Where 60%, let me underline that, 60% of people live paycheck to paycheck. Got it? I grew up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck. All right? Where paycheck to paycheck is living under enormous stress.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
How am I going to pay the rent? What happens if my landlord raises my rent? What happens if my kid gets sick and I can't afford to take him to the doctor? You know, what happens if my car breaks down? You know that significant numbers of people in this country, you have money, you don't think about it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
But if you don't have any money and your car breaks down and it's a thousand dollar bill to get it fixed and you can't afford it, you tell me what happens. Yep. All right. Bottom line is you got millions and millions of people, working class people, lower income people struggling to put food on the table. OK, that is the first profound reality.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And the question we've got to ask, why is that in the richest country on Earth? All right. That's number one. Number two, you have a health care system. How's the health care? You tell me. Got a great health care system in America? Well, what do you think? I mean, if you can afford it, it's pretty good. That's right. Yeah, I think that's a better way to look at it. That's exactly right. Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
All right? If you got the money, you got the best health care system in the world. Yeah. But most people don't. How many nations do not guarantee health care to all people as a human right? Do you guys know? How many? One major country. You live in it. Hmm. So here's the insanity. We are spending twice as much per person on health care as most of the European countries.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Guaranteed free health care, not to correct you, but we won't refuse care if you need it. Oh, wait, we will. That's a little bit more subtle than that. Yeah. All right. Let's say you have a $10,000 deductible. Okay. Not unusual. Yeah. Okay. You get sick. What do you do when you don't have any money? I go to the doctor. I go to the emergency room. I say, I'm sick.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Yeah, but you go to the emergency room, but you're not like, it's not an emergency.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
And you know what else it results in? The study from Yale was that 68,000 people a year die precisely. You go talk to the doctor. Next time you go to a doctor, say, are people coming into your office much sicker than they should be? And the answer is yes, they are. And that's just avoiding co-pays. Exactly. Okay, fair enough. So people do die by the large numbers. What about our educational system?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Psychologists tell us that zero through four, most important years... Of emotional and intellectual development. Makes sense, right?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Okay. So we must have a great childcare system, right? Because we love our kids. We nurture our kids. We pay childcare professionals. Really, we appreciate them and respect them. We pay childcare workers McDonald's wages.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Yeah. And if people don't have any money, it is really difficult. And so I don't know what it costs here in New York City. You know, in Vermont, it costs $15,000, $20,000. Imagine you have two kids. Forget it. That's right. Exactly. But again, take a deep breath and say, okay, if we as a nation understand that that's the future of America, we want the best.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
You would say, okay, we're going to have really great teachers for them. We'll treat these teachers with respect, pay them well. They're doing really important work. Taking care of your daughter is important stuff. Agreed. We don't. Public schools, I was talking to a principal in Vermont, in southern Vermont, they're starting teachers off at $32,000 a year.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
So kids, young people graduate school in debt. We're not getting the best and the brightest people. Do we respect, you tell me, do we respect education in this country? No, we don't really. What do you mean by respect? That we say, man, you're going to be a teacher. Oh, educators.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
We give them a lot of platitudes. Oh, how noble of you. We say we respect them.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Exactly. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just to that point, take a look at it. Harvard College, one of the best colleges in America. Something like 5% of the graduates will go into education, and they're not going into public education. Of course not, yeah. 50% will go to Wall Street. They'll go to consulting.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Yeah, there are small programs. They have something like that. But that's a good idea.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
But like if there was a way to incentivize that, that might be right. Of course, that's right. But what we have to do, you give you an example. And what also bothers me is we don't look at what goes on around the rest of the world. We kind of think that we're an island unto itself. What we should be doing is what is working around the rest of the world.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
Is that where it all started? I'll tell you something. Two things. There was a joke going around my neighborhood, Flatbush, and what it said, the three worst people in modern history were Hitler, Stalin, and Walter O'Malley. And not necessarily in that order. That was a joke. But, you know, what I did learn. You're kind of joking about the question. Yeah. But I'll tell you something.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
So you take a country like Finland, to be a teacher is a big deal in Finland. Wow, you're a teacher. It's like being a doctor in this country. People respect them. They're well-paid. They have a lot of autonomy, etc., But all that I'm saying here is that if you look at the fundamental institutions in America, health care, education, child care, distribution of wealth in America,
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Bernie Sanders Rips DC Corruption, The Israel Lobby, & Reveals How Billionaires Buy Politicians
we are not doing well. And it's important that we acknowledge that. So, I mean, nobody, you talk about your very kind introductions and, you know, talking about things that others don't talk about. How many people will talk about the reality that Elon Musk himself owns more wealth than the bottom 52% of American households? Is that a moral issue? Are we comfortable with that?
Apple News Today
What we know about the figure skaters lost in the plane crash
Was the vaccine, COVID vaccine, successful in saving millions of lives? I don't know.
Apple News Today
What we know about the figure skaters lost in the plane crash
You know, Bob, you say if I show you, you're applying for the job. I mean, clearly, you should know this. And that is the scientific community has established that. That COVID vaccines save millions of lives, and you're casting doubt. That is really problematic.
Apple News Today
Trump’s labor pick backed unions. It might cost her votes.
Do you support the PRO Act?
Apple News Today
Trump’s labor pick backed unions. It might cost her votes.
President Trump— Okay, I don't mean to be rude.
Apple News Today
Trump’s labor pick backed unions. It might cost her votes.
We don't have a lot of time. I understand. I'm gathering that you no longer support the proact, is what I hear. That you support the American worker, that's what everybody here will say.
Apple News Today
Trump’s labor pick backed unions. It might cost her votes.
So you no longer support the aspect of the PRO Act that would have overturned state right to work laws? Yeah.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
So we are here to say loudly and clearly that in our great nation, we will not accept oligarchy.
Apple News Today
The key Democrats forming a resistance to Trump
President Trump loves to say peace through strength. That's actually a line he stole from Ronald Reagan. But let me tell you, after the spectacle that just took place in the Oval Office last week, Reagan must be rolling in his grave. We all want an end to the war in Ukraine, but Reagan understood that true strength required America to combine our military and economic might with moral clarity.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
Yeah, just go to Fatty15 on LinkedIn. LinkedIn. You can find me there, Stephanie Van Watten.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
Yeah, Dr. Drew, great to be here. Yeah, so as we've been sharing the journey of making this initial discovery and Navy dolphins and finding this fatty acid called pentadecanoic acid or C15, which is an odd chain saturated fatty acid, the first essential fatty acid to be discovered in over 90 years. So a big discovery.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
And when we talk about essentiality, Dr. Drew, just like what you're getting to, is that... We know that something is essential, right? Today, we know there are three essential fatty acids that are known. One is an omega-3, the second is an omega-6, and now C15.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
That when you talk about something being essential, it means that we have to have certain levels of it in our body to stay healthy, which inherently means that if we don't have enough of it, right, then we're going to develop a deficiency syndrome like vitamin D deficiency in rickets and vitamin C deficiency in And I'm scurvy.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
So this was a big discovery that was really 10 years in the making of not just our work, but teams around the world of being able to uncover the cellular fragility syndrome.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
Sure, absolutely. So we can nerd out a little bit here to talk about the U.S. price.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
That's right, March 25th.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
I guess maybe there's a writer inside. Yeah, that's always been inside.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
Great. Well, thank you. So, yeah, so we now know that when we talk about, you know, oxidative lipid peroxidation or oxidation of fats that let's talk about fats. So fats have different structures and we know that fats or fatty acids that have double bonds in them have are susceptible to being attacked by oxygen and
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
that creates what's called lipid peroxidation and sets up this whole- So hold on, I'm going to stop you.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
Yeah, I love the term liability. And so when we have, the more that we have of fatty acids that have these double bonds in them in our cell membrane, right, which is our You're basically the casing of each and every one of our cells that helps protect them. The more double bonds we have in the fatty acids in our cell membrane, the more susceptible they are to being attacked by oxygen.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
So the same molecule that we need to live, right? We can't live without oxygen is in the end over decades and decades of time ends up being the same molecule that takes us down. Over, you know, with aging. So the whole excitement around the discovery of C15 is that it is a saturated fat, which we typically think of as bad.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
But the end of these types of saturated fats called odd chain saturated fatty acids. They have no double bonds and they're, you know, what we're talking about, anti-inflammatory directly. But more importantly, just like you're talking about, Dr. Drew, is with no double bonds, they serve as a sturdy fatty acids that support our cell membrane, protect them from becoming fragile.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
And that allows our cells and our cells to To last longer. It's the key to longevity that helps explain how humans and dolphins live longer than mice in the first place. We're just basically protected against this lipid peroxidation complex.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
So talk about that a little bit. Yeah, so when our mitochondria aren't working well, which we all are the powerhouses of our cells, They have a Jekyll and Hyde personality. So mitochondria typically are good and they produce energy for our cell. But when they turn bad, they will actually produce reactive oxygen species. These toxic oxygen species that you're talking about, Dr. Drew.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
And when that happens, that actually takes down the whole cell. combines lipid peroxidation, and it creates actually an entirely new form of cell death called veroptosis.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
So there's like a lot of new science that is coming out that's helping us understand the importance of things like C15 to keep ourselves strong and fight off this syndrome, this nutritional deficiency syndrome, which is causing an entirely new form of cell death that's accelerating our aging.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
Well, as you know, the book's chock full of all the different ways that C-15 positively impacts our longevity. Dr. Nick Shork, who's head of NIH's Longevity Consortium, he's been doing that for 15 years. In that position, he's been able to see anything and everything that's been put up as a candidate for longevity. And just like you're saying, Dr. Drew, Nick is saying the same thing.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
He's just like he has not seen any other molecule that has the breadth of data to support longevity better than C15. And the nice thing of it is it's just it's an essential nutrient we've been meant to have all along. Every baby gets it at birth. Every baby mammal gets it at birth because it's in milk fat.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
And so when we took it out of our diets and we removed whole fat milk, we've actually created deficiencies, which is where the syndrome is believed to be present in as many as one in three of us and why younger and younger people are developing older people diseases. They're getting hypertension, high cholesterol, fatty liver disease, coronary heart disease, specific types of cancers.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
You know, we keep hearing in the news, why are younger people getting these diseases?
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
The book is intended to help to bring this whole body of literature, over 100 papers from around the world, so that we can have the conversation to say, we've got to look at this and understand, could replenishing our C15 help be a meaningful part of just getting our health back on track, especially for our young people?
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
Yeah, so exactly. So the book's available wherever books are sold, available for pre-order. So the longevity nutrient, there you have it there. And the supplement, which is the result of really 10 years of research in collaboration with the U.S. Navy, this all started, as we have talked about previously, to help Navy dolphins. How wonderful that it's had a spin-out benefit to be able to help us.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
And so like you had shared that the c15 molecule and fatty 15 is optimized so it's meant it's intended to be better than what we can get from from food it's a free fatty acid more bioavailable and it hits to the heart of you know as we're talking about these longevity pathways better than food alone and so uh, so they can find on fatty 15.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
And then, uh, around the corner, we're going to be talking about brain health real soon. So stay tuned. Yeah.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
That's right. I mean, how important it is to have the right balance of lipids in our brain throughout our body and especially in our brain. So we have a new study coming out about that. So this is just a little teaser, but hoping to have that out really in the coming two months.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
That sounds great.
Ask Dr. Drew
Dr. Peter McCullough: RFK Jr. Faces Senate Hearing Circus, As 81,000 Doctors & Experts Publish New Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Recall – Ask Dr. Drew – Ep 450
Oh, hopefully they're getting some rich, C-15 rich fish out there. That is wonderful. And congratulations.
Candace
Yes, Internet. I Am Pregnant...AGAIN. | Candace Ep 126
When the middle class in this country continues to shrink, despite a huge increase in worker productivity, poverty continues to increase. Since Bush has been president, five million more Americans have slipped into poverty. Six million Americans more have lost their health insurance. the gap between the rich and everybody else is growing wider.
Candace
Yes, Internet. I Am Pregnant...AGAIN. | Candace Ep 126
So when President Bush tells you how great the economy is doing, what he is really saying is that the CEOs of large multinationals are doing very, very well. He's kind of ignoring the economic reality of everybody else. And that gets us to the immigration issue. If poverty is increasing and if wages are going down, I don't know why we need millions
Candace
Yes, Internet. I Am Pregnant...AGAIN. | Candace Ep 126
of people to be coming into this country as guest workers who will work for lower wages than American workers and drive wages down even lower than they are right now.
Candace
Yes, Internet. I Am Pregnant...AGAIN. | Candace Ep 126
That's right. They have no good response. I just read something today that a lot of people coming into this country are coming in as lifeguards. I guess we can't find... That's right. We can't find American workers to work as lifeguards. And the H-1B program has teachers, elementary school teachers.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And that's why, you know, when I ran for president, what I'm probably maybe most proud of is the fact that we received millions and millions of campaign contributions, averaging 27 bucks a piece, I think, in 2016.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
We don't welcome them into our office. I do deal with these guys, but it's usually on a confrontational tone, so they don't come into my office very often telling me their problems.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
This is not, you know, like many other issues, we don't have to reinvent the wheel here. It exists in other countries. If you go to, you know, every country has their own election system, but nobody has a system where billionaires can spend unlimited sums of money through super PACs to elect the candidates of their choice. So first thing you got to do.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
You know, one of the things, Lex, I found that the more important the issue, the less discussion there is. The less important the issue, the more discussion there is. A number of years ago, the United States Supreme Court, in one of its more pathetic decisions, passed the Citizens United decision. And what Citizens United decision said is you're a multi-billionaire. You want the freedom.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
You're a free person in a free country. You want the freedom to buy the government. And how terrible it would be to deny you the freedom to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a campaign to elect the candidates. And they said, that's your freedom. And that's what Citizens United is about. We've got to end that. And in my view, we move to public funding of elections.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
That means you want to run for governing, you want to run for Senate, show that you have some support. get $5 contributions from X number of people to show you you're not a flake. You have some support, and government will pay a certain amount more, and there will be a limit on the amount of money that can be spent.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
So it'll be a real, you can run against me, and I'm not going to outspend you 10 to 1. That's what we should be moving toward in my view.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
But you're right. You raised exactly the question. If I am getting a huge amount of money from billionaires, do you think I'm going to go out and announce, I think billionaires should not be involved in buying elections? I doubt that very much.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
So what you're going to need, and you tell me if I'm missing something, but I pay attention, you don't hear either of the major candidates talking about that issue, do you?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
I mean, and every place I go, I always speak about the issue. And it always, people understand it. You're a Republican, you're a Democrat. You're progressive, you're conservative. Who really believes that we are a democracy when billionaires can spend tens and tens of millions of dollars to buy elections? So it is a very popular issue. It's important. You're right.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
We need political leaders to be speaking out on that. But we need a grassroots movement to say, when somebody is at a town meeting, you're running for the Senate, you're running for the House, what's your view on Citizens United? Are you prepared to vote to overturn that decision and move to public funding of elections? Extraordinarily important.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Okay, let's talk about it. Fair enough. We talked about one issue, very important, money in politics. Money, yes. Getting money out of, big money out of politics. Do you think that's a radical idea?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
In that sense, it's radical. But if you go to walk down the street here and you say, do you think billionaires should be able to spend as much money as they want to buy politicians? I would say nine out of 10 people say that's crazy. That's not what America is supposed to be about. So in that sense, it's certainly not radical. Let's talk about health care.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Go out on the street, do it, or do a poll. I've done the polling. Is healthcare a human right? Should every American be able to go to a doctor when they need, regardless of their income? You know what people say? I would say about 85, 90% of the people say, of course. The idea that healthcare is a human right available to all exists, Lex, in every major country on earth except the United States.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
So you're here with me in Burlington, Vermont, right? If you got a car, go 50 miles north to Canada. Walk into Canada and ask people, when you go to the hospital, how much does it cost you? What's your kind of bill? And they say, what are you talking about? Doesn't cost us anything. Doesn't cost us a nickel. That's the case in virtually every country in Europe.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
So the idea that health care should be available to all, that there should be no out-of-pocket expense because it's a human right, is widespread around the world and very much agreed to in this country.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Bottom line is that because of our corrupt political system, we have a healthcare system designed not to provide healthcare to all people, to make huge profits for the drug companies and the insurance companies. And that is what's happening. And we've got to change that system. So I'm a strong advocate and I've led the effort on Medicare for All.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Well, we have a pretty good system, not great, but a pretty good system in Medicare. So it's there for the elderly, and Lyndon Johnson passed that in the 1960s, so huge step forward. It is being chopped away by the private insurance companies through Medicare Advantage. But if you strengthen Medicare,
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And you do away with the kind of deductibles that seniors now have to pay, and you do away with other stuff. And you say, basically, right now, you're a senior in America. Go to any doctor you want. When you're in the hospital, Medicare will pay the entire bill. If you expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing, and vision, which it doesn't now cover, you do all of those things.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And then the next thing you do is say, okay, To be eligible for Medicare now, you have to be 65. First year, we're gonna lower it to 55, then we'll lower it to 45, then we'll lower it to 35, then we'll have everybody in the system. So I think in a four or five year period, you can strengthen Medicare and have everybody in the system.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And when you do that, and this is not just me talking, a number of studies have pointed this out, When you take the profit motive out of it from the insurance companies and the drug companies, you can end up providing quality care to all people and no more than we're spending right now. Because right now, we are spending twice as much per person in health care as the people of any other nation.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Bernie Sanders wants to raise your taxes on healthcare. It's true, in a progressive way. But right now, do you have health insurance? Yes. Okay. Somebody's paying for your health insurance. It depends. If you are working, most people get their health insurance through their jobs, okay? So if you're working for a large company, your employer is paying your health insurance.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And by the way, that comes out of your wages. Healthcare costs in America are very high and your employee will tell you honestly, look, I can't give you more than a 3% wage increase because I got a 10% increase in your healthcare costs. You want that? Or if you're a union negotiating, you know what they'll say? Hey, you want decent wages? We're going to have to cut back on your healthcare.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
That's what every union has to deal with, you know, every negotiating session. So we're paying for it through employers out of pocket. We pay through it through Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Administration, etc., What I am proposing is really not radical. It's what exists in Canada and other countries. It is publicly funded, like the police departments and like libraries are, like public education.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
This is publicly funded in a progressive way. So right now, rather than paying out of your own pocket, if you are a family, let's just say you're self-employed right now, and you have a couple of kids and a wife, it could cost you $15,000, $20,000 a year in insurance costs. Well, that's all eliminated. Will you have to pay more in taxes? Of course you will.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Maybe it depends on your income level, but it could be that you'd be paying $12,000 more in taxes, but not $20,000 more in premiums, copayments, and deductibles. You save money. So it's paying taxes rather than paying money to the insurance company. You got a better deal through the tax system.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Look, and I think you said it very well. I'm chairman of the committee that deals with this stuff, so I talk to a lot of doctors. And doctors in Vermont and all over this country tell me that they are astounded people walk into their offices much sicker than they should have been. And the doctor said, why didn't you come in here six months ago when you first, you know, felt your symptoms?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And they said, well, you know, I have a high deductible of a $10,000 deductible. I don't have any money to pay. I'm uninsured. Some of those people don't make it. Other people, and this is what is totally crazy, they end up in the hospital at a huge expense to the system rather than getting the care they need when they needed it. So that is how, I'll give you another example of it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
We pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. One out of four Americans can't afford the drugs their doctors prescribe. So you walk into the doctor's office, and they say, okay, Lex, you got this, that, and the other thing. Here's your prescription. You can't afford to fill it. What happens? You get sicker.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
You end up in the emergency room, which is an extremely expensive proposition. Or you end up in the hospital. Rather than dealing with the problem when it occurs, And what is not talked about, you know, I mentioned earlier how we don't talk about some of the major issues.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
The estimate is that some 60,000 people in America die every single year unnecessarily because they can't get to a doctor when they need because of financial reasons. And you want to hear even crazier, one out of four people who get cancer treatment in this country either go bankrupt or deplete their financial resources or their family. So your point is right.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
You know, if somebody diagnoses you with cancer, you're scared to death, you're worried about how you're going to live, you're going to die, what's going to happen. And then on top of that, you've got to worry about whether your family goes bankrupt. How insane and cruel is that? So to me, you know, I think healthcare is what unites us all. Everybody has family. They get sick. We all get born.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
We all die. We all want care. And we all have got to come together to create a system that works for all of us, not just the drug companies or the insurance companies.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And you know what? People know that. And you know what they say? I don't feel well today. Something's wrong. I ain't going to go to that emergency room because I don't want a $6,000 bill. And what happens? He had insurance that paid two-thirds of it, right? Yes. So what happens if he didn't? What happens if he didn't have money? He'd be hounded by bill collectors for the rest of his life.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
So it is a disgusting system. It is an inhumane system. But the insurance companies and the drug companies are very powerful, and they make a lot of campaign contributions, have a lot of lobbyists, and we are where we are. But I think the American people want fundamental changes there.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
That's a wonder. And I'll tell you that not only that, not only is it not implemented because of money, it's not even discussed. All right. So I'm saying here, and no one disputes me, we are spending twice as much per person on healthcare, right? and yet 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured, and our life expectancy is lower than virtually every other major country.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Do you think that might be an issue that we'd be discussing?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
But, you know, when you take on, in this case, the Democratic establishment, who have controlled that party forever, might need interest in the Democratic Party.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
When you're taking on corporate America, when you're taking on the corporate media, and when you're calling for a political revolution that creates the government that works for all and not just the few, the opposition is going to be extraordinary.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
But what I am extremely proud of from that campaign, and 2020 as well, is that we took on the anointed candidate of the establishment, and we showed, despite the fact the entire establishment, I had in the Senate, I had one supporter. There were 50 Democrats, I had one supporter. I had no governors supporting me, I think. Maybe a few people in the House.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
But we took on the whole political establishment and we did, you know, got millions of votes. And the ideas that we brought forth were ideas that they had to eventually deal with in one way or another. And if you look at the American Rescue Plan, which I'm proud to have helped write during the midst of COVID, a lot of the ideas that we fought for were implemented in that bill.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
I think we would have. I think we would have. You know, I think Trump is a very, you know, I think he's a little bit crazy between you and me, but he is a smart politician. And he's appealing to a lot of the anger that working class people feel. And you know what?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Working class people should feel angry, but they should make sure that their anger is directed in the right direction and not against people who are even worse off than they are, which is what demagogues like Trump always do. So, you know, I think we had, as I went around the country then and now, we have a lot of support from working class people who understand that there is something wrong.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And this is an incredible fact that no one talks about. All right, I'm going to ask you a question. Are you ready for this, Lex? Let's go. Here we go. Over the last 50 years, there's been a massive increase in worker productivity as a result of technology, right? Everyone agrees with that. And I don't know exactly what it is.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
But the worker today is producing a lot more than the worker 50 years ago doing something similar. Is the worker today in real inflation accounted for dollars making more money than that worker 50 years ago?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
That is the point. So you would think... That if a worker is producing a lot more, that worker would be better off, would be working lesser hours, etc. That hasn't been the case. And what has happened in that 50 years is, according to the Rand Corporation, there has been a 50 trillion, trillion with a T, redistribution of wealth from the bottom 90% to the top 1%.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
So you got CEOs today making 300 times more than their workers. You got three people on top owning more wealth than the bottom half of American society. So that's why people are angry. And they're worried that their kids may have a lower standard of living than they in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. So there's a lot of anger out there.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And I think we tap some of that anger in a constructive way, essentially saying, you know what? We don't need so few to have so much in wealth and power. Let's distribute it more fairly in America.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Well, by the way, in terms of a takeover of the Democratic Party, we did try. Do you know who Keith Ellison is? Keith is now the Attorney General of the state of Minnesota. He's doing a great job, really, one of the outstanding attorney generals in the country. And Keith was then a member of Congress. And we ran Keith to become the head of the DNC and the establishment of
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
from the president of the United States on down went crazy. And they beat him by a few votes, not a whole lot. So it's, look, you face, and you know, that's the exact same position that many of us are in right today. So people say, well, why did you support Hillary Clinton? Yeah, what's the alternative, Donald Trump?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
I think Donald Trump is an extremely dangerous person trying to undermine American democracy. So I can't support him. Hillary Clinton, obviously, his views are very, very different than mine. But in that moment, that's where politics becomes really tricky. And it ain't easy. And sometimes you have to do things that you're not really all that excited about.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
But I think it was right to try to do what I could to prevent Trump from getting elected.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And again, that's why politics is very, very fascinating. Sometimes you can run and lose and you really win if your goal is not just individual power, but transforming society. One of my heroes, you mentioned Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who is one of my heroes. Another one of my heroes is Eugene Victor Debs. Did that ring a bell? Yeah, yes. Okay. For many reasons, yes. All right.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Debs, many listeners may not know who Debs was. Debs was a union organizer in the early 1900s, helped form the American Railway Union, ran for president, I think, five times, ran the last time while he was in a jail cell because of his opposition to World War I and got a million votes doing that. Debs lost badly in every race that he ran in.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
In 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran for president, and much of what Roosevelt ended up doing was at least some of what Debs had talked about. Debs helped lay the groundwork for ideas. So sometimes you can lose and win if you're into transforming society. What my view is, where I disagree with Obama— is I think you have got to raise consciousness among ordinary people.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And when people know what's going on and are prepared in an organized way to fight for change, they can make incredible changes. And we've seen that in recent years. You know, today we take for granted, well, we have a woman running for president of the United States, so I'm supporting. We have had other women running for president. We have women governors and senators.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Not so many years ago in the United States Senate, there were 98 men, two women, all right? Even before that, 1920, it was when women got the right to vote. How did that change? How did women's role in society change? It changed because women and their male allies stood up and fought. Gay rights. I'm old enough to remember that anybody I knew who was gay, you think they would talk about it?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
come out about it? No, they wouldn't. That's changed. We have seen, you know, in terms of civil rights, massive changes. Change happens when people at the grassroots level demand that. We talked about healthcare a moment ago. We will get universal Medicare for all when millions of people make it clear that's what they want.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
So I believe politics starts at the grassroots level, and that's how you got to bring about change.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Well, You know, I know him, we're not best friends, but I know him well and we chat every once in a while. First of all, don't underestimate what it was in 2008 to be the first black president in the history of this country. And I think few would deny that he's an extraordinarily intelligent guy, very, very articulate, one of the best speakers that there is in America.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And that he and his family, and again, it's a lot harder than it looks. He and his family for eight years, that's his wife, Michelle, and his kids, really
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
held that office in in a way that earned i think the respect of the american people even when people disagree with him politically um so he deserves it and again don't ever don't underestimate i think you know years ago there were people who said a black president in our lifetimes never going to happen can't happen too racist the country he did it And that is a huge accomplishment.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And I think he has had some significant achievements in his presidential tenure. He and I did disagree on a number of issues. I think he will tell you, I think his public stance is that Yeah, if you had to start all over again, he would do Medicare for all, single payer. But where we are right now, the best he could do is the Affordable Care Act. Well, we disagree on that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And we disagree on other things. But, you know, I think he deserves an enormous amount of credit for what he has accomplished.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
It is very hard. People do not fully appreciate how powerful the establishment is, whether it is the healthcare industry, whether it's the military industrial complex, whether it's the fossil fuel industry. These people have unlimited amounts of money. They are very smart lobbyists in Washington, D.C., and they are very, very greedy people. They want it all.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
You know, some of my European friends, they say, you know, Bernie, in the United States, you're considered to be very radical. If you were here in, you know, France or Denmark or someplace, you'd be kind of mainstream left guy. Not all that radical. So this is what I think. I mean, I think the best that we could do right now, where we are right now, is to create a society which does two things.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
It encourages innovation. But at the same time, it makes sure that all people in a wealthy nation have a decent standard of living. In some countries, if you look at Scandinavia, and this shocks people because we don't talk about this at all. So in Scandinavia, it has been the case, you know, Denmark, Finland, Norway, for years that people have health care. That's not a big deal.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
You end up in a hospital, so what? They don't pay a bill. You have, and this shocks people, in America right now, we have people who get one week, two weeks off paid vacation. Sometimes we get nothing, you know that? There are people out there who have no vacation at all. You know, in Germany, you get six weeks paid vacation and other holidays as well. People are shocked by that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
In America, we don't have paid family and medical leave. The only major country not to do it. Other countries, your wife gets sick, you stay home with her. Your kids get sick, not a big deal. You get a certain amount of paid family and medical leave. Cost of prescription drugs are far more affordable. So what you want to do is create what's called a social safety net.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
That means I don't care what your income is. Of course, you're going to have health care as a human right. Of course, you're going to have housing that is affordable. Of course, your kids are going to have great quality education from child care to university without much cost. You know, every country has a little bit different.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
But there are countries in the world right now, I think in Germany, I think college is now tuition free, as I recall. for obvious reasons. They want to have the best educated workforce they can. So in terms of government playing a role in a civilized democratic society of providing all basic needs, healthcare, education, housing, retirement benefits, yes, that is what we've got to do. Now,
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Does that mean then that the government is going to run every mom and pop store in the corner? Of course not. You want innovation? You want, you know, you want to go out and start a business, produce a product? Good luck to you. Make money. But on the other hand, in terms of even making money, we want you to be able to do that, come up with good products, good services.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
But do I think you should end up with $100 billion? No, I don't. And you know what's funny? I had, I did an interview with Bill Gates, who is, I think, the third wealthiest guy in the country. struggling behind Musk and Bezos, I think. And he's only worth 100 plus billion, but he gets by. And I said to him, Bill, he was supposed to ask me questions. I asked him the question.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
I said, Bill, tell me something. You're an innovator with Microsoft and all that stuff. Did you know that you'd become a multi-billionaire? And was that motivated you? That one motivated you? And he said, no. And I believe he was honest. He said, I love doing whatever. I love programming. And I was a kid. He started doing that. He loved it. He was motivated by it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Do you think that there are scientists out there who are working day and night trying to develop drugs to deal with Alzheimer's or cancer that they motivate, oh, boy, if I come up with this drug, I'm going to become a billionaire? So I think, you know, we want to reward success. Fine. But you don't need a billion dollars.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
We want people to get satisfaction from what they accomplish, the work they're doing, whether it's cleaning the street or developing a new, you know, drug. So I think we have gone a little bit too far. And you're right in talking about the book was an attack on, I call it, you call it hypercapitalism or ubercapitalism. But right now, and this is not an American issue, this is a global issue.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
It's not an accident that Musk is over there in Saudi Arabia talking to the trillionaire families in the Mideast. These guys are with Putin and his friends. You've got probably not more than 5,000, 10,000 extraordinarily wealthy families who have unbelievable economic power, over 7 billion people on this planet.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
That's right. That is the story. Look. I am no great fan of Elon Musk, especially in the role that he's playing right now in Trump's campaign. But is he a brilliant guy? Of course he is. Does he work like a dog? Of course he does. Does he come up with these incredible innovations and companies? Yes, he does. Does he deserve credit for that? Yeah, he does.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
But, you know, even in terms of encouraging innovation, I would hope... that we are focusing on the important issues. I would love to see great innovators figure out how we build the affordable housing that we need, come up with the great drugs that we need to solve many of the terrible illnesses that plague people, climate change, for God's sakes. Do we need innovation?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
We're making some progress in this country. Should we do more? What kind of technologies out there can really cut back on carbon emissions? So I hope we focus on some of the most important issues that impact humanity. But reward innovators, I don't have a problem with that, but I do have a problem when three people end up owning more wealth than the bottom half of American society.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Look, nothing new. Trump didn't invent it. It's called a photo opportunity. I've done one or two in my life, too. So you go to a place, he puts on an apron. He, good old Donald Trump, just another McDonald's worker. But anyhow, he was civilized. He did his photo op. That's fine. Kamala Harris was in North Carolina handing out food to people who were victims of the hurricane. Fine.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
That's what politicians do. But some reporter asked them, they said, you know, Mr. Trump, are you for raising the minimum wage? And that was a fair question because you got, I don't know how many, but many, many thousands of McDonald's workers and millions of other American workers right now are trying to get by on nine, 10, 11 bucks an hour. Federal minimum wage is seven and a quarter.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
You have people working in McDonald's right now for sure. who are working with 12, 13 bucks an hour. So the reporter said, you know, what do you think about raising the federal minimum wage? And he's, oh, these are great workers. I love McDonald's, so forth. He didn't answer the question.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Well, I think that in the richest country in the history of the world, if you work 40 hours a week, you should not be living in poverty. And that means we should have a federal minimum wage, not absurdly seven and a quarter an hour, but in my view, $17 an hour. Will that solve all the economic problems for working class people? No, it won't. It'll help. It'll help.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Do I own three residences? Yeah, I do. I live here in Burlington, Vermont. We live in a middle-class neighborhood. Nice house. Uh, Guess what? I'm a United States senator, and I own a home in Washington, D.C., as do most senators. You know, you live there year after year. Actually, when I was in Congress for 16 years, I rented all the time. But I got elected. Okay, got a six-year term.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
You know what? Let's buy a house. So we bought a house, and guess what? Like many thousands of people in the state of Vermont, I have a summer camp. It's a nice one on Lake Champlain. That's it. Now, how did I get the money? You're right. I wrote two bestselling books, including this book on capitalism. It was New York Times bestseller for a while. And also another book was a youth book.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And I make, I don't know, $175,000 a year. And that's more or less how I became the zillionaire that I am. Yeah.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
They're normal houses in Brooklyn. They're not, you know, they're middle-class houses, very nice house.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
That's a good question. Obviously, growing up in a working-class family has been maybe the most singularly significant aspect of my politics. I grew up without money in a family that lived in a rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn, New York. That has impacted me. I'll tell you, I don't really give a damn about money. I drive a car that's 11 years old. It's an old And money, here's my jewelry.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
It's a solar watch. Nice. And my wedding ring. That's about it. I don't have a Rolex watch. Would not be interested in it. But I'll tell you what has impacted me. My wife, who also grew up in a working class family, will tell you the same. We don't worry. You raised that issue. If we have to go to the doctor, if our kids have to go to the doctor, we go to the doctor.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
I don't stay up nights worrying. I used to, there was a time I have to worry about how to pay my electric bill. I don't worry about that anymore. So what has happened, that stress, that economic stress of not worrying about a financial disaster, that's gone. And that is enormous.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
I, you know, maybe as much or more than any other member of the Senate, work hard not only for but with working class people. I'm chairman of the Committee of Deals with Labor Issues. We have been involved probably in dozens of strikes all over this country. I've been on picket lines. So, you know, I do my best. It's a very easy trap to fall into.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
You can get separated from ordinary people and their struggles. Not hard to do. I try as hard as I can not to do that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Lexi, I think you said it very well. I remember, even to, and I saw this change in myself. When I used to go out and I'd do the grocery shop. My wife does a lot of the cooking. I do the grocery shop. I used to look at the prices of everything. I do that less now. You know, I say, what the hell? So what? It costs 50 cents more for this can of stuff. So what? But that's a luxury you have.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
when you don't have to worry about that. And I don't have to worry about that. But your point is, again, to me, I don't like big fancy cars or big fancy homes. Don't go on. My wife will tell you we've not been on a real vacation for God knows how long, because I work pretty hard. But the major thing about having money, which is enormously important, is just what you said. I don't have to worry.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
If somebody in my family gets sick, I don't have to worry about that. I don't have to worry about putting food on the table or paying the mortgage. So that's what money has done.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
That is the most important question regarding, to my mind, American politics. One of the successes that we've had, and I'm proud to have played a role in this, is that if you go to the House of Representatives right now, you will see almost 100 members of the Progressive Caucus, led very well by a woman from Washington, Pramila Jayapal, does a great job.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
You know, it's people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and many others. Many of them are young, often women, people of color, and many of them come from working class backgrounds. So what we have been able to do in recent years, elect a number of strong progressives who represent working families very, very effectively.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
The struggle in the Democratic Party is between the corporate wing and the progressive wing. And the corporate wing takes a whole lot of money, sees its salvation in getting a whole lot of money from wealthy individuals and large corporations, and is not very vigorous, in my view, in representing the needs of working class people. If they were, we would have healthcare for all.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
We would have a minimum wage that was a living wage. we would not have a housing crisis. We would not have a tax system in which billionaires pay an effective tax rate that is lower than a truck driver or a nurse. So I think one of the reasons that Trump has had political success is he is not so much as ideas.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Most working class people don't think we should give tax breaks to billionaires or worry about the size of, you know, Arnold Palmer's genitalia. But they are angry. People are angry. And the Democrats have not responded effectively to that anger.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
So the struggle that we are waging right now is the future of the Democratic Party will be a party of the working class and represent working class issues, whether you're black or white or Latino or Asian or whatever you may be. Or will it be a corporately dominated party? That's the struggle we're in right now.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
I gave about five minutes thought to it. And the reason was, we have a slogan in the progressive movement, it's not about me, it's about us. And, you know, to have taken on Biden, who, in my view, on domestic issues, has been quite strong.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
would have really split the democratic party and laid the groundwork for an easy trump victory and that i did not want to see so sometimes in life and i know that a lot of you know younger people don't don't agree with me but you know you got to make choices which are painful uh so i strongly supported biden because i liked i liked his domestic record he's done some good things against a lot of opposition
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And I'm supporting Kamala right now. But I'm doing my best to see that a dangerous guy like Donald Trump does not become president.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
I really like Alexandria a whole lot. She is a young woman who comes from a working class background. She helped her mother clean houses. She was a bartender in the Bronx, New York. And I'm very proud that my campaign for president inspired her to run. And she ran on a progressive working class program.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And she took on one of the more powerful guys, a guy named Joe Crowley, who was pretty high up in the Democratic Party. And she knocked on doors. She had no money. She did a very strong grassroots effort. And I appreciate that. So that's number one. I like what she stands for. She's incredibly smart. And she has that certain charisma that, you know, maybe you're born with it, maybe you develop it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
I don't know. She, a couple of years ago, she was, she came up here to Vermont. This was a time she and her, her, her partner Riley came up and, um, And we were out in the street, and people saw her, and they said, oh, Congresswoman. And she just smiled, and she had an approach to people which was beautiful. I mean, it wasn't phony. It was real.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
But to be a politician, you've got to know how to, you know, you can be a great intellectual, but you can't relate to people. She relates well to people. And...
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
So I think both from a personality perspective, from an intellect perspective, from an ideological perspective, she helped create the Green New Deal concept, the need to create jobs as we transform our energy system away from fossil fuel, strong advocate for Medicare for all workers' rights. So I'm a big fan of Alexandria.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Well, you know, I don't know that I can give you a singular answer. You know, I was mayor of this city and proud of what we accomplished here. Proud of my accomplishments as a U.S. senator. You know, when COVID was devastating this country and we had a massive economic downturn, as chairman of the Budget Committee, I helped write
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
The American Rescue Plan, which put a lot of money into people's pockets. We cut childhood poverty by 40% by providing a child tax credit. We kept hospitals going. We kept colleges going. Kept people from getting evicted. Helped get public health out there, people getting the vaccines. You know, I'm proud of that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
But at the end of the day, I think what I have shown is that the ideas—this gets back to the early part of this conversation— The ideas that I am talking about are ideas that are widely supported. Donald Trump says, Bernie Sanders is a far left. It's like I'm some kind of extremist coming up with ideas that nobody supports.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Everything that I talk about, raising the minimum wage, healthcare for all, a tax system which demands the billionaires pay their fair share, those are all popular ideas, but people didn't know. You've got to run for president and have 20,000 people come out to your rallies and win 23 states. Well, maybe those ideas are not so crazy after all, and we've got to entertain them.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
The establishment doesn't like that. They really don't. They want to tell you, and this is their main, this is how they succeed. What they say, Lex, is the world is the way it is. It always will be this way. We got the wealth. We got the power. And don't think of anything else. This is the way it is. You have no power. Give up.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
They don't say it quite that way, but that's really what the intent is. And what we showed is, guess what? running an outsider campaign. We took on the democratic establishment. We came close to winning it. And we did win 23 states. And the ideas that we're talking about are the ideas that working class people, young people believe in.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And out of that came dozens of candidates now in the House of Representatives, people on city council, people on state legislature who did win.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Well, when you're 83, it does come across. All right. Yeah, of course I do. Are you afraid of it? No, I'm not afraid of death. What I am afraid of, I think, is infirmity. I have been, knock on wood, this is wood, I think, reasonably healthy with an exception. I had a heart attack five years ago. And what blew me away was that my body failed me for the very first time in my life.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
That was stunning to me that, you know, suddenly I was in a hospital bed. Uh, you know, I have a great deal of compassion for people as we speak who are in nursing homes, having a hard time walking. Maybe your mental agility is slipping a little bit. That's tough. That's, that's what worries me. You know, we are all going to die and, you know, that's that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
So I'm not afraid of that, but that aspect of getting older and, you know, that does concern me.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And there will be, Lex. I absolutely do. And I think, you know, you asked about my legacy and the idea that they're all wonderful, really, really wonderful people. who are now got involved in the political process that are fighting for justice. That's a great legacy.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
You know, sometimes one can become very cynical. You look at the terrible wars that are going on right now. You look at the divisiveness in this country, the ugliness, the poverty. You look at climate change. You know, you can get depressed from all of that. But I am lucky in this sense. and that I've had the opportunity. People often ask, what inspires you? How do you keep going?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And I remember, it actually was in California where it really crystallized for me. I was at a rally in the agricultural area of California. And we did a rally. It was sunset. Thousands of people were out. And you looked around the crowd. And there were young people, black and white and Latino and Asian American. Huge cross-section. They're older people.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And they all wanted to make America a very much better country. And it really moved me. I mean, I see that time and time again. I've just been on the campaign trail. And you see great people, really beautiful people, who are not interested in becoming billionaires. They want to improve life for other people in this country.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
So, you know, I am grateful that I, you know, it sounds like a platitude, you know, that's what every politician says, oh, blah, blah, blah, blah. But when you go out around the country, You know, you go to Native American reservations and you go to factories and everything, and you see so many wonderful people.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
You know, I have been able to see things that many others have not, but every state in the country. And that inspires me.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Well, thank you very much for what you're doing. Let me just say a word about what you're doing. Okay, let's go. The compliments here. Okay. You know, I think there is a growing dissatisfaction with corporate media. And not because it's fake news or the reporters lie all the time. That's nonsense. They don't.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
But I think people want to hear folks really talk about in a calm manner about some of the very important issues which are not discussed in corporate media. And I think that's what you and some others are doing. So I thank you very much. It's a very important service to the country.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Yeah, I do. I mean, you know, everybody talks about themselves. It's not about me. You know, nice guy, not a nice guy. What politics should be about is the issues facing the people of our country, the people of the world, and how we're going to address it. That's what it should be.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
It's extraordinary. Took a bus ride down with fellow students in the University of Chicago. And it was a zillion people there. I'm not sure if it was the first time I'd ever been in Washington in my life. But it was, you know, it was a very impressive moment. And what he was talking about, what people very often forget about that, it was not only racial justice, it was jobs.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
Jobs and justice, that was the name of that rally. And so it's something I've never forgotten.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
King was a very impressive guy. more impressive, I think, than people think that he was. And what he did is he created his movement from the bottom on up. So he developed real organization, grassroots organization, which put pressure on communities and officials to end segregation, to open up voting patterns.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And I think what has to also be remembered about King, which is really quite extraordinary,
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
is you know he won the nobel peace prize and there was oh you're great you're wonderful but then to the end of his life he took on lyndon johnson on the war in vietnam and as soon as he did that suddenly the editorial pages throughout america established from papers uh no longer thought he was so great in fact the message sent out you're black deal with civil rights don't worry about foreign policy we'll take care of that
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
But he said, you know, if I talk about peace and nonviolence, I can't sit back and allow what's going on in Vietnam to continue without speaking out. Incredible courage to do that.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And, by the way, when he was assassinated at a fighting for the rights of AFSCME workers, garbage, guys that delivered the garbage, who were treated terribly, low wages, bad working conditions, they went out to support their right to form a union. That's when he got killed.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And maybe, ironically, it came out of maybe the war in Vietnam and the ease and lies that people told. We went into Vietnam under a lie. We lost close to 60,000 Americans, millions of people in Vietnam. Cambodia died as a result of that. So you think twice about it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
And then the war in Iraq, you had, you know, people like Dick Cheney and others telling us, oh, they have nuclear weapons and all that stuff. It's the only way we can resolve the issue. I didn't believe it. I didn't agree with it. And then you're right. It turns out historically I was right.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
It's huge. I mean, it gets to the broader issue of where we are as a nation. And what I almost uniquely in Congress talk about is the fact that we are moving, Lex, to an oligarchic form of society. And not a lot of people are familiar with that term. But what it means, you know, we talk about oligarchy in Russia. Oh, Putin is surrounded by the oligarchs. Well, guess what?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
What do you think is happening in the United States? So what you have right now is an economy with more concentration of ownership than we've ever had. That means whether it's agriculture, transportation, healthcare, whatever it may be, fewer and fewer massively large corporations control what's produced and the prices we pay. And then you look at our political system, and we don't talk about it.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
What is the reality of the political system today? And that is that billionaires are spending huge amounts of money to buy this election. In Trump's campaign, you got three multi-billionaires spending over $200 million. Three people. Democrats have their billionaires not quite as concentrated.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
But at the end of the day, billionaires play an enormous role in terms of electing politicians and in Washington in determining what legislation gets seen and not seen.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
You got it. Let me give you one example. Lobbyists. We pay in the United States by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. This is an issue I've been working hard on with some success. Take a wild and crazy guess. How many lobbyists are there from the drug companies in Washington, D.C.? Over a thousand. Over a thousand, right?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
There are 100 members of the Senate, 435 members of the House, 535 members of Congress. There are 1,800 lobbyists.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
well-paid lobbyists representing the drug companies including former leaders of the republican and democratic party that is why one of the reasons why we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs military industrial complex you've got a revolving door people go from the military into the general dynamics into lockheed martin and the other large companies and what we see there is an institution in the pentagon
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
We spend a trillion dollars a year on the Pentagon. It is the only federal agency that is not able to submit to an independent audit. So if you think there's not massive fraud and waste and cost overruns in the Pentagon, you would be sorely mistaken.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
If the corrupt means that, hey, here's $10,000, vote this way, doesn't work like that. Very, very rare. Occasionally, very, very rare. That's corruption. What happens is that if you are in a campaign, and right now the amount of money that people have to raise, you're running for Senate in Ohio, you're talking about $50, $60 million. Where the hell are you going to get that money?
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
It's not going to be $10 donations. You're going to be surrounding yourself with people who have the money. You're going to go $5,000, a plate dinner, et cetera. So you surround yourself with those people who say, oh, these are my problems. This is what I need. I need a tax break for billionaires, blah, blah, blah, blah. So you become, you live in that world. They are your financial support.
Lex Fridman Podcast
#450 – Bernie Sanders Interview
They are, in a sense, your political base. So you're very cognizant of what you do in terms of not upsetting them. So it's not corruption in the sense of people taking envelopes with huge amounts of money to vote a certain way. That very, very rarely, if ever, happens. It is the power of big money to make politicians dependent on those folks.
Morning Wire
Democratic Infighting Grows & Wisconsin’s Judicial Showdown | 3.24.25
We're going to take on their effort to move us to an authoritarian society. But we have got to ourselves have a vision for the kind of country we want to become.
Morning Wire
Democratic Infighting Grows & Wisconsin’s Judicial Showdown | 3.24.25
Is there anything that you think Trump has done right? Yeah, I mean, I think cracking down on fentanyl, making sure our borders are stronger. Look, nobody thinks illegal immigration is appropriate. And I happen to think we need comprehensive immigration reform. But I don't think that it's appropriate for people to be coming across the border illegally.
Morning Wire
Plane Crash Recovery & Cabinet Hearings Clashes | 1.31.25
Is Edward Snowden a traitor to the United States of America?
Morning Wire
Plane Crash Recovery & Cabinet Hearings Clashes | 1.31.25
Oh, I thought that that would come. No, no, no. I ran for president like you. I got millions and millions of contributions. They did not come from the executives, not one nickel of PAC money from the pharmaceutical industry.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Dems in More Trouble Than They Think, Biden Still in Denial on The View, Inside the Trump Cabinet
they went the route of the sexist route, the whole route. I mean, this is a woman, she's this, she's that. Really, I've never seen quite as successful and a consistent campaign undercutting the notion that a woman couldn't lead the country and a woman of mixed race.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Dems in More Trouble Than They Think, Biden Still in Denial on The View, Inside the Trump Cabinet
Yes, I do, because, look, I was in charge and he won. So, you know, I take responsibility.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Dems in More Trouble Than They Think, Biden Still in Denial on The View, Inside the Trump Cabinet
That's worth the invitation to come to the show.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Dems in More Trouble Than They Think, Biden Still in Denial on The View, Inside the Trump Cabinet
No, I think it was the right decision. I think that the... Well, it was just a difficult decision.
Next Up with Mark Halperin
Dems in More Trouble Than They Think, Biden Still in Denial on The View, Inside the Trump Cabinet
Well, I don't think so. I don't know how that would have made much difference. So should President Biden have gotten out of that race earlier?
Pod Save America
Trump’s Ukraine Fallout and Crypto Grift
The problem is the Democrats have been playing dead for too many years. I don't think you play dead. I think you stand up for the working class in this country and make the point. Thirteen of the people that he nominated to head agencies are billionaires. Their greed is uncontrollable. We've got to fight back. That's what these trips to Wisconsin and Michigan will be about.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
I'll tell you, I have, needless to say, I've done a lot of rallies. And we've done rallies during the presidential campaign that were larger than this, for sure. But the idea that in a non-campaign, coming here to Warren, Michigan, that you have 10,000 people is totally insane. And what it tells me, and we had tremendous turnouts in Kenosha.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
We had wonderful turnouts in a small community in Altoona, Wisconsin. And what it tells me is the American people are up in arms now. They are not going to let Trump and his friends turn this country into an oligarchy. They're not going to let him turn us into an authoritarian society.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
And they're not going to allow him to give tax breaks to billionaires and cut the programs that working class people need.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
Well, look, I think the evidence is pretty clear. When you have a president get inaugurated and standing behind him, sitting behind him, with the three wealthiest people in the country, Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos, Mr. Zuckerberg, and then sitting scattered throughout the stage, 13 other billionaires who Trump nominated to head major agencies, Secretary of Treasury, etc.,
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
You tell me what you would call it. This is, I find it hard not to describe it as a government of the billionaires. And that is what Alakaki is about.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
Look, these are the scariest times in my lifetime, that's all. I mean, I think that's objectively the truth. It is not just they want to give tax breaks to billionaires and cut programs for working people. Frankly, that's happened before. But you combine that with the power of the oligarchy in general,
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
You combine that with Mr. Musk owning Twitter and able to send out his messages to hundreds of millions of people, You combine that with the fact that people like Bezos, the second wealthiest person in the country, fired or got rid of most of his editorial staff and is going to convert them into a right-wing thing.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
Combine that with the fact that Trump is suing major media outlets and is threatening to investigate PBS and NPR. So it's not only the power of money, it's also combined with that, the movement toward authoritarianism. You know, when Trump... unilaterally cuts federal funding that was passed by Congress, that is illegal, that is unconstitutional.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
When you have the vice president saying, well, in his judgment, the courts don't have the right to stop unconstitutional acts of the president, man, that is authoritarian. That's what the courts are. He is now trying to end what the founding fathers were pretty smart about, creating a form of government where there were checks and balances, a legislative body, an executive body, and a judiciary.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
So he's moving aggressively in all of these areas. Yeah, there was gravity in my voice. This is a scary moment.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
Well, I think, and this is what I believe, maybe I'm wrong, but it is what I have always believed. And I am a politician, you know. And when people stand up and talk, when your phone line bangs off the hook, When you see rallies, if I'm the congressman from this district and I see 9,000 people coming out who really do not want tax breaks for billionaires and cuts in Medicaid, you know what?
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
I'm gonna think twice about it. So I think what Trump and Musk hope is they can create a sense of powerlessness in people. Hey, what do you think? I got all the money, I got all the power, I own the media, I can buy elections. What do you think you can do? You can't fund me. And if people believe that, we're gonna lose.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
But if people understand that when they stand up and fight back, and that's why at the end of these remarks, I talked about the history of this country. This is not the first time. You know, I think back, a slightly different thing, you know, in December of 1941, 1941, the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor. You know what? We have to fight a war on two fronts. Complete.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
The military was not prepared to do that. Yet in two years, country came together. We were able to lay the groundwork for victory. We can do it. We can do it when people are mobilized and are prepared to stand up and fight back. So what does success to you look like? In the short term.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
In the short term, it means a solid defeat of this outrageous reconciliation bill, which would provide $1.1 trillion in tax breaks to the 1% and massive cuts to Medicaid, nutrition, and education programs. That's the immediate. We win that. We got them on the defensive. And that's why I'm here in this district and why I was in Kenosha and Altoona earlier.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
Well, I'll be back in Washington on Monday and we'll be delving into that, but there's a lot of stuff that's flying on. So I can't give you a good answer on that one.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
No, this is unprecedented, and it's why this is a scary moment. Look, Musk is many things, but he is extraordinarily arrogant and extraordinarily aggressive. And they're going for it. They're going for it. I mean, it's just hard to keep up with what they are doing, their movie. And that's not an accident as well.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
But I tell you, I think that when you propose to cut, was it 83,000 positions at the Veterans Administration, the American people are going to say, you're not going to do that because no matter what your politics may be, there is respect for people who put their lives on the line to defend our country. And I've been talking to veterans all over this country. And you know what?
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
I don't think they're going to get away with that. I think the veterans community is going to stand up. I think you're going to have seniors all over this country saying, no, I can't get a phone call now because the Social Security Administration is understaffed. Some 30,000 people a year die who have disabilities because they don't get their benefits on time. This will only make it much worse.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
No, I think not. I mean, I think the answer is going to be exactly what we're doing here today, and that is rally thousands of people all over this country. Our next trip, we expect, will probably be heading west, maybe to Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, whatever, and just put pressure on these members of Congress. Now, in fairness to them, because of the corrupt campaign finance system.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
If some Republican today stands up and says, you know what? I am not going to cut Medicaid in my district to give tax breaks to billionaires. You know what happens? The next day, Musk says, guess what, fella? We're going to primary you. I got endless amounts of money. You're in trouble. These guys are scared to death. They're scared to death of Musk.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
But we're going to have to force them to make a choice. They can be scared to death of Musk or they can be scared to death of their own constituents.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
so uh look i don't know if you have any uh uh interest in talking about what democrats are doing wrong if you cared about their outfits at the state of the union but we can we can skip it if you want yeah look democrats will do you want to talk about democrats i'll give you truck shoe muslima hakeem jeffries you can talk to them i'm here doing you know as you know i'm an independent the longest i'm proudly longest standing independent in american congressional history i'm doing what i do democrats will do what they do
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
No, I don't want to. Look, all I will tell you is that one of the untold stories is that when I was in the House, I helped form the Progressive Caucus. You may know that. And we had about five people at the time, grew a little bit. Today, there are somewhere around 100.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
And there are fantastic people, many of them, dozens of them, young people, many of them are women, people of color, great people. So, you know, that is one of the success stories that the progressive movement has had. We've elected people the likes of which when I was in the House, you know, 18 years ago, they didn't exist. So we're making some real progress. We've got to do a lot more.
Pod Save America
Trump's Crackdown on Dissent
Yeah. No, that's not who I am, as a matter of fact. I've done marijuana twice in my life. Twice? Yeah, didn't quite agree with me. Do you want to end Daylight Saving Time? Doesn't matter. Okay, thank you very much.
REAL AF with Andy Frisella
833. Andy & DJ CTI: Tech Stocks Lose $1T Over DeepSeek, Migrant Deportations & DEI Here To Stay?
What Biden said last night is we're moving toward an oligarchy. I'm asking you that question. Do you think forget how they made their money? Do you think that when so few people have so much wealth and so much economic and political power that that is an oligarchic form of society?
REAL AF with Andy Frisella
833. Andy & DJ CTI: Tech Stocks Lose $1T Over DeepSeek, Migrant Deportations & DEI Here To Stay?
he, he fucking duty forgets what people did.
REAL AF with Andy Frisella
833. Andy & DJ CTI: Tech Stocks Lose $1T Over DeepSeek, Migrant Deportations & DEI Here To Stay?
Now we have this and nobody, nobody, nobody disagrees that.
REAL AF with Andy Frisella
834. Andy & DJ CTI: RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearing, Karoline Leavitt Vows To Hold Media Accountable & Tiffany Henyard Jumps Into Chaotic Brawl
You have started a group called the Children's Health Defense. You're the originator. Right now, as I understand it, on their website, they are selling what's called onesies. These are little things floating for babies. One of them is titled Unfaxed Unafraid. Next one, and they're sold for $26 apiece, by the way. Next one is no vax, no problem.
REAL AF with Andy Frisella
834. Andy & DJ CTI: RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearing, Karoline Leavitt Vows To Hold Media Accountable & Tiffany Henyard Jumps Into Chaotic Brawl
Now, you're coming before this committee, and you say you're pro-vaccine. Just want to ask some questions. And yet your organization is making money selling a child's product. to parents for $26, which casts fundamental doubt on the usefulness of vaccines.
REAL AF with Andy Frisella
834. Andy & DJ CTI: RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearing, Karoline Leavitt Vows To Hold Media Accountable & Tiffany Henyard Jumps Into Chaotic Brawl
Can you tell us now that you will, now that you are pro-vaccine, that you're going to have your organization take these products off the market?
REAL AF with Andy Frisella
834. Andy & DJ CTI: RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearing, Karoline Leavitt Vows To Hold Media Accountable & Tiffany Henyard Jumps Into Chaotic Brawl
That was just a few months ago. You founded that. You certainly have power. You can make that call. Are you supportive of this? I've had nothing to do with leadership. Are you supportive of these onesies? I'm supportive of vaccines. Are you supportive of this clothing, which is militantly anti-vaccine?
REAL AF with Andy Frisella
834. Andy & DJ CTI: RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearing, Karoline Leavitt Vows To Hold Media Accountable & Tiffany Henyard Jumps Into Chaotic Brawl
But you will not tell the organization you founded not to continue selling that product. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
REAL AF with Andy Frisella
834. Andy & DJ CTI: RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearing, Karoline Leavitt Vows To Hold Media Accountable & Tiffany Henyard Jumps Into Chaotic Brawl
Yeah, they did.
REAL AF with Andy Frisella
834. Andy & DJ CTI: RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearing, Karoline Leavitt Vows To Hold Media Accountable & Tiffany Henyard Jumps Into Chaotic Brawl
She lying.
REAL AF with Andy Frisella
834. Andy & DJ CTI: RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearing, Karoline Leavitt Vows To Hold Media Accountable & Tiffany Henyard Jumps Into Chaotic Brawl
Mm-mm.
REAL AF with Andy Frisella
834. Andy & DJ CTI: RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearing, Karoline Leavitt Vows To Hold Media Accountable & Tiffany Henyard Jumps Into Chaotic Brawl
What did he say?
REAL AF with Andy Frisella
834. Andy & DJ CTI: RFK Jr. Confirmation Hearing, Karoline Leavitt Vows To Hold Media Accountable & Tiffany Henyard Jumps Into Chaotic Brawl
Yeah.
Real Coffee with Scott Adams
Episode 2769 CWSA 03/05/25
And he goes, nobody, nobody who is 150 years old or 200 years old or 300 years old is receiving Social Security checks.
Real Coffee with Scott Adams
Episode 2769 CWSA 03/05/25
But the best that Burding can do is to emphatically remind us that nobody, nobody who is 150 years old or 200 years old or 300 years old is receiving Social Security checks.
Real Coffee with Scott Adams
Episode 2769 CWSA 03/05/25
And you're just sitting there saying, oh, God, oh, no, shoot me.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2156 - Trump SLASHES AND BURNS Through Department of Education!
These are the scariest times in my lifetime, that's all. I mean, I think that's objectively the truth. It is not just they wanna give tax breaks to billionaires and cut programs for working people. Frankly, that's happened before. But you combine that with the power of the oligarchy in general,
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2156 - Trump SLASHES AND BURNS Through Department of Education!
You combine that with Mr. Musk owning Twitter and able to send out his messages to hundreds of millions of people. You combine that with the fact that people like Bezos, the second wealthiest person in the country, fired or got rid of most of his editorial staff and is going to convert them into a right-wing thing.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2156 - Trump SLASHES AND BURNS Through Department of Education!
Combine that with the fact that Trump is suing major media outlets and is threatening to investigate PBS and NPR. So it's not only the power of money, it's also combined with that the movement toward authoritarianism.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2179 - Trump SMASHES Harvard
This country faces... some very difficult challenges. And the future of what happens to America is dependent upon your generation. Now you can turn away and you can ignore what goes on, but if you do that, you do it at your own peril. We need you to stand up to fight for justice.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2179 - Trump SMASHES Harvard
Social justice and racial justice. Now we got a president of the United States who... I agree. He thinks that climate change is a hoax.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2195 - BACK TO WINNING: Trump Negotiates Tariff Deal With UK
When's the last time you saw Donald Trump during a campaign mode at National Airport?
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2195 - BACK TO WINNING: Trump Negotiates Tariff Deal With UK
You run a campaign and you do three or four or five rallies in a week. The only way you can get around to talk to 30,000 people. Think I'm going to be sitting on a waiting line at United waiting, you know, while 30,000 people are waiting. That's the only way you can get around. No apologies for that. That's what campaign travel is about. We've done it in the past.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2195 - BACK TO WINNING: Trump Negotiates Tariff Deal With UK
We're going to do it in the future.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2128 - Bernie Goes NUTS: DENOUNCE THE ONESIES!
Is healthcare a human right?
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2128 - Bernie Goes NUTS: DENOUNCE THE ONESIES!
They are selling what's called onesies. These are little things, clothing for babies. Are you supportive of this? I've had nothing to do with leadership. Are you supportive of these onesies?
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2128 - Bernie Goes NUTS: DENOUNCE THE ONESIES!
Are you supportive of this clothing, which is militantly anti-vaccine?
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2128 - Bernie Goes NUTS: DENOUNCE THE ONESIES!
But you will not tell the organization you founded not to continue selling that product. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2164 - The Democrats’ 2028 Frontrunner Is…AOC?!
Is it different? Turns out a few other people are catching on to that, right? I have been talking for many years about this country moving toward an oligarchy. And I think anybody who is not dumb, deaf, or blind is seeing precisely what is happening.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2164 - The Democrats’ 2028 Frontrunner Is…AOC?!
Right now, we have, as I said, just a whole lot of people in the Congress. OK, Jonathan, thanks.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2164 - The Democrats’ 2028 Frontrunner Is…AOC?!
This is important. Well, I ask you, OK, you know, you want to do nonsense, do nonsense. No. I don't want to talk about inside the beltway stuff. I got 32,000 people. I was just asking you about AOC because she was out there. Fine, but I don't want to talk about this. What was the last question?
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2164 - The Democrats’ 2028 Frontrunner Is…AOC?!
If we stand together, we can not only defeat Trumpism, but we can create the kind of great nation we know that we can become. Thank you all very much.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2164 - The Democrats’ 2028 Frontrunner Is…AOC?!
I mean, I think cracking down on fentanyl, making sure our borders are stronger. Look, nobody thinks illegal immigration is appropriate. And I happen to think we need comprehensive immigration reform. But I don't think that it's appropriate for people to be coming across the border illegally.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2164 - The Democrats’ 2028 Frontrunner Is…AOC?!
Well, I would take us back even two years before that, before Trump was elected, and saying that it saddens me that when the Democrats had control of the Senate, they did virtually nothing for working people. And I have to say that I'm a member of the Democratic caucus as an independent, so I'm not going to lie to you and tell you otherwise.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2129 - Did DEI Cause the DC Crash?!
I thought that that would come. I ran for president like you. I got millions and millions of contributions. They did not come from the executives, not one nickel of PAC money from the pharmaceutical industry. They came from workers.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2129 - Did DEI Cause the DC Crash?!
Because I had four contributions from workers all over this country. Workers, not a nickel from corporate tax. Bernie, you were the single largest acceptor of pharmaceutical dollars. No, from workers in the industry.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2129 - Did DEI Cause the DC Crash?!
There have been, as I understand it, dozens of studies done all over the world that make it very clear that vaccines do not cause autism. Now, you just said, if I heard correctly, well, if the evidence is there. The evidence is there. That's it. Vaccines do not cause autism. Do you agree with that? As I said, I'm not going to go into HHS with any preordain. I ask you a simple question, Bobby.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2129 - Did DEI Cause the DC Crash?!
Studies all over the world say it does not. What do you think?
The Ben Shapiro Show
Ep. 2129 - Did DEI Cause the DC Crash?!
That is a very troubling response because the studies are there. Your job was to have looked at those studies as an applicant for this job.
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol: Fake Nicey-Nicey Sh**t
We are moving rapidly into an oligarchic form of society. Never before in American history have so few billionaires, so few people have so much wealth and so much power. Never before has there been so much concentration of ownership, sector after sector, power of Wall Street and never before in American history. And we better talk about this. Have the people on top had so much political power?
The Bulwark Podcast
Bill Kristol: Fake Nicey-Nicey Sh**t
We can't go around the world saying, well, in Russia, Putin has an oligarchy. Well, we got an oligarchy here too. And in this last election in both parties, billionaires spent huge amounts of money to elect their candidates.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vance is Right: Germany Isn't Free
Look, what we're seeing right now, Caitlin, is a very dangerous moment. I'm laughing here, but it is not funny. This country is moving very rapidly under Trump into an authoritarian form of society. Elon Musk is clearly running the show, the wealthiest person in the world who has enormous conflicts of interests.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Vance is Right: Germany Isn't Free
who is helping to fund right wing extremist organizations all over the world, who is looking forward to get massive tax breaks from Congress. He's running the show.
The Charlie Kirk Show
THOUGHTCRIME: Renewal of the American Dream Speech Special
Nobody, nobody who was 150 years old or 200 years old or 300 years old is receiving Social Security checks.
The Daily
Is Elon Musk Buying Today’s Election in Wisconsin?
No, we will not accept an oligarchic form of society where a handful of billionaires run the government.
The Dan Bongino Show
Trump Drops The Hammer At Press Conference (Ep. 2389)
Elizabeth Warren obviously understands killing and murder and shooting somebody in the back is totally unacceptable. But what I think has happened in the last few months is that what you have seen rising up is people's anger at a health insurance industry which denies people the health care that they desperately need while they make billions and billions of dollars in profit.
The Dan Bongino Show
A Turning Point In The Tariff War | Episode 39
When's the last time you saw Donald Trump during a campaign mode at National Airport? No, no, no.
The Dan Bongino Show
A Turning Point In The Tariff War | Episode 39
You run a campaign and you do three or four or five rallies in a week. The only way you can get around to talk to 30,000 people. Think I'm going to be sitting on a waiting line at United waiting, you know, what, 30,000 people are waiting? That's the only way you can get around. No apologies for that. That's what campaign travel is about. We've done it in the past.
The Dan Bongino Show
A Turning Point In The Tariff War | Episode 39
We're going to do it in the future. You think I'm just going to stand around waiting with the normal people at United at the desk?
The Dan Bongino Show
The Pope Is Dead. And The Supreme Court Is Meddling. | Episode 26
Omar Obrego Garcia's specific case, the case of the gentleman who's a makeup artist out of California who was also sent to that prison. That is why the the the more the 75 percent of the folks who have been sent, the men who have been sent there that don't have criminal records. That is why this is so important, because if they could do it to them.
The Dan Bongino Show
The Pope Is Dead. And The Supreme Court Is Meddling. | Episode 26
if we they could snatch students off the street without any pushback or recourse they will do it to any of us to be very clear it's gonna be the people of color and vulnerable communities that are are next in line that's right and that's certainly part of why the african-american community is so strongly behind the supporting uh kilmar like we are not for this yeah bull that's not even true that's just a straight-up lie black americans are are wildly in favor of securing our border
The Dan Bongino Show
Trump Joins The Show To Drop Massive Truth Bombs (Ep. 2403)
When you have a small number of multi billionaires who have enormous economic media and political power, would you agree? with President Biden, who last night stated, and I quote, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms. End of quote. That's what President Biden said last night.
The Dan Bongino Show
Trump Joins The Show To Drop Massive Truth Bombs (Ep. 2403)
I agree with him. Do you?
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
The Birth of Christ | Biblical Series: The Gospels
Margaret, we are living in an unprecedented moment in American history. We're looking at a rapid growth of oligarchy. We're looking at a rapid growth of authoritarianism, and I fear that we're looking at a rapid growth of kleptocracy as well. And I'm going to do everything I can to work with my supporters all over this country to stand up and fight back.
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
The Birth of Christ | Biblical Series: The Gospels
to make sure we have an economy that works for everybody, not just Elon Musk, and that we maintain American democracy.
The Matt Walsh Show
Ep. 1526 - Democrats Shill For Big Pharma In RFK Jr Confirmation Hearing
What do you think is causing the avian influenza?
The Matt Walsh Show
Ep. 1526 - Democrats Shill For Big Pharma In RFK Jr Confirmation Hearing
So that's good to hear because in a recent book, I will submit this for the record because we don't have that much time. Mr. Kennedy has questioned the scientific basis for germs causing disease and the power of vaccines and antibiotics.
The Matt Walsh Show
Ep. 1526 - Democrats Shill For Big Pharma In RFK Jr Confirmation Hearing
Well, I will submit that for the record.
The Matt Walsh Show
Ep. 1526 - Democrats Shill For Big Pharma In RFK Jr Confirmation Hearing
In an interview in 2023 and again in 2024, you blamed school shootings on antidepressants. You said, and this is a quote, there is no time in American history or human history that kids were going to shoot schools and shooting their classmates. It really started happening coterminous with the introduction of these drugs, with Prozac and with other drugs.
The Matt Walsh Show
Ep. 1526 - Democrats Shill For Big Pharma In RFK Jr Confirmation Hearing
So do you believe, as you've said, that antidepressants cause school shootings? This should be a simple question.
The Matt Walsh Show
Ep. 1526 - Democrats Shill For Big Pharma In RFK Jr Confirmation Hearing
Well, there is, Senator. I mean, excuse me. There is, Mr. Kennedy. Thank you for the promotion. The science shows that there is no link between school shootings and antidepressants. And, in fact, most school shooters were not even treated with antidepressants. And of those that were, there was no evidence of association.
The Matt Walsh Show
Ep. 1526 - Democrats Shill For Big Pharma In RFK Jr Confirmation Hearing
I have some experience with this myself, Mr. Kennedy. This is personal for me. When I was a young woman and I was struggling with depression, thankfully, I had the resources to help me get through it, a new generation of SSRI uptake re-inhibitors, which helped to clear my mind, get me back on track to being a mom and a wife and a productive, happy person. And I'm really grateful for that therapy.
The Matt Walsh Show
Ep. 1526 - Democrats Shill For Big Pharma In RFK Jr Confirmation Hearing
So I have some experience with this, and I think that everyone should have access to that care. And your job as secretary is to expand access to care, not to spread lies and misinformation.
The Matt Walsh Show
Ep. 1526 - Democrats Shill For Big Pharma In RFK Jr Confirmation Hearing
Of course they do.
The Megyn Kelly Show
RFK Jr. Spars with Dem Senators Trying to Smear Him at Confirmation Hearing, with Michael Knowles and Link Lauren | Ep. 994
You're coming before this committee and you say you're pro-vaccine. Just want to ask some questions. And yet your organization is making money selling a child's product to parents for 26 bucks, which casts fundamental doubt on the usefulness of vaccines. Can you tell us now that you will, now that you are pro-vaccine, that you're going to have your organization take these products off the market.
The Megyn Kelly Show
RFK Jr. Spars with Dem Senators Trying to Smear Him at Confirmation Hearing, with Michael Knowles and Link Lauren | Ep. 994
That was just a few months ago. You founded that. You certainly have power. You can make that call. Are you supportive of this? I've had nothing to do with leadership. Are you supportive of these onesies? I'm supportive of vaccines. Are you supportive of this clothing, which is militantly anti-vaccine?
The Megyn Kelly Show
RFK Jr. Spars with Dem Senators Trying to Smear Him at Confirmation Hearing, with Michael Knowles and Link Lauren | Ep. 994
But you will not tell the organization you founded not to continue selling that product. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Megyn's Response to Clooney, Hegseth Saga Gets Personal, and Stopping Alzheimer's, with Rich Lowry, MBD, and Dr. Dale Bredesen | Ep. 1055
the realistic way in which democracies die is that it's dismantled brick by brick, piece by piece.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Megyn's Response to Clooney, Hegseth Saga Gets Personal, and Stopping Alzheimer's, with Rich Lowry, MBD, and Dr. Dale Bredesen | Ep. 1055
That is why Kilmar Obrego Garcia's specific case, the case of the gentleman who's a makeup artist out of California who was also sent to that prison, that is why the 75% of the folks who have been sent, the men who have been sent there that don't have criminal records, that is why this is so important. Because if they could do it to them,
The Megyn Kelly Show
Megyn's Response to Clooney, Hegseth Saga Gets Personal, and Stopping Alzheimer's, with Rich Lowry, MBD, and Dr. Dale Bredesen | Ep. 1055
If they could snatch students off the street without any pushback or recourse, they will do it to any of us. To be very clear, it's going to be the people of color and vulnerable communities that are next in line.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Nominee Chavez-DeRemer Grilled, RFK Unleashed, Lively-Baldoni Latest: AM Update for 2/20
Is that your solution? No, no, sit down.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump's Nominee Chavez-DeRemer Grilled, RFK Unleashed, Lively-Baldoni Latest: AM Update for 2/20
Will you be a rubber stamp? for the anti-worker agenda of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and other multi-billionaires who are blatantly anti-union. They don't make any bones about it.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Clooney Lectures About Journalism, and Dems Lean on Bernie and AOC, with Ben Shapiro and Stephen A. Smith | Ep. 1033
Yeah, I mean, I think cracking down on fentanyl, making sure our borders are stronger. Look, nobody thinks illegal immigration is appropriate. And I happen to think we need comprehensive immigration reform. But I don't think that it's appropriate for people to be coming across the border illegally. He wants to deport 20 million people who are in this country who are undocumented.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Clooney Lectures About Journalism, and Dems Lean on Bernie and AOC, with Ben Shapiro and Stephen A. Smith | Ep. 1033
Well, you do that, you destroy the entire country because I got news for you. Trump's billionaire friends are not going to pick the crops in California that feed us. They're not going to work in meat packing houses. That's what undocumented people are doing. So we need a variety of programs, guest worker programs, but mostly comprehensive immigration reform.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Clooney Lectures About Journalism, and Dems Lean on Bernie and AOC, with Ben Shapiro and Stephen A. Smith | Ep. 1033
Look, I think that the wall is an absurd idea. I think it's a waste of money. I think it just fans Trump's illusions. America cannot simply build walls. We look foolish to the rest of the world. We look foolish to Mexico.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump Zeroes in on Greenland, Mysterious Former US Attorney Death, Snow White Bombs: AM Update 3/24
We are witnessing an oligarchy in America where the most economic, political, and technological power destroy the public good to enrich themselves while millions of Americans pay the price.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump Zeroes in on Greenland, Mysterious Former US Attorney Death, Snow White Bombs: AM Update 3/24
We will not allow America to become an oligarchy. This nation was built by working people. We're not going to let a handful of billionaires run the government.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump Zeroes in on Greenland, Mysterious Former US Attorney Death, Snow White Bombs: AM Update 3/24
Is there anything that you think Trump has done right? Yeah, I mean, I think cracking down on fentanyl making sure our borders are stronger. Look, nobody thinks illegal immigration is appropriate.
The Megyn Kelly Show
World Leaders Line Up to Negotiate, Trump Ovation at UFC, Cognitive Test Results: AM Update 4/14
Giving up and hiding under the covers is not acceptable. They are the 1%. We are the 99%.
The Megyn Kelly Show
World Leaders Line Up to Negotiate, Trump Ovation at UFC, Cognitive Test Results: AM Update 4/14
This country faces some very difficult challenges. And the future of what happens to America is dependent upon your generation. Now you can't turn away and you can ignore what goes on, but if you do that, you do it at your own peril. We need you to stand up to fight for justice. To fight for economic justice, social justice, and racial justice.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump Takes On Big Pharma with Historic Drug Prices Exec Order, and Michelle Obama's Bitterness, with Walter Kirn | Ep. 1070
I know exactly why, and so does everybody else. Throughout the entire world, there are national health programs, which by the way, in most cases, guarantee healthcare to all of their people. And they sit down and they negotiate with the drug companies. And they say, you know what, you can't charge us any price you want. Let's sit down and talk about a reasonable price.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump Takes On Big Pharma with Historic Drug Prices Exec Order, and Michelle Obama's Bitterness, with Walter Kirn | Ep. 1070
Here in the United States, until last year, you had the insane situation where the drug companies could charge any price they wanted for any reason, second of all. Let's not kid ourselves. The pharmaceutical industry is enormously powerful. They have over 1,800 well-paid lobbyists in Washington, D.C. Right now, former leaders of the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, they're very nonpartisan.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Trump Takes On Big Pharma with Historic Drug Prices Exec Order, and Michelle Obama's Bitterness, with Walter Kirn | Ep. 1070
They will give money to anybody.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Dems Ignore Garcia Reality, Karmelo Anthony Family Speaks Out, Bernie Flies Private: AM Update 4/18
We can either have extreme wealth inequality with the toxic division and corruption that it requires to survive, or we can have a fair economy for working people.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Dems Ignore Garcia Reality, Karmelo Anthony Family Speaks Out, Bernie Flies Private: AM Update 4/18
Trump has a government of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Dems Ignore Garcia Reality, Karmelo Anthony Family Speaks Out, Bernie Flies Private: AM Update 4/18
They have one central economic mission, to make billionaires richer at the expense of all of us.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Dems Ignore Garcia Reality, Karmelo Anthony Family Speaks Out, Bernie Flies Private: AM Update 4/18
We're not going to let the billionaire class have all of the power.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Zelenskyy Puts the Screws into Trump… from Kyiv!
I do not want to hear one Republican come to the floor of the Senate and talk about freedom. unless that Senator has the guts to call out Trump for the lies that he is telling about Putin and the war in Ukraine. Mr. President, it was Russia that started the war. not Ukraine. It is Putin who is the dictator, not Zelensky. This country must not align itself with Putin and authoritarianism.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Zelenskyy Puts the Screws into Trump… from Kyiv!
We must fight for democracy all over the world.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Gets Instant Karma at Rowdy Town Halls
Now you have a congressman here. His name is Representative Valadero. So I don't know if he's watching the live stream or not. But if he is, let me just say this to him. I come from the state of Vermont and I'm here in Bakersfield. Alexandria comes from New York, and she is here in Bakersfield. Now, Mr. Congressman, you live in this district. Why don't you show up at a town meeting like this?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/25/25
We are today the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. There is no excuse for 800,000 people to be sleeping out on the streets. There is no excuse for 20 million people, including people right here, paying 40 or 50 percent of their limited incomes for housing. This is America. We can build 4 million units of low-income and affordable housing. We can lower rents. This is America.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/25/25
We should not be the only major nation on earth not to guarantee health care to all people as a human right. The function of a healthcare system is not to make billions in profits for the drug companies and the insurance companies. It is to provide quality care to all. We can do it. We do not have to pay 10 times more for prescription drugs than to the people in other countries.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/25/25
We can take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, cut prescription drug prices in half.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 4/15/25
Here in LA, in Burlington, Vermont, and all across this country, we have a major housing crisis. Am I right? And it's not just homelessness. It's people paying 40, 50, 60% of their limited incomes in housing. Instead of spending a trillion dollars a year on the military, let's build 5 million units of low-income and affordable housing.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 4/15/25
Brothers and sisters, we live in a competitive global economy. And if we're going to effectively compete, we need the best educated workforce in the world. It is nothing less than insane and counterproductive that we have young people leaving higher education $50,000, $80,000 in debt. We need more doctors. You know what doctors are leaving medical school with? $500,000 in debt.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 4/15/25
Nurses are leaving $100,000 in debt. Education is a human right from childcare through college. We need sheet metal workers. We need cooperatives. We need construction workers. We need apprenticeship programs. We need to make public colleges, universities, and trade schools tuition-free.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/11/25
Raise your hand. What is it like living paycheck to paycheck? Who wants to? All right, let me get some hands back there. Be loud. We got a hand there. Okay, ma'am. Stressful. Stressful. Stay on that issue, sir.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/11/25
You're not sure if you're going to be able to keep the heat on. Yes, ma'am. Trying to find a way to plan a meal until your next paycheck comes, ma'am. Forget about buying shoes and clothes for your kids. Ma'am? Skipping doctors' visits. Okay, I see a hand back there. Sir, yeah? Fear that your world is going to fall apart, sir. Am I getting glasses or can I get them for my kids, sir?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/11/25
Can't plan for the future. Hand back there, sir. Okay. Psychological warfare. Yes. You make impossible decisions for your family, sir. General insecurity. Okay. I think you got it. So let me just tell you something. If we were a poor country, I would come before you and give you a very different speech. I'd say, hey, look, I'm sorry, we're poor.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/11/25
We can't afford decent education, can't afford decent health care. I want you never to forget, we are the richest country in the history of the world. There is no excuse for people dying young because of that stress.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Holds Disaster Presser for Unthinkable Order
And here is the reality, which is not talked about very much. The reality is that in America today, our life expectancy is about four years less than other wealthy countries. But even worse is the fact that if you're working class in America, on average, you live seven to eight years shorter life than people who are wealthy. Now, why is that?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Holds Disaster Presser for Unthinkable Order
And the answer is not just healthcare, which is important. Working class people, low income people do not have access to the kind of healthcare that the rich do, but it is the stress the day-to-day stress that working class people live under. And I grew up in a working class home. I know a little bit about what it's like to have a family living paycheck to paycheck.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Holds Disaster Presser for Unthinkable Order
And what I did, that was in Altoona, Wisconsin. I said, okay, all right, tell me what it's like to live under economic stress. And people just stood up.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Holds Disaster Presser for Unthinkable Order
And one woman says, you know, it's a question of whether I buy shoes for myself or my kids, whether I can afford eyeglasses, whether I can afford to go to the doctor, whether, you know, I'm going to have the money to prepare a decent meal for my kids, that I live every day not knowing, you know, what to expect. How do I survive? And what that is about, that is the reality
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Holds Disaster Presser for Unthinkable Order
that tens of millions of our people are living under. We don't talk about it. And what I have learned over the years, that some of the most important issues are the issues that get least discussion. And one of those issues is not just the working class people who have six years shorter lives, seven years shorter lives than the rich. That's important. Why is that?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Holds Disaster Presser for Unthinkable Order
But what's equally important is 60% of the American people in the richest country on earth live paycheck to paycheck. That means they go to work, And if their landlord raises the rent, they don't know how they're going to be able to pay for it. Kid gets sick, don't know how to afford to send the kid to the doctor. Car breaks down, don't know how to get it fixed, et cetera, et cetera.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Holds Disaster Presser for Unthinkable Order
That is the reality facing tens of millions of Americans in the wealthiest country on earth. And that is the issue that we got to focus on. And that is why we got to transform our economy so that it works for everybody, not just billionaires.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Completely Loses It in Unhinged Interview
And here is the reality. which is not talked about very much. The reality is that in America today, our life expectancy is about four years less than other wealthy countries. But even worse is the fact that if you're working class in America, on average, you live seven to eight years shorter life than people who are wealthy. Now, why is that?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Completely Loses It in Unhinged Interview
And the answer is not just healthcare, which is important. Working class people, low income people do not have access to the kind of healthcare that the rich do, but it is the stress the day-to-day stress that working class people live under. And I grew up in a working class home. I know a little bit about what it's like to have a family living paycheck to paycheck.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Completely Loses It in Unhinged Interview
And what I did, that was in Altoona, Wisconsin. I said, okay, all right, tell me what it's like to live under economic stress. And people just stood up.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Completely Loses It in Unhinged Interview
And one woman says, you know, it's a question of whether I buy shoes for myself or my kids, whether I can afford eyeglasses, whether I can afford to go to the doctor, whether, you know, I'm going to have the money to prepare a decent meal for my kids. That I live every day not knowing, you know, what to expect. How do I survive? And what that is about, that is the reality
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Completely Loses It in Unhinged Interview
that tens of millions of our people are living under. We don't talk about it. And what I have learned over the years, that some of the most important issues are the issues that get least discussion. And one of those issues is not just the working class people who have six years shorter lives, seven years shorter lives than the rich. That's important. Why is that?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Completely Loses It in Unhinged Interview
But what's equally important is 60% of the American people in the richest country on earth live paycheck to paycheck. That means they go to work, And if their landlord raises the rent, they don't know how they're going to be able to pay for it. Kid gets sick, don't know how to afford to send the kid to the doctor. Car breaks down, don't know how to get it fixed, et cetera, et cetera.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Completely Loses It in Unhinged Interview
That is the reality facing tens of millions of Americans in the wealthiest country on earth. And that is the issue that we got to focus on. And that is why we got to transform our economy so that it works for everybody, not just billionaires.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Gets Shut Down as Dems Finally Go Nuclear
We're not only dealing with oligarchy, the incredible power of the very, very rich. We're not only dealing with a move toward authoritarianism. We're dealing with what is new to America, You know, politicians have always lied, nothing new about that.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Gets Shut Down as Dems Finally Go Nuclear
But the level that we're seeing right now, the big lie, over and over again, and it goes out, there's a big lie, and then it goes out on Musk's Twitter to, what, several hundred million people, repeated over and over again. Now the word is out there, oh, people on Social Security, 150 years of age, can you believe it? The whole thing is corrupt, it's broken. Well, where does that lead you, Caitlin?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Gets Shut Down as Dems Finally Go Nuclear
What's the next step? If government can't do anything, if Social Security doesn't work, if Medicare doesn't work, if Medicaid doesn't work, we're going to get rid of all of those programs and we're going to give it over to the billionaire class to run it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Gets Shut Down as Dems Finally Go Nuclear
At the end of the day, not only the Social Security, they want massive cuts to programs for the working class in this country in order to give tax breaks to the very rich. And then they want to move to the privatization of every important government agency.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Gets Shut Down as Dems Finally Go Nuclear
Play this clip. Elon Musk is clearly running the show. Wealthiest person in the world who has enormous conflicts of interests. who is helping to fund right-wing extremist organizations all over the world, who is looking forward to get massive tax breaks from Congress. He's running the show.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Gets Shut Down as Dems Finally Go Nuclear
I kind of thought so, but I think you have to explain that to the president.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Gets Shut Down as Dems Finally Go Nuclear
Look, what we're seeing right now, Caitlin, is a very dangerous moment. I'm laughing here, but it is not funny. This country is moving very rapidly under Trump into an authoritarian form of society.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Gets Shut Down as Dems Finally Go Nuclear
At the end of the day, the struggle against Trump, the struggle against oligarchy, which is led by Elon Musk, the struggle against authoritarianism, The fight to make sure that the working class of this country gets a fair shake, that is not going to be won here in Capitol Hill. It's going to be won by millions of people all over this country standing up and saying, you know what?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
GOP Gets Shut Down as Dems Finally Go Nuclear
We fought and died for democracy. We're not going to move toward authoritarianism. We fought to create a country that works for all, not just the billionaire class. That's the struggle, and I'm gonna be active in trying to rally the American people to do just that.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Dems Finally Smack Down the GOP Over Trump Disaster
Well, thank you all. Thank you. Thank you all. No, no, no, no, no. It is not Bernie. If there is ever a time in American history where it's not one person, but millions of people, this is that time.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Yikes! Fox News Loses It as Trump Tanks Bad
We should be looking at all of the waste and the fraud. The president is spot on to go after all of these insane programs, get rid of them, and make sure we're actually using taxpayer money wisely. He has not stopped since the day he stepped into office, and I don't think he's going to over the next four years. I think that the Democrats are terrified at what all he's going to find.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Yikes! Fox News Loses It as Trump Tanks Bad
Maybe they're using this as a distraction. It's really the only thing I can think of that makes sense why they're continuing down this road.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Runs to Golf Like a Coward as USA Rises Up
So the point that Alexandria made a few minutes ago is exactly the right point. And that is what the right wing wants us to do is to turn on each other. They want to divide us up by the color of our skin. or where we were born, or what our religion is, or what our sexual orientation is. That's how they win. They divide us up.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Runs to Golf Like a Coward as USA Rises Up
Now I'm not a mathematician, but I do know that 99% is a hell of a bigger number than 1%. And I do know that if we stand together We are the vast majority of people. We can defeat Trumpism. We can create a political movement so that we have a government and economy that works for all of us, not just the 1%.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/21/25
And here is the reality, which is not talked about very much. The reality is that in America today, our life expectancy is about four years less than other wealthy countries. But even worse is the fact that if you're working class in America, on average, you live seven to eight years shorter life than people who are wealthy. Now, why is that?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/21/25
And the answer is not just healthcare, which is important. Working class people, low income people do not have access to the kind of healthcare that the rich do, but it is the stress, the day-to-day stress that working class people live under. And I grew up in a working class home. I know a little bit about what it's like to have a family living paycheck to paycheck.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/21/25
And what I did, that was in Altoona, Wisconsin. I said, okay, All right, tell me what it's like to live under economic stress. And people just stood up.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/21/25
And one woman says, you know, it's a question of whether I buy shoes for myself or my kids, whether I can afford eyeglasses, whether I can afford to go to the doctor, whether, you know, I'm going to have the money to prepare a decent meal for my kids, that I live every day not knowing, you know, what to expect. How do I survive?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/21/25
And what that is about, that is the reality that tens of millions of our people are living under. We don't talk about it. And what I have learned over the years that some of the most important issues are the issues that get least discussion. And one of those issues It's not just the working class people who have six years shorter lives, seven years shorter lives than the rich. That's important.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/21/25
Why is that? But what's equally important is 60% of the American people in the richest country on earth live paycheck to paycheck. That means they go to work. And if their landlord raises the rent, they don't know how they're going to be able to pay for it. Kid gets sick, don't know how to afford to send the kid to the doctor. Car breaks down, don't know how to get it fixed, et cetera, et cetera.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/21/25
That is the reality facing tens of millions of Americans in the wealthiest country on earth. And that is the issue that we got to focus on. And that is why we got to transform our economy so that it works for everybody, not just billionaires.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 2/20/25
If you've got to protect the First Amendment, it's not much more important than that.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 2/20/25
OK, I don't mean to be rude. No, we don't have a lot of time. I'm I'm gathering I'm gathering that you no longer support the project is what I hear that you support the American worker. That's what everybody here will say. What do you feel about the Butch Lewis Act?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 2/20/25
You will go to the wall to go to the mat supporting it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 2/20/25
Do you support raising the minimum wage to a living wage?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 2/20/25
Are you concerned that we do not have a functioning NLRB now?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/14/25
Look, we have to remember, step back for just one second. We have to remember that if Kamala Harris had won on November 5th, the stock market would be down 50%. Business climate would be a total disaster and this country would have been on a path to ruin. What President Trump inherited was a disaster from Biden. We're going to fix it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/14/25
The other countries need our economy more than we need their economy. They've been ripping us off for decades and we want fair and reciprocal trade. And Canada and Mexico have... have to stop allowing fentanyl to come into this country and kill over 100,000 Americans. When they actually do what's necessary to stop that, the tariff penalties will end.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Elissa Slotkin to Fellow-Democrats: “Speak in Plain English”
I think the American people are not quite as dumb as Ms. Larkin thinks they are. I think they understand very well when the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 90%. When big money interests are able to control both political parties, they are living in an oligarchy.
The Tim Dillon Show
429 - The D.C. Plane Crash & RFK’s Hearing
You have started a group called the Children's Health Defense. You're the originator. Right now, as I understand it, on their website, they are selling what's called onesies. These are little things, clothing for babies. Yes. One of them is titled, Unfaxed Unafraid. It's cool. Next one, and they're sold for 26 bucks apiece, by the way. That's a good value. Next one is no vax, no problem.
The Tim Dillon Show
429 - The D.C. Plane Crash & RFK’s Hearing
Now, you're coming before this committee and you say you're pro-vaccine. Just want to ask some questions. And yet your organization is making money selling a child's product to parents for 26 bucks, which casts fundamental doubt on the usefulness of vaccines. Can you tell us now that you will, now that you are
The Tim Dillon Show
429 - The D.C. Plane Crash & RFK’s Hearing
pro-vaccine that you're going to have your organization take these products off the market.
The Tim Dillon Show
429 - The D.C. Plane Crash & RFK’s Hearing
That was just a few months ago. You founded that. You certainly have power. You can make that. Are you supportive of these onesies?
The Tim Dillon Show
429 - The D.C. Plane Crash & RFK’s Hearing
Are you supportive of these this clothing, which is militantly? Well, it's clever and it's good and it's people like it.
Today, Explained
Our trillion-dollar credit card bill
18% ought to be the cap. My bill would cap it across the board, all credit cards, cap fees as well, so the credit card companies can't come in through the back door and charge you more. This is basic fairness for working people in this country.