Transcript of Senator Bernie Sanders Discusses Big Wins in Michigan Primaries

Donald Trump is panicking as the news gets even worse for him in Michigan.

Donald Trump is collapsing in Michigan where his approval right now stands at net negative 25. Let me repeat that, his approval net negative 25.

So here's what he just posted as we also are seeing the Democratic Party rallying around Abdul El-Sayed after his victory in the primaries.

Donald Trump posts, great news for the Republican Party, says Mr.

Net Negative 25.

Al Syed, a communist loser who hates Jews and Israel, is the projected winner in his race with the socialist. As usual, the polls were way off on this one. Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, divide, divide, divide. And then the whiner and thief posts, my real polling numbers, not those made up by the fake news media, are the best they've ever been. And then he posts, manufacturing is booming. Factory activity has hit the fastest pace in more than 4 years. He says that everything that we're doing is a massive success. He says right now, he says, this is the golden age of America and we're just getting started. We're already achieving heights that nobody thought possible and the biggest victories are still ahead. If you consider this a victory, well, Tell me about the bigger victories that are ahead as things are less affordable, as Trump is in never-ending wars with Netanyahu, as Trump has run our economy into the ground while he whines and whines and whines. And then he posts Wayne County, Detroit, in Michigan. It's so corrupt. It's one of the most corrupt voting areas, if not in the world. It's strictly third world.

I mean, have you ever met a bigger whiner? Let's not talk about this political party, that— the guy's just a loser. He's a whiner. Whiny losers, stop it. Just actually help the people, actually help the American people who are suffering right now as you rip away their healthcare, as you make it unaffordable to rent or buy a home, as you destroy people's lives and you wanna now put data centers in everybody's backyard. You say it, you say, we want data centers in everybody's backyard. I wanna bring in Senator Bernie Sanders right now. And Bernie Sanders, of course, having a huge day in Michigan. Let's bring in Senator Bernie Sanders.

I just spoke with him moments ago.

I'm thrilled to have Senator Bernie Sanders joining us here on the Midas Touch Network.

Senator Sanders, great to see you. A big day in Michigan, not just the victory of Abdul El-Sayed, but also numerous other candidates you endorsed winning.

Talk to us about what a big deal this is. Would love to get your—

Oh, you're absolutely right. This was a big, big deal politically. You know, and I think we're kind of looking at a, a massive transformation of politics in America. What happened in Michigan is part of it. So we have people like Will Lawrence, uh, running in Lansing, taking on two establishment candidates, talking about AI and talking about data centers, talking about Medicare for All, and he wins a pretty substantial victory. It's going to be a tight race for Congress for him against the Republican. I think he stands a very good chance to win. And then in Detroit, we have Donovan McKinney, who took on an incumbent member of Congress and beat him. And then needless to say, Abdul El-Sayed won what I think is one of the more extraordinary victories in modern American history. And let me tell you why. Uh, he not only took on the Democratic establishment in his own state of Michigan, not only took on the Democratic establishment here in Washington, D.C., but incredibly, he took on something like $70 million of outside funding, much of which came from AIPAC. To be very honest with you, I have never heard a candidate win against that kind of opposition.

It was really quite extraordinary. And he did it because he ran a brilliant campaign. Like Mamdani in New York, he put thousands and thousands of people out on the streets knocking on doors, making phone calls, strong grassroots campaign. He campaigned on the issues relevant to working families. Understanding that healthcare is a human right, supporting Medicare for All, understanding that we cannot continue to put billions of dollars into Netanyahu's extremist government, understanding that we've got to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, deal with climate change, and so forth and so on. He ran a great campaign, and I applaud him and the volunteers that he assembled from the bottom of my heart.

One of the things that you and AOC and others did on the Fight the Oligarchy tour is you emphasize the importance of listening. In fact, during the Fight the Oligarchy tour, you would listen to what the people were saying and go, I'm going to stop speaking. Tell me what you're going through. I think that's what Abdul El-Sayed and these candidates you endorsed did a very good job at. I note that when I was listening to what the people of Michigan were saying, despite the media trying to put labels on them, So you normally consider yourself a moderate, or you consider yourself a center this or that. The people were like, like, I don't know what you're talking about. Like, I fight.

I want someone who fights for me.

That's what I'm looking for.

Exactly right.

These labels fight for me.

Exactly right. And look, to his credit and his staff's credit, they did something like 500 public meetings. 500. That's insane. And I suspect, as you've just indicated, that in all of these meetings, He didn't just give speeches. I suspect that in most of them he took questions, answered questions, made dialogue with his constituents. But I think the point you're making is exactly right. You got labels all over the place. You're left, you're right, you're center, whatever it is. You know what? Let's go through the issues. Anybody in America think that our current healthcare system is working? Nobody does. It is a disaster that is wildly expensive. Do you think that healthcare is a human right available to all people? Yeah, we do. Should we pass Medicare for All? Yeah, we should. That's Abdul's position. Do you think at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, when Mr. Musk himself owns more wealth than the bottom half of American households, do you think we might want to demand that the billionaires start paying their fair share of taxes? Yup, I do. Let's make them pay their fair share of taxes so we can use that money to have universal childcare, build the millions of units of affordable housing that we need.

You go out, and Abdul did this every day. Do you think it makes sense to spend billions on endless wars or put money into Netanyahu's extremist government? No. Let's invest in America. Do you think that we should have real campaign finance reform? So billionaires should not buy elections. Yeah, we do. So in other words, your point is right. Doesn't matter whether you're conservative, progressive, moderate. People understand that the economy is broken. It's rigged. It benefits the rich. They understand that we have a corrupt campaign finance system. That's what Abdul talked about. That's why he won.

You know, and here you have all of these MAGA radical extremists try to label people like Abdul or you or AOC and others who are fighting for those issues that you just talked about they and their trillion-dollar media machine tries to say that's radical. I would say the most radical, extreme, nihilistic, anti-American movement that exists to me is what I'm seeing right now at 1600 Pennsylvania, where what I see outside the junkyard that that's become with whatever the hell he's doing, the asbestos-filled junkyard, that to me feels symbolic of what his regime is. Radical, extreme, and broken.

Absolutely. And I think, you know, look, uh, it's hard, you know, when you're in the middle of a political revolution, it's hard to get a sense of what's happening on a day-to-day basis. But I think a few things are happening, as you've indicated. I think more and more people, uh, including some of his supporters, understand, uh, that this guy in the White House President Trump is an authoritarian who does not believe in the Constitution or the rule of law. And you got a lot of Republicans, they served in the military, they swore an oath to defend the Constitution, and this guy doesn't believe in the Constitution. You got a president who is a narcissist. If he had his way, he'd probably name half the buildings in America after himself. You got a president who is corrupt, a kleptocrat. Who is now $2 billion richer than he was before he was president. You got a president who is trying to divide us up in very ugly ways based on where we came from or our religion or what it may be. You got a president who gave massive tax breaks to the top 1%, $1 trillion, and then threw 15 million people off the healthcare they have.

So people are seeing through that and his endless wars and the war in Iran. But there's something else that people are saying, and that is that from the perspective of the Democratic Party, it is not good enough just to be anti-Trump. A lot of Democrats, you know, they're very perceptive, they're right on mark, they're critical of Trump for all the right reasons. I agree with them. But if you are now working, you know, 50 hours a week and you can't afford to take care of your family, being anti-Trump is not enough. You are saying to me, "Hey, you guys in Washington, what are you going to do to improve my life?" That's a fair question. "What are you going to do to make sure that my kids do not have a lower standard of living than I do for the first time in the history of the United States? What are you going to do to make sure that my kid is able to read and is not addicted to screens, or that AI and robotics don't overwhelm the whole country with massive job loss and invasions of privacy. What are you going to do about all of that stuff?

So the division in the Democratic Party is not a, you know, everybody's against Trump for all the right reasons. There's unity in that. But there is a difference as to how we best go forward from a policy point of view and a political point of view.

When you were on the Fight the Oligarchy tour and you were listening, one of the things people often expressed, their fears about AI, their fears about data centers. And we're seeing, especially on a bipartisan basis, communities uniting, whether it's in Oklahoma or Utah, wherever, you know, saying, don't just throw this data center in my backyard. What I find notable is that what Trump and Chris Wright, his energy secretary, and others have really been pushing, especially over the past few days, is we want— they call it liquid gold, you know, just like there's their cons, they're all their scams. We want that liquid gold data center in your backyard. That's what we're going to do.

And if you want to be rich, that's what Trump and they say.

You need to have a data center in your backyard and you could be rich like us. Don't you want to be rich like that?

That's what they're saying.

I know you're raising a couple of very profound issues. Number one, they may be telling the American people that's what they need. But the American people aren't buying it. And all over the country, hundreds and hundreds of communities are saying, thank you, no thanks, we're gonna have a moratorium, we don't want your data center. And it has a lot to do, you know, with increased electric rates that people fear, the impact it will have on water, noise, general ugliness and environmental impact that a large data center has. That's one reason, but there is something else, I think. People are catching on that AI and robotics are being pushed by the wealthiest people, uh, in our country, in fact, the world. I mean, people like Musk, uh, Bezos, Ellison, Zuckerberg. These are the richest guys in the country. And does anybody really believe, you tell me, that these guys are staying up nights worrying about the needs of working families? What are they doing? Why are they pushing this? Really to improve lives? I don't think so. Nobody thinks so. They're pushing this and spending huge amounts of money in order to become even richer and more powerful.

And people sense that. And then they're asking really important questions. What will AI and robotics do to our economy? How many millions of jobs are going to be lost? If I lose my job and I'm 40, 50 years of age, what happens to me? Is there going to be another job available for me? If I graduate college, am I going to have an entry-level job? If I am a truck driver and I'm seeing all of these driverless vehicles all over the country, when am I going to lose my job and be one of millions who lose their jobs in transportation? Parents are worried about the impact on the mental health of their kids. There is evidence out there that Meta and these other big tech companies developed mechanisms to addict children to screens, addict them to screens, and then advertise, take their information from them, and advertise, make money off of them. People are worried about what AI will mean to our privacy rights. They're going to know everything, every phone call you made, every email you sent, every message you sent, et cetera, et cetera, every office visit you made. Are we prepared to deal with this?

And you know what people are saying? Not, we're not even close. There are no guardrails. You know, Musk and his friends are running roughshod over the American people and we are left completely unprotected. So I think that is another reason on top of the environmental reasons that people are concerned about AI and robotics.

You know, when you see this Trump regime running the United States like a Ponzi scheme, it has all the attributes of it, from Reconciliation 1, 2, and 3, which reminds me of the Ponzi schemes I used to litigate against with Special Purpose Vehicle 1, 2, and 3 that would rob Peter to pay Paul. So they're doing that with our money and they're running up the debt, but then What they do in the Ponzi schemes is they say, look, you're going to be so rich, everything's amazing. Look how rich you are. So Trump says we brought in $19.1 trillion, which is a massive number, and it's massively a lie. Every aspect of it. We didn't bring in $19.1 trillion. Yet he repeats that over and over and over again while our debt continues to balloon. And it just kind of isn't talked about. It's like you're making up a $19 trillion. He's made up.

It's all false.

All right, one of— look, and this is what demagogues do, it's called the big lie, and you repeat it over and over again. And with, uh, the nature of the internet right now and, uh, bots and everything else, you're gonna have a lot of people repeating that lie. We all know that Trump won, uh, the 2020 election. It was stolen from him. Well, you say that over 5,000 times and people begin to believe it. But Trump is, and I, you know, I believe this, a pathological liar. I doubt very much that he knows the difference between a lie and the truth. He just says whatever comes into his head. But that's a very, that's what demagogues do. And that is a very, very dangerous thing for a society when you have a leader, who just makes stuff up.

Talk about Minnesota. Peggy Flanagan, got big races coming up there. Um, what should people be focused on next as we look into that primary?

Uh, not quite as much as Michigan, but to a very significant degree, the billionaires and their super PACs are putting a lot of money into Minnesota. And Peggy is going to be very significantly outspent. I am told that the airwaves are just full of ads for Angie Craig or against Peggy. Bottom line there is that Peggy is a strong progressive who is going to fight for Medicare for All, fight to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, does not want us to be spending money on the extremist government in Israel, wants us to end this war that we're in as quickly as possible, supports progressive taxation and a billionaire tax. So she's saying all of the right things, running a really strong campaign, which is why, of course, the oligarchs are trying to defeat her. But I will do everything. I have worked in there a couple of times with her, and I hope very much she becomes the next U.S. senator from Minnesota.

You know, Trump's big boogeyman now for this upcoming midterms to divide is, "The communists are coming, the communists are coming." And then he says, "Right now, bigger threat than the Nazis, than Al-Qaeda, than World War II." And then he says something interesting too. I see it all of his speeches. He goes, I would make the greatest communist, he said. Like Lenin, he says. And he said, like Lenin, like Lenin, he says. He goes, and I would—

Is that close to Lenin? I mean, is that Lenin? He says, I thought it was Lenin.

He says Lenin.

And then he says, here's why.

He said, I would just promise everybody everything. I'd promise I'd do this, I'd promise I'd do that, and then I would not deliver on those promises. And then, and then he goes, that's what happens.

And I'm thinking to myself, you literally describing yourself? And like, because what looks closer to Stalin and anything than what we've got right now?

Well, you know, that's an interesting point that you make. I mean, uh, you know, Trump makes these every day. There's another promise, another statement about all these things that are going to happen, have happened. Uh, nobody, uh, believes him. Uh, and the irony, of course, is, you know, the proper criticism of communism is Soviet Union was an authoritarian society. Absolutely. And Stalin killed millions and millions of people in his camps and his gulags and so forth. And then you got the most authoritarian president in the history of this country, who was going after his political opponents and through criminal charges, who's attacking the media because they had the nerve to be critical of him, who's going after colleges and universities because they teach courses that he doesn't like. And, you know, so I suppose when he says, you know, I would be a great communist. Yeah, I think there's some, there's truth to that. We're seeing, and the other thing about him, of course, is, you know, Stalin created the cult of the individual. And that nobody in the Communist Party in the Soviet Union could stand up to Stalin for good reason. They'd get killed.

Now, Trump doesn't kill them, but you stand up to Trump, the next day they're going to be threatening to put zillions of dollars into a primary race against you. So he has created, and I think it's really sad because you got a lot of smart Republicans who are not authoritarian, but they are scared to death of them. And he has created the cult of the individual within the Republican Party. So it is interesting, uh, about what he has to say about, uh, communism.

Senator Sanders, we appreciate your time. Before we go, anything else you want to say to our 7 million subscribers?

All right, uh, I would just say that, uh, do not underestimate what's happening politically in America, uh, all over this country. Just think about the last year. Progressives have taken on establishment candidates. We've won in Arizona. We've won in New York City. We won in New York State. We've won congressional races in New Jersey, in Ohio, in Pennsylvania, uh, in Montana, uh, in Colorado. Uh, and last night we won in Michigan. So there is a political revolution taking place right now. Uh, they got the money. And they will always have more money than we do, but we have the people. So my message is, please get involved in every way that you can. Support progressive candidates, uh, and let's transform this country and make it the kind of nation that we know it can become. Thank you very much, Senator Bernie Sanders.

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