Were not going to retreat back into bigotry in this country. Amy today, a democracy now special senator Bernie Sanders for the hour. In his first extensive broadcast interview since the election, sanders talks about donald trump, the future of the Democratic Party, the death of fidel castro and his message to supporters. Bernie throughout history, serious people have fought back. That is where we are now. It is not acceptable. It is really not, for people to throw their hands up and say im depressed, im giving up. Its not about you. Its about the future of this planet. Its about your kids and your grandchildren. It is about american democracy. It is about the very fundamental issues and nobody in this room or in this country has a right to say i give up. On the other hand, you have to jump in and start fighting. Thats senator Bernie Sanders for the hour. All that and more coming up. To democracy now. Im amy goodman. Today coming this holiday special, we will spend the hour with vermont senator Bernie Sanders, the independent, selfproclaimed socialist from vermont who shocked the political establishment by nearly beating Hillary Clinton in the democratic primary. Since Donald Trumps victory on november 8th, sanders has emerged as one of the most powerful voices in washington. He just published a best selling book titled our revolution. I i sat down with Bernie Sanders at the free library of 28th. Elphia on a member we will air the interview later in the broadcast, but first lets turn to an excerpt speech he gave that night. Bernie people are interested in knowing, well, how did trump win . How did he win the Electoral College . One of the things that he did was tap into an anxiety and a level of pain that we dont often see on cbs or nbc. He said, preposterously i might add, is that he, of all people, was going to take on the astonishment. He was going to take on the economic establishment. He was want to take on the political establishment. He was going to take on the media establishment. And people in a lot of desperation, people who are hurting, responded to that. I thinkf the problems we have as a nation by the way, in the back of the book, one of the important chapters, if you get tired, skip to the back. [laughter] if you dont like taxation or immigration or form, go to the back. Corporate media, a threat to democracy, and it talks about the roles of Corporate Media in our society and politics in particular. But what is going on in this country is that we live in a very siloized nation. What it means is we all live in our own world basically. We associate with people who think the same as we do. There is somebody who says how code trump have wondering . No one i know would have voted him. That a lot ofngs middleclass people, upper middle class people dont know is that, yes, we are better off economically today than we were eight years ago when bush left office. There is no debate on that. But for 40 years in this country, on the democratic and republican administrations, we have seen a shrinking of the american middle class. We have seen more and more income and wealth inequality, so that today the top 1 10 of 1 now owns almost as much wealth the bottom 90 90 . And today, we have 43 Million People living in poverty, some in really dire straits. One of those things i did in the campaign, that i wanted to do and i did, was to go into parts of the country where media rarely goes. I wanted to be talking to people and i wanted to see if we could get some national exposure. And in a sense, i failed. We had media following me all over the place. What they call embedded media, from all the networks in major newspapers. But basically, they did not write about what we were seeing in various parts of the country. And let me just talk a little bit about that. Facts somethese are of you know and some of you dont. What want you to understand the pain and the hurt that millions of people are experiencing. You are a single mom in philadelphia. You are making 30,000, 40,000 a year. You have a baby. You need childcare in order to get to work. You know how much Childcare Costs . You tell me. 15,000 a year . More . Anybody know . What do you do if you are making 30,000, 40,000 a year and you or me and you are paying 15,000 for childcare . In washington, i have a young Woman Working for me and she is paying 32,000 a year for childcare, where it is more spencer than anywhere us in the country. Health care, would talk about the games of the double care act and its true. It made some progress. Today, 28 Million People still have no Health Insurance and many, many others have high. Eductibles and high copayments they cannot afford to go to the doctor when they get sick. You know that . We lose thousands of people every single year and i talked to doctors all over the country people walk into their office profoundly sicick d the doctor said, why didnt you come in here a year ago when you first develop your symptom . And they said, well, i didnt have any insurance and i had a high deductible and i could not afford it. Many of those people do not make it or it up in the hospital at great expense and great suffering. One out of five americans today who go to the doctor and get a prescription cannot afford to prescriptiond up cannot afford to fill the prescription. People in pennsylvania are cutting their Prescription Drug pills in half because they cannot afford to pay for the medicine that they need. What do think you are feeling when you go to the doctor because youre sick and you walk into the drugstore and the medicine is so spencer you it . Ot afford to fill you got it in pennsylvania and vermont and all of this country. Adding togetether millio o of seniniors, disabled it . Veterans, people with disabilities. They are trying to get by on 10,000, 11,000, 12,000 a year Social Security. You can do the arithmetic as well as i can. You are 80 yeaears of agage, yoe sick. Social security is your sole source of income, as it is for many people. Try to get by on 12,000 a year. Worker and i think trump really capitalized on this one. You are an older worker, 55 or 60 years of age. Half of the Older Workers in america do you know how much money they have in the bank as they await retirement . Anyone want to guess . Zero. Try to think of yourself at 60 years of age. You are going to retire in five years. Everything being equal, you are probably making less in real inflation accounted for dollars than you did 20 or 30 years ago. You will retire in five years. Youve got nothing in the bank. How are you feeling about the establishment and what the Democratic Party has done to you or the Republican Party has done for you . You are scared to death. And maybe in fact, you are one manye millie one of the millions of workers who had a factory job with the union behind you and you were making good middleclass wages, had good benefits, had a pension. But one day, your employer told you they are shutting down that plant because they can hire people in china for a dollar or two dollars an hour. And now you are making 50 , 60 of what you made when you have that manufacturing job. You can be a college graduate, somebody who saved and scrimped schoolt to college, left 50,000, 60,000 in debt, and now you are making 14 an hour. Again, do the arithmetic. You are stuck with that debt year after year after year. You have a debt, but you dont have the income to pay it off. I remember distinctly talking to a guy in nevada who said he took out his student loan 25 years ago. He is more in debt today than he was when he took it out. And hes scared to death, literally, that they are going to garnish some of his Social Security in order to pay that student debt. I was in the dell county in west county in mcdowell west virginia, the southern part of west virginia. But what makes Mcdowell County unique, what makes part of kentucky and that region unique, is they are part of a situation today where millions this is quite unbelievable but this is the despair that trump spoke to. Millions of white, workingclass people are dying today at ages younger than their parents. History has been around not only in our country, but all over the world is that my generation lives longer than my parents are my parents generation lived longer than their parents. That has been the trend because of the improvements in public health, in permits and so forth. We are making some congress some progress. But millions of people today are living in such despair, for whatever reason, and maybe amy and i will discuss this, is that they are turning to opiates and heroin. Alcohol andning to getting all kinds of diseases associated with alcoholism. And they are turning to suicide. Women and men. These are people who, if they are lucky enough to have a job that is 10 an hour, 11 an hour, they are not going anywhere. The kids are not going anywhere. That is the kind of pain that summary like a trump spoke to. I was in pine ridge in south dakota, which is a native american reservation. The Life Expectancy in pine ridge is equivalent to guatemala, a poor, third world country. Unemployment is rampant. Poverty is rampant. Suicide is rampant in pine ridge. I was in baltimore, maryland. I dont know how different itun. Poverty is rampant. Is here in philadelphia, but in baltimore, you have tens and tens of thousands of people addicted to heroin. Astronomical numbers. People debate exactly what the number is. And there is no treatment available to them. , which a walk one nigight got the secret service a little nervous because we were working walking in an area that was the select, only boarded up buildings, and nighttime. Ebixs a drug bazaar. Everybody knows it. Thats what people are it becomes a drug bazaar and Everybody Knows it. Thats where people are buying and selling drugs. Dealing witheople heroin, dealing with opiates and no treatment available for them. In minority areas, africanamerican areas, latino areas, youth unemployment, 20 , 30 , 40 . I was in new york city. Took a walk with some people in the city council. They need 17 billion to rehabilitate Public Housing in new york city alone. You got people in Public Housing living in ratinfested, moldinfested housing in new york. Whats the point . The point is there are a lot of people hurting in this c country are and country. And their pain does not get on cbs or nbc. And some of them mistakenly bought that trump was talking to them. He talked a whole lot of stuff. We will see in fact what he delivers. But please do not forget that, as we speak today, there are a whole lot of people in this country who are hurting. What media does and what media loves is conflict and political gossip and polls and fundraising and all that stuff. What media loves is to focus on the candidates, what the American People want is for us to focus on them. Not the candidates. Not anymore. And what this book does is do that. It deals with what i think in some of you will agree in some of you may not agree, with what i think are the major issues facing our country. The decline in disappearance of the american middle class, poverty, income and wealth inequality, but it doesnt only lay out the problems. It provides very specific solutions. Questionon why are we the ony major country on earth not toto guarantee health care to all people . Why are we the only major country not to have paid family and medical leave . Why do we have a higher rate of childhood poverty than almost any major country on earth . Why are we not dealing more aggressively with Climate Change . The bullyinge more jail, disproportionately africanamerican, latino, native american, than any other country . We have far more people in jail than china does. We spent 80 billion a year locking people up. Does that make sense . Is there a way out of that . What do we do when we have 11 Million People who are undocumented . What does it mean to move to a competence of Immigration Reform and a path toward citizenship . In a highly competitive, global once used to have the best educated workforce in the world . 30 years or so . Our people in this country graduated and went to college in a higher percentage than any other country on earth . Thats not the case anymore. And the gap between those countries who are graduating more people from college than we are is getting wider and wider and wider. What is this portend in terms of the future of our country . So we lay the issues out on the table, discuss the problems and also provide some real, concrete solutions. And thats what i think we have to do as a nation. And in terms of media, there is a chapter that says maybe its time for media to start focusing on the real issues facing our country. It was embarrassing. I read this as i wrote the book. Turns out, if you looked at i think it was the sunday morning i, Bernie Sanders alone say this not the bows, but to show you how pathetic the situation is. Discussion orthe the mention of poverty took place when i was on the shows. So what does that say about a country when theres honest no discussion of poverty, no discussion, almost no discussion of Climate Change . Very little discussion of income and wealth inequality . No discussion of the role of the Corporate Media. And im glad that amy is going to be appear in a minute. What she has done is shown that it is possible, although very difficult, to go outside the Corporate Media and develop your own network. But what does Corporate Media talk about . What do they not talk about . Where do we go forward in media is a very important issue. Amy vermont senator speaking on november 28 at the library of philadelphia. When we come back, we sit down for a public interview. Us is democracy now. Back in a minute. In this holiday special, we are spending the hour with vermont senator Bernie Sanders. I recently interviewed him before a Live Audience at the free library of philadelphia. The date wasas november 28th,s than three w weeks after Donald Trumps defeat of Hillary Clinton. Where were you on Election Night . Sen. Bernie sanders home. Amy goodman and talk about what you went through. Sen. Bernie sanders well, when the results cameme in from indiana, i was very nervous. We had an outside chance with a conservative democrat to win that seat. No one thought that clinton was going to win it. And he got beaten rather badly, and i started getting nervous. And it was downhill from there. I went into the evening ththinkg that it was about a twotoone shotot that clinton would win. So, i mean, i wasi was not shocked that trump wonsurprised, but not shockedfor the reasons, some of the reasons, that i gave. But i will not deny to you that it was a very depressing evening. I did not want to deal with the media. I didnt want toi was invited to be on, you know, a million different things. I didnt even show up at the state event, you know. So, i will not deny that it was a depressing evening. And since then, ive been thinking as hard as i can, with other people, about how we go forward and what the best response is. Amy goodman this also catapults you into the position of the most powerful, nondemocratic democrat in the country. [laughter] sen. Bernie sanders well, there are not too many nondemocratic democrats who are in the United States senate, so it doesnt say much. [laughter] but i think your point is that last week or two weeks ago chuck schumer, who is now the leader of the democrats in the senate, put me on leadership. And he gave me a position that i wanted, and that is to be chair of the outreach effort. And what i am going to do is use that position, with your help, with all of your help, to transform the Democratic Party. [applause] you know, it is very easy to beat up on people when theyre down, and thats not my intention. You know, secretary clinton and her supporters are hurting now. Its not my intention to be beating up on them. But it goes well beyond the president ial race. Right now in the United States, as you know, mr. Trump will be inaugurated. Right now, the republicans control the u. S. Senate. Democrats, i had hoped, we thought we had a better than even chance of gaining control. We did not. Well end up with 49 seats. Democrats picked up a few seats in the house, but the republicans will continue to control the house. Not only that, in about twothirds of the states in this country, there are republican governors. And in the last eight or so years, democrats have lost some 900 legislative seats in state capitols all over this country. So i think any independent assessment, without casting any blame, says the current approach has failed. All right . When you lose, you know, its like they always say about the football coach you know, if youre zero and 10, youre not doing well. Well, the current approach clearly is not succeeding, and we need a new approach. And the new approach, i think, is to, a, create a 50state strategy. That means we Start Playing ball in states that the democrats have conceded decades ago. But more importantly, we create a kind of grassroots party, where the most important people in the party are not just wealthy campaign contributors, but working people, young people, people in the middle class, who are going to come in and going to start telling us what their needs are and give us some ideas as to how we go forward. And i accept this responsibility as outreach chair with a lot of trepidation, but also with excitement. Im going to be going around the country to try to do everything that i can to create a party which represents working people and not just the 1 percent. Amy goodmaman and the issue of who will head the democratthe dnc . Sen. Berninie sanders i amm strongly supporting a congressman from minnesota named keith ellison. [a[applause] and the reason, ive knonown keh fofor a number of years. Keith h is the chaircocochair, along with raul grijalva, of the house progressive caucus, which is, by definition, the most progressive caucus in the u. S. House. And keith fundamentally believes, as ive indicated, that we need to make a major transformation of the Democratic Party, we need to make it into a grassroots party, and he has some very specific ideas as to how to do that. So im strongly supporting keith, and ill do everything i can to [inaudible]. Amy goodman and the significance of his being the first muslim congressmember at a time when the president elect says he wants to set up a Muslim Registry . Sen. Bernie sanders obviously, there is great symbolism in that. But to me, to be honest with you, as somebody who is not a great fan of identity politics, i am supporting keith because he is a strong progressive whose whole life has been about standing up for working families and the middle class and lowincome families. But your point cannot be denied. And that is, it will be a statement to the entire country that the leader of the Democratic Party is a muslim, that we want a party of diversity, that we will not accept for one second the bigotry that trump has been espousing during his campaign. [applause] amy goodman what do you think donald trump represents . Sen. Bernie sanders i mean amy goodman and who do you think he represents . Sen. Bernie sanders thats a good question, and i dont know that i can give you a definitive answer, but this is what i think. For a start, in terms of the campaign, what he did is, as i indicated in my remarks, he touched a nerve. And it would be wrong to deny that. There are some people who think that everybody who voted for donald trump is a racist, a sexist or a homophobe or a xenophobe. I dont believe that. Are those people in his camp . Absolutely. But it would be a tragic mistake to believe that everybody who voted for donald trump is a deplorable. Theyre not. These are people who are disgusted, and they are angry at the establishment. And the Democratic Party has not been clear enough, in my view, about telling those people, whether they are white, whether they are black, latino, Asian American or whatever, women, gay, whatever, that we are on their side. And too often what we look at is identity. Youre a woman. Well, thats good, but we need more women in the political process. We need more African Americans in the political process, more latinos. No question about that. But we need people who will have the guts to stand up to the billionaire class and Corporate America and fight for working families. Amy goodman you were considered a fringe candidate. Maybe you, yourself, considered yourself a fringe candidate. When did the moment come when you actually felt the bern . [laughter] [applause] sen. B Bernie Sanders well, il tetell you. This is what i thought, you know, and its been a crazy two years. But, you know, what i thought is, look, i wasnt born yesterday, and i wasntyou know, i didnt just get involved in politics two years ago. Ive been representing the state of vermont for 25 years in congress. I was mayor of the city of burlington for eight years, where i took on democrats and republicans to win election. And i knew, you know, that the message that we hadi could see it in vermont. You go to the rural areas, by the way, where people are not necessarily prochoice, where they may not be enthususiastic about gay marriage, where they may or may not believe that Climate Change is real, but they are sick and tired of having to work two or three jobs, not being able to send their kids to college, worried about their own parents. I picked that up, ok, in vermont. And i thought that the message that resonated in vermontand i won my last election in vermont four years ago with 71 percent of the vote. I did not believe for one minute that vermont was any different than the rest of the country. But what ended up, to answer your question, what happened is, before i decided to runand the book goes into itwe went around the country. And we did, honestly, you know, politicians always say, well, the people asked me to run, you know, after they had already made a decision to run. But the truth is, i didnt know. How responsive would people be to our message . Well, ill never forget. We were in on a beautiful sunday afternoon in los angeles maybe the weather is always beautiful there, i dont know. But anyhow, it was and i thought nobody would show up at a meeting. We had the Musicians Union hall. We had 500 people coming out run, bernie, run. We were in minneapolisthis is a funny story, which we relate in the book. You know, we didnt know our way around minneapolis. So we were driving around. Suddenly, we see this long line of people, and i comment to the guy next to me. I said, i wonder what concert is going on. Well, it turns out, 7,000 people were there for an event. This is early on. And what we were beginning to see with the turnouts, the turnouts at our rallies, more and more people coming out, more and more excitement, more working people, more young people, who indicated to me, in a million different ways, they were sick and tired of establishment politics and establishment economics. They wanted real change. And i will tell you, as the campaign progressed, that it was an aweinspiring moment, a humblingng moment, to be walking out on a stagei think it was in portland, oregon, where the trail blazers play in the nba, and you look out, and there are 28,000 people at a rally in portland, 25,000 in seattle, 27,000 in los angeles. So people were starting to come out. The word was getting around. And it was especially gratifying to see so much beauty in the faces of young people who want real change in this country. Amy goodman and yet, who heard you were the people in that room, in each place. You were having the largest rallies of anyone, including donald trump, certainly far surpassing Hillary Clinton. But what donald trump had that you didnt was the media. And, you know, that was repeated over and over by those that owned the media. You know, he is good for us. So, it wasnt just fox. It was all of the networks that were trump tv. Sen. Bernie sanders right. Thats right. Amy goodman he didnt have to travel. He was piped into everyones homes. Sen. Bernie sanders absolutely. Amy goodman march 15th, super tuesday iii, was the night when rubio gave his speech, and ted cruz gave his speech, clinton gave her speech, and donald trump, they waited for half an hour for him to give his speech and showed the open podium, as they often did. They showed more of the open podium waitingng for donald trup than ever playing your speeches. Thats what those were all the candidates that ninight. And they played all their full speeches. They did not play one word of your speech. You were speaking in phoenix, arizona, to the largest rally of any of those people that night. They didnt even speculate where you were. Sen. Bernie sanders i wish i could disagree with you. [laughter] no, no, no, amy is raising a veryand we go into it in the book. I was stunned. I mean, you know, in the middle of the campaign, youre not figuring out this stuff or thinking about it. Turns out that from january 1st, 2015, i think, through november 2015, abc evening news had us on for 20 seconds. Amy goodman what was it you did that was so newsworthy . [laughter] sen. Bernie sanders and it wasnt much better on nbc or cbs, all right. And thats just the simple truth. And there are a couple of points. I think, amy, correct me if im wrong, but i think the guy whos head of cnn said, hey, trump has been fantastic for us. I mean, literally said that. Were making huge profits from trump. And the point to be made is, we had the misfortune of actually trying to talk about the problems facing america and providing real solutions. Trump was tweeting out about how ugly or horrible or disgusting or terrible his opponents were, in really ugly terms. Perfect for the media. That is a great 12second sound bite. But to talk about why the middle class is in decline or why we have massive levels of income and wealth inequality cant be done in 12 seconds. And second of all, its not something that they are, frankly, terribly interested in. Amy goodman it was les moonves, who is head of cbs, who said, it may not be good for america, but its good for us. Sen. Bernie sanders cbs . Amy goodman cbs. Sen. Bernie sanders yeah, i think a guy at cnn said something similar, because if you say outrageous things, this is what cnn lives for. Thats what they live for. And then they got to have somebody else did you hear what he said . Oh, my god, its terrible. And they go on and on. And thats, that is coverage. Here is something. During the primary campaign, somebody, i think it was the shorenstein school of media at harvard, just over there. They studied the kind of coverage, and they said that Something Like 90 percent of Media Coverage during the primary and i dont think they got any better during the general was all on this kind of stuff, gossip; 10 percent on issues, which surprised me. Amy this is democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. In this holiday special we are spending the hour with vermont senator Bernie Sanders. I interviewed him before a Live Audience at the free library of philadelphia in late november. I asked him about the Dakota Access pipeline and why he supports the native water protectors who have led the resistance against the 3. 8 billion pipeline. Bernie number one, were dealing with sovereignty rights for native American People, an invasion of their own property, in violation of treaty rights, which is an endemic problem in this country. Number two, youre talking about an area where, if the pipe bursts, water, clean water that goes to millions of people in that region, could be severely impacted, at a time when were all concerned about the amount of clean water that we have. And thirdly, and most importantly perhaps, youre talking about whether or not we should be in any way supporting a pipeline which is piping in filthy oil at a time when we need to transform our Energy System away from fossil fuel to Energy Efficiency and sustainable energy. So those are the three issues there. I think what we have done is, number one, demanded that the president do what he did with keystone. A lot of people put a lot of pressure on the president , and he finally did the right thing. And that is to kill the keystone pipeline, which, by the way, under a trump may be reopened again. But that is what he should be doing. And certainly, the demand must go to the north dakota authorities that the kind of military presence that exists there is simply not what is acceptable. So, we have written to the president. We are going to continue to put pressure on the president to do everything he can to protect the native americans in the area and the protesters in the area. Amy goodman let me ask you about that famous moment in one of the debates with Hillary Clinton where you said you didnt care about the damn emails. Do you feel the same way today . Sen. Bernie sanders what i said, and sometimes it got taken out of context, is that there was an investigation going on and that i wanted to spend, that history, 10 years from now, trust me, no one will remember these damn emails. What they will worry about is people not having healthcare. Theyll worry about Climate Change. Theyll worry about poverty. Theyll worry about infrastructure. And my point was, and the media often doesnt play that whole statement, i said, you know, im sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails, because thats what the whole campaign is about. Why dont we talk about, a, the collapse of the middle class, income and wealth inequality, healthcare, education, how we move the country forward . And that was the thrust of my point. It is not my style, and sometimes, amazingly enough, i get criticized for it, for running, you know, ugly and negative ads. I prefer to stay on the important issues facing the American People. There are other areas we could have gone, as well, that trump went into, that we chose not to do it, because i think, in my own state, i can tell you that people do want to hear a serious discussion on serious issues. Thats what we tried to do. Amy goodman well, let me tell you the reason i ask this now. This issue that was hijacked by the right, wing media and trump himself, but the issue of the secretary of state setting up this private email server, and she has her husband, whos the former president and running a multibilliondollar foundation, meeting with heads of state, as well, and yet they dont have accountability here, what this means not only for them, but if this becomes a model, for example, for President Trump. He runs a vast business empire. Sen. Bernie sanders absolutely. Amy goodman he is the top government official. If he decides to set up his own private email server and decides that he can disappear tens of thousands of email, there wont be a government record of what is actually going on. Sen. Bernie sanders right, right. I mean, i think thats a fair point. And i think, with trump, the major point is this guy has Business Enterprises all over the world. And youre looking just at immense, immense conflict of interest. Every decision that he makes is going to impact his bottom line of some business that he owns all over the world. So i it remains a huge issue. And i got your point, too, obviously, you know, and that is the valid criticism of having a private email when youre doing government business. Amy goodman and now his cabinet appointments, your thoughts on the direction hes going . [laughter] sen. Bernie sanders well, i think this is where, and what our job is, in fact, as i mentioned earlier, im going to be, i think, in indiana on monday night. And were going to go to the carrier plant, where you have a situation where carrier is, you all remember airconditioners, they make furnaces in indiana, actually. And they decided, they announced last year theyre going to shut down two plants in indiana, throw 2,100 workers out on the street. This is a company that pays top dollar to its ceos, head guy makes 14 million. Couple of years ago they had a severance package for a former ceo. You know what the guy got as a golden parachute . 171 million. And now what they want to do is shut the plants down and move to mexico and hire people in monterrey for three bucks an hour. So it becomes symbolic of a disastrous trade policy. And were going to be there. But to answer your question, what we have got to do now, to those people who voted for trump, because they said, well, you know, this guy sounds reasonable. Trump sent out a tweet where he says, i am the only republican candidate for president who will not cut Social Security, medicare and medicaid. Right . Well, believe me, every american, every person in this country, if i have anything to say about it, will know precisely what is going on with Social Security, medicare and medicaid, because, as youve indicated, they are beginning to appoint people who are typical rightwing republicans who want to privatize and cut Social Security. And our job, and weve got it. Weve got every statement that trump made during this campaign. And we are going to hold him accountable. Every person in this country will know what he said and what he is doing. Trump said, one of the issues that i think a whole lot of people are deeply concerned about is the high cost of medicine in this country. Trump said during the campaign he was going to take on the pharmaceutical industry. He was going to allow for medicare to negotiate prices with the drug companies, allow people to reimport medicine from canada and other countries, where the price is often half as much as it i is in the United States. Well, you know what . We are going to remind the American People of precisely what donald trump said about that and many other issues. Amy goodman so now you have someone like betsy devos chosen to be the new secretary of education, sister of erik prince, who, you know sen. Bernie sanders blackwater. Amy goodman is founder of the mercenary firm blackwater. Sen. Bernie sanders and multibillionaire, a multi, multibillionaire, i think, very active in politics in michigan. Amy goodman and massive supporter of voucher system for education. And then you have mike flynn, the nanational security adviser nominee. And this goes to another point of, though its critical to hold trump accountable, starting with the dedemocrats, on n the issuef the kill list, president obamas kill list, hisis using extrajudicial powers, executive powers, to kill people, can be americans, without a judge, a jury, without them being charged with a crime. Thats president obama, and hes extending those powers. Your thoughts on president obamas use of the kill list and then the idea of President Trump using his kill list . Sen. Bernie sanders well, look, you know, when we talk, obviously, i disagree with obama in using, unilaterally deciding whos going to live or die. And, look, it goes without saying that, you know, we are concerned, i am deeply concerned, about virtually everything that trump is talking about and has talked about in his campaign and the kind of people that he is appointing. But whats going through my mind right now is to figure out the most effective way that we can fight back. Thats really what i am focusing on right now. And what i will say, and what i believe to be the case, the republicans are many things, but theyre not dumb. And if millions of people begin to stand up and fight back, theyre going to be thinking twice about doing very bad things. Ill give you just one example, amy. A couple of years ago, sad to say, not only all, virtually all republicicans wanted to cut socl security. There were a number of democrats who did, as well. And some of us in the senate, organizing a defending Social Security caucus, we worked with senior groups all over this country. We got millions of signatures on petitions coming in. And you know what . They backed off. They did not cut Social Security. So, i think if theres, if theres a lesson to be learned right now, when we are fighting for huge stakes, were fighting for the futurefuture of the planet in terms of Climate Change. Were fighting for the future of american democracy. We have got to mobilize people and rethink our commitment in terms of what our role is in the political process. And the message i just want to make here in philadelphia and across this country is it is not good enough to say, well, hey, i vote every two years. I vote every four years. Thats fine, but that is not good enough. What we need to do is to be thinking every day the kinds of role we can play in educating and organizing and mobilizing people to defeat this horrific agenda. And i do believe that if millions of people do stand up and fight back, we can stop him from doing some really awful things. And thats what i am trying to do right now. And weve got to mobilize people to do that. [applause] amy goodman and i know we just have a few minutes, but this is an historic period. Fidel castro just died on friday at the age of 90. During the campaign, Hillary Clinton tried to redbait you by raising your support of the sandinistas and talking about you being favorable towards fidel castro. But i was wondering if you could talk about the significance of the life and legacy of fidel castro and talk about the u. S. In relation to latin america today. Sen. Bernie sanders well, its not just latin america. You know, i think what we can say, and ive been to cuba two or three times. I think jane and i went in 1989 for the first time, and ive been back a couple of times, and jane had some educational work in cuba. A lot of positive things that can be said. Their healthcare system, for a third world country, is quite good. Its universal. All people have healthcare without any expense. Last time i was there, i visited a hospital, where they do very, very serious and good work. They come up with a lot of new drugs, actually, in cuba, i believe. Their educational system is strong. But in truth, their economy is in pretty bad shape. And in truth, you dont do very well if you dissent in cuba. So i think, you know, if you look over castros long life, he overthrew a terrible dictator, supported by the United States of america, batiststa. Some very positive changes came about. And we can argue til the cows come home to what degree american interference created the kind of society that exists in cuba today. So that you could say there are some positive things in cuba, some very negative things. Fifty years after the revolution, people still cant dissent with freedom. The economy is terrible. But i think it raises the question, i was on a sunday show yesterday, and somebody was raising a quote that i made about castro 30 years ago. And, you know, somehow, they have decided that fidel castro is the only, that cuba is the only nondemocratic country in the world. See, saudi arabia is fine. Many other countries in the middle east are fine. And whwhat we need to o do, as a nation, is really start educating the American People. You know, amy, im sure, that in 1954, way back when, we overthrew a democratically elected government in guatemala, which unleashed decades and decades and decades of horror in that country, supported terrible people in el salvador. We engineered the overthrow of Salvador Allende in chile, democratically elected, the first time a person democratically elected in chile was overthrown through the United States and the cia. But those issues somehow dont quite make it onto abc. But i think it is important to understand our role in the world. In iraran, we overthrew, what ts it . . 1954 . Mr. Mosaddegh. Amy goodman 1953. Sen. Bernie sanders 53, mr. Mosaddegh. And how many people are familiar with that . Did people know that . Good. Not a lot of people, certainly, young people dont know that. But in 1953, at the bequest of british oil companies, the United States government helped engineer a coup of a guy who was democratically elected, who was thinking about nationalizing some of the oil industry there. He was replaced by the shah, who turned out to be a very brutal, brutal man, which then resulted in what we have today with khomeini coming to power. But these are issues that virtually do, correct me if im wrong. Have you seen many shows about that on n nbc . You know, its just not something to be talked about. Amy goodman tune into democracy now [laughter] sen. Bernie sanders all right. Amy goodman its a good show. And your thoughts that donald trump said that he would have won the popular vote but for the millions of people who voted illegally . Sen. Bernie sanders i know this will shock you. [laughter] i personally do not believe every single thing that donald trump says. [laughter] no, but i did mention in my remarks that that was ayou know, this iswe can go back and look at all of the totally absurd and nonfactual statements that trump made. You know, and i am not a guy in politics who really likes to attack viciously my opponents. Its not my style. But i felt obliged during the campaign to Say Something that was just patently true, and that is that trump is a pathological liar. And, you know, i mean, he was saying, and the danger is, it may be, you know, everybody lies. You know youre lying. But i fear very much that he may be not even knowing that he lies, that he believes that he sawthe only person in the world who saw in new jersey muslims on a rooftop celebrating the destruction of the twin towers, the only person in america who saw it, and hes utterly convinced that he saw it. And he may well be convinced of that. It may not be a lie; he may believe that he saw that. But this statement, as i mentioned earlier, the danger of this statement is not just that it is delusional and incorrect, is that it sets, if you have a president who believes that millions of people voted illegally, youre telling every republican official in this country to suppress the vote, to make it harder for people to vote, whether they are immigrants, whether they are people of color, whether they are poor people, young people or old people. That is the danger of that statement. And thats something we have got to fight tooth and nail. Amy goodman will you be running for president again . [laughter] sen. Bernie sanders oh, now you sound [applause] ok, now, she waited til the end of the program to sound like a Mainstream Media person. [laughter] amy goodman well, will i, do i continue to sound, do i continue to sound that way if i ask you, would you ever consider leaving the Democratic Party, that youre actually not a part of . [laughter] and sen. Bernie sanders wellwell, let me answer the other question, is, four years is a long time. Ive got to, you know, im going to be running for reelection most likely in two years for vermont to the senate. And theres just an enormous amount of political work that has to be done at this, at this moment. I think, you know, as now having been recently appointed a member of the democratic leadership, my job, with the help of everybody in this room, look, were going to ask a lot from you. And heres the bad news. We dont want just your money. See, and one of the things that bothers me isand i will take this onis democrats spend an enormous amount of time raising money. And i have, for those people who were kind enough to donate, and we appreciate it very much, ive got to ask you a favor. Do not take up so much time, and i mean this very seriously, time of the candidates. They, if i have anything to say about it, theyre going to be going to kansas and mississippi and alabama, where theyre not going to be raising money, theyre going to be talking to working people. So we need financial support, but we dont have the time to spend an evening with 10 people. We need your financial help, but you have to allow serious people in politics to go out and Start Talking to working people so that we can transform the politics of this country. [applause] amy goodman is that, is that a yes for 2020 . [laughter] sen. Bernie sanders so, no comment for 2020. Its a statement that, it is a statement we have to worry, believe me, about 2017 and 2018. And again, let me repeat what i have said throughout the campaign and i believe absolutely from the bottom of my heart. Politics is not about a person. We transform this country not by electing some guy or woman to be president. We transform this country when millions of people stand up and fight back. That will result in good leadership on top. So the goal right now is not to worry about whos going to be running in 2020 or 2080. The goal now is to mobilize millions of people around a progressive agenda. [applause] amy goodman and finally, many people are deeply concerned about the twoparty duopoly. You, yourself, are an independent or a socialist. Would you ever consider a thirdparty run sen. Bernie sanders well, i amy goodman like joining with the green party . Sen. Bernie sanders you know, i did that. In vermont, as many know, i defeated democrats and republicans to become mayor, defeated democrats and republicans to make it into the congress. Recent years, democrats have been more sympathetic. And ive been a member of the Democratic Caucus for 25 years. So right now i would not have accepted the position of leadership if i was not serious about fundamentally reforming the Democratic Party. So thats where my head is right now. [applause] amy goodman thank you. Bernie, the last question is, sen. Bernie sanders this is your fourth last question amy gogoodman for people who ae feeleling deeply disiscouraged t now, what did you learn from your campaign this time around . Where you almost won. Sen. Bernie sanders let me just say this, and the feeling of, i wouldnt use the word discouragement. The feeling of maybe frustration, depression, all of which is valid, but heres what i hope that everybody remembers. Anybody who knows anything about american history, you know, think about what this country, and i dont mean to be ultrapatriotic here, but think about the issues that we had to confront. Think about 120 years ago. There were childrenchildren, kids, 12, 10 years oldworking in factories, losing their fingers. People fought back. They fought to create unions. Think about the womens movement. Think about the civil rights movement. Think about the gay rights movement. Think about the environmental. Think about all of the hurdles that those folks had to overcome. We were, during the course of the campaign, amy, i dont know if you know this. I didnt know it til last year, we were in birmingham, alabama. And all of you, you know, probably remember the horrific bombing that took place in birmingham. You remember that, where 12 children were killed . I did not know, until i was at that church, that that month in birmingham, do you how many bombings there were in that month . Testing you, amy. Im asking you a question. Amy goodman two hundred . Sen. Bernie sanders no, but there were a lot. Point being, whats the point . The point is, you know, i thought there was one terrible bombing. There were 13 bombings. That city was under siege by terrorists who did not want to see the Voting Rights act passed. And people fought back. So, where we are now is in a difficult moment. I dont want to minimize the difficulties facing us. But throughout history, serious people have fought back. Thats where we are now, and that is exactly what we have to do. It is not acceptable, it really is notfor people to throw their hands up and say, oh, im depressed. Oh, im giving up. Its not about you. Its about the future of this planet. Its about your kids and your grandchildren. It is about american democracy. It is about some very fundamental issues. And nobody in this room or in this country has a right to say i give up. On the other hand, youve got to jump in and start fighting. Amy senator Bernie Sanders in an interview recorded on november 28th at the free library in philadelphia. His new book is titled our revolution. If you would like a copy of todays broadcast them you can go to democracynow. Org. That does it for todays show. Democracy now is produced by mike burke, nermeen shaikh, carla wills, laura gottesdiener, deena guzder, sam alcoff, robby karran, hany massoud, charina nadura, and andre lewis. Mike di fillippo, Miguel Nogueira and paul huckeby are our engineers. Special thanks to becca staley, julie crosby, hugh gran, david prude, ariel boone, Vesta Goodarz and anthony manzo. Im amy goo jacques Everyone Wants to be thin, it means beauty, success, desirability, and yeyet 60 of u us are overweweight. In the middle of an obesity crisis, the multibillion pound weightloss business is bigger than ever. Iim jacques peretti, and in this series im going to investigate the men whwho made their fofortunes ouout of our desiree to be thin. As diets failed, ill see how other busininesses like f fitness moved in, selling themselves as a way to lose weight. This country was opening something in the region of 400 to 500 clubs a year, and the demand was insatiable