Bernie Sanders: Trump’s Vulgarity Isn’t The Issue, It’s His Belief That Wages Are Too High
After raising a stink over the huge disparity in news media coverage between his campaign and that of Republican candidate Donald Trump’s, Democratic Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders was booked for two Sunday show appearances while The Donald was shut out. (Of course, this is also two days after Christmas when many people are taking a break. But still…) During his interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Sanders tore into The Donald for not just being vulgar, but also being yet another conservative more concerned with tax breaks for the wealthy and keeping wages low.
Speaking to guest host Andrea Mitchell, the independent Senator from Vermont pushed aside a question about Trump’s latest sexist remarks about Hillary Clinton to assail the celebrity billionaire for his belief that the minimum wage is fine and wages are already too high. He also pointed out that we aren’t talking enough about truly important issues, such as stagnant wages, tax breaks for millionaires and climate change.
ANDREA MITCHELL: Well, while you’re trying to, as you point out, focus on the real issues, there have been charges of sexism back and forth between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. He used a vulgar term against her and then said it wasn’t really that vulgar. Then she said said that she’s going to have Bill Clinton campaigning in January and he tweeted out in the last 24 hours, “Hillary Clinton has announced she is letting her husband up to campaign, but he’s demonstrated a penchant for sexism. So inappropriate.” Are we getting into an argument not only of sexism between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, but Donald Trump attacking Bill Clinton?
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: Well, I tell you what. We’re going to let my wife Jane out and I think Hillary is going to be in real, real trouble. But look, the real issues are not Donald Trump’s vulgarity. And he is vulgar. It is the fact that Donald Trump thinks we should not be raising the minimum wage. He believes that wages in America are too high. This guy wants to give hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the top 3/10 of 1%, and meanwhile what he wants to do is divide our country between Latinos and Americans and Muslims and everybody else. That’s not the kind of America we need.
Andrea, what we have got to do is ask the hard questions. And that is why is it that the people on top are doing phenomenally well while almost everybody else is seeing a decline in their real incomes? Why is it that we’re not effectively addressing the fact that climate change is absolutely real.
I am in Burlington, Vermont right now. Nobody can recall a Christmas Eve the likes of which we have seen where the temperature was 65°. And what the scientists are telling us, if we don’t get our act together we’re going to be leaving a planet to our kids and grandchildren which is not going to be in good shape. And yet Donald Trump, among others, denies even the reality of climate change, let alone doing something about it. So we’ve got some really important issues to discuss in this campaign. And I intend to do just that.
Of course, in typical Mitchell fashion — she and Chuck Todd are two peas in a pod — she dismissed Sanders’ concerns with these issues by immediately pivoting away from that discussion to talk about ISIS, Bernie’s poll numbers and his beef with the DNC. She essentially said “these are really important issues, but…” in order to stay away from getting into a policy conversation with Sanders. Because, as we all know, the MSM needs to fear-monger over THE TERRORISMS and talk poll numbers whenever we get to ‘substantive’ issues.
