Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) shined
at the South Carolina Democratic forum where he sat down with Rachel
Maddow and delivered a stinging criticism of the media.
Sanders was asked how he would sell himself in the South, and he
answered that the problems that people are having are the same. Rachel
Maddow asked about the challenges that his campaign is facing and that
African-American voters in South Carolina don’t know him well enough.
Sanders said he believes that he can convince African-American voters
that he is their candidate, because of his civil rights record. He said,
“I think I have the economic and social justice agenda now that once we
get the word out will resonate with the African-American community.”
Sanders said that he is talking about taking on the Republican
governor of South Carolina who is refusing to expand Medicaid. Sanders
discussed free tuition and later added that real African-American youth
unemployment is 51%, and mentioned his legislative efforts with Rep.
John Conyers to tackle African-American youth unemployment.
Rachel Maddow asked Sen. Sanders how he would get businesses to
reinvest in the American economy. Sen. Sanders said no more huge tax
breaks for large corporations who put their profits overseas, but
instead will use that tax money to rebuild infrastructure and create 13
million new jobs.
Maddow asked Sanders if he overstated the impact of Keystone XL, and
he took a jab at Hillary Clinton without naming her by stressing that he
was opposed to Keystone from day one, and said, “We are fighting for
the future of this planet, and we’ve got to be bold.” Sanders added that
it was beyond his comprehension that we have a bunch of Republicans who
are rejecting science to get their contributions from the Koch
brothers.
Maddow asked Sanders if he regretted supporting the war in Afghanistan and he said no.
Sanders nailed it. He has been strong on Keystone XL from day one,
and the reason Republicans are opposing dealing with climate change is
because of the dependency on Koch dollars.
Unlike Martin O’Malley, who came before him at this event, Sanders is
not dodging the questions. Sen. Sanders called out the media for
begging him to attack Hillary Clinton. Sanders said that unlike
Republicans who attack each other in stupid and destructive ways, he and
Clinton are having a substantive debate.
Sanders was asked what his dream job would be if he weren’t a
politician, he said he would be president of CNN because the way the
media talks about politics would immediately change.
The comments of Sanders were a scolding of the media has been a
constant of his presidential campaign. Sanders doesn’t whine about media
bias like Republicans, but he raises the very fair criticism that the
media ignores substance. The media is obsessed with the horse race and
instead of informing the American people.
The South Carolina Democratic forum is one of the best events of the year, and Bernie Sanders is shining in this format.
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