Welcome to firing line. My pleasure. Id like to ask you aboutew reporting that has come on from bob woodward, that President Trump downplayed seriousness of covid19 d deliberately t misled American People back at the beginning of the winter. Sos noto t quote create panic. Your reaction, s. Theres nothing that anyone can tell me out donald trump frankly that would shock me. He lies all the time. And i want you to know, i dont say this about conservatives in general, weve got a lot of honest cove stivs out there trump is a pathological liar. Trump will say, in my view, say or do anything to get reelected. In terms of the pandemic, everybhay knowshe downplayed the danger to our y, counhat he has been at war with thecientific community, and that is one of a dozen reasons why he must beth defeat november. Every americans life has been altered by the pandemic, and you talk about your desire to build an economynd a government that will work for all of us, not just the 1 . Thats what said. How are americans, particularly working americans, doing today . Thank you for asking that question. And the honest answer is doing terribly. And thats not bernie sande talking. That is what the facts are. Before the pandemic, half of our people were living paycheck to paheck. An i trust Everybody Knows what that means. That means you need that paycheck this week in order to pay the rent and buy the food. Well,et marg what happens when thosehecks stop, cease to come,e ecause youed off . And you may laid off . Ay and you lose your Health Insurance . So where we are right now is in a situa people have lost their job, many of tm have lost their health care, they can t gothe doctor today if theyre sick, their kids cant go, they are worried about being evicted from their homes, and let us be honest, there are many, many families in America Today who have no food in the refrigerate, order to feed theirth kids. s where we are. It is a disaster. And we need the United States congress to step up to the plate, and act boldly, in order to protect those working families. Senator, why then are there support donald trumilies who well, thats a great quesaon. That is very good question. And i think the reason is several, several reasons for it. I happen to think that what trump has done is played on oples fears, and i happen toev bethat the success of trump with working class families has a lot to do with the failure of the Democratic Party to speak to them. And i thinkt over a, you know, under fdr and harry truman, generally speaking, what you had was the Democratic Party wathe party of the working class of americ thats it. I dont think anyone would disagree with that. But what happened over a number of years, i think a lot having to do with demrats chasing corporate finance, and campaign contributions, that the Democratic Party kind of turned its back in many respects on working people. The trade policies in my view were a disaster. We havent raised the minimum should. The degree that we are the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people as a human et cetera, et cetera. And i think a lot of workers looked out here and they said u know, im angry, my life is going nowhere in a k hurry, mys are going to do worse than i did, the democrats havent done itbewell, m its the immigrants who are at fault, maybe it is people of color who are a fault, and ill so i think thats one of the. Reasons. Trump has played on the anger and the frustration of the American People. And they are angry and they are frustrated. But instead of looking at wall street and itead of looking at ine drug compaesead of looking at the insurance companies, he has turd us on each other. Its not a new strategy. Its whate demagogues l over the world. Youre supporting joe biden dr president. The number one reason you give as you rally your supporters is that it is imperative for democrats to defeat donald trump. How condent are you that joe biden will defeat president well, id say its not just imperative thats democefeat trump, it is imperative that the American People do. I think that, well, that takes us into a whole other subject, but i think there is a strong chance that he,n. He wil am i here absolutely to say this is a slam dunk, no chance that he will lose . At is not what im saying. But i think that, with the bidet campaign, hey got to do is not only continue to attack the repute and the rhetoric of someon t i considerbe the most dangerous president in the history of this country, you got toth d, but you got to give people an alternative or reason to vote for you oer than saying im not donald trump and that means speaking about an Economic Program which biden has. It not as strong as i would like it. It is not the Bernie Sanders program. Despite what trump wl tell you. But it is a Strong Program that wirove life of the many millions of senator sanders, somebody who has supported you for a very long time, michael moore, the predicted in 2016 that trump ly would win the election, and he was othis program back january, where he told me trump could win ioreele and very recently, within the last few weeks, he has posted on facebook that the support for donald trump right now is quote off the charts. Now, you know michigan well. You had a surprise victory there and should democrats be nervous about michigan . Democrats should be nervous about michigan and wisconsin and pennsyan t. Wh polling is showing today is that biden is in the lead in those battlegund better than i would have thought in florida. But i think my point was that the enthusiasm is with tru, not with biden. Now the truth is, when you cast your ballot, it doesnt matter youre enthusiastic or not, it counts as one vote. But what we have got to do is gin up the enthusiasm by talking about what biden will do for working families in america, and do a better job in exposing to e working class of this country the degree to which ump has sold them out and in fact, is a fraud. S let me point to ye of the comments you made at the Convention Last month. Lets take a look. Opa cn ended several months ago. But our movementti ces. And it is getting stronger every many of e ideas we fought for, that just a few yearse go w considered radical, are now but let us be clear, if donald trump is reelected, all the progress we have made will be in jeopardy. Which ideas . That sounds like me. Going from radical yeah, which idea has gone from radical to mainstream . Example. Give you an five years ago or so, democrats were talking about raising he minimum wage to 0. , maybe a few talked about 12 an hour. Now, 15 an hour is not, not only is it mainstream, seven states have passed the 15 an hour minum wage. I remember, i talked about it, a trillion dollar infrastructure program. Oh, bernie, that is crazy, that is too muchwe money. , even donald trump talks about a trillion right now. People understand that our infrastructure, our roads, bridge, water systems, waste water plants, i would put Affordable Housing in ther is in deplorable condition. And that we need and can create our infrastructure. Rebuildin health care, okay, five years ago, nobody, virtually nobody was talking about medicare for all. Ere talking about protectinge fordable care act, improving the Affordable Care act, i suspect the polling out there will now show a majority of a thericans understand that health care cannot simply be a job benefit, i bs got toa human right. Making public colleges and universities tuitionfree, radical idea a few years ago, implemented today. On and on. So let me ask you then, why is the 2020 dnc platform reflect some of thet of pillars as the Progressive Movement . The Green New Deal and medicare for all were not included in tht party rm, and that was a real deal breaker for many, many of the delegates about. A quarte of e delegates voted against the dnc platform, including some of your surrogates, including representative rashida talib, and rhohanna what does that say about the future of progress ives in joe bidensy. Emocratic pa it is not a great secret that joe biden is far more conservative than i am. Joe biden does t believe in medicare for all. I do. I believe in the Green New Deal. Joe does not. T at i would say, if you look at his health care program, it is a pretty Strong Program. He is prepared to take on the greed and the collusion of the pharmaceutical industry, andke sure that americans are not forced to pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Thats p gttyd. He wants to lower the age of medicare eligility, from 65 where it is today down to 60. Needless tosay, i would include everybody, but thats a step forward. Look, it is no secret, i ran against joe biden he is more conservative than i am. And the platform that he supports is not the platform that i would have written. On the other hand, as you know, we had a number of task forces from his campaign, my campaign, came together, and what we have now is a series of programs on the major issues facing this country, which i think if implemented, if implemented, and i will do my best to make sure they irelemented, would in enct make biden perhaps the most progressive pres since fdr. So do you truly tst that joe bide will be a champion o the progressive agenda, if he is elected and democrats tak the senate . Do i trust that joe bident will do whahe said he will do . Yes. Biden will raise that minimum wage to 15 an hour. You kn, i know a lot of people who may be watching this progra and ma00,000, 150, 200,000 a year, 15 an hour, what does that mean . Let me tell you what it means. It is life and death. It is a shred of dignity for the Million People who get a pay raise. That is a big deal. Universal prek. Paid family and medical leave. Its a big deal for working families. So again, bidens views are not mine. My program was much more progressive. But he has a strong ogram, and i think hes got to do a better job in getting it out, to be hoyost with there are many supporters of anders, whotor actually feel that the establishment of the demratic party is in morn,trouble i than the Republican Party itself. What do you sayt wwould say, and would ay this, by the way as the longest serving independent in the history of the United States congress, we are in an unprecedented moment in american history. And were not just having a debate over health care or climate change, or womens rights, or education. What this campaign is about is whether or no and i say this with foreboden in my heart, ot whether or we remain a democratic society. Because this president today does not believe in docracy, does not believe in the rule of iow, or does not in fact believe in the constitof the United States. So i would hope thathile people will have strong disagreements with biden, i do, for the moment, put that aside, thats what in a senseoalition politics is about, you come together, for a common goal, goal is to defeat trump. After that, were going to oight it, as to the future of the Democratic Party and the future of america. Butell do that within the context of a democratic society. And u constitution. There are still sanders supporters who are not persuaded. E beca they feel lik they are abdicated a progressive agenda. I hope and inow that most progressives are politically sophisticated. And that is, we take things one step at a time. And the first step that we have to take, and i said that, you know, you put up anf excerpt my speech at the democratic there are conservative with republicans who understand that trump is a threat to amerdean cracy. I will work with them. Ill work with indeps. I will work with anybody who understands what a threat to the Society Trump is. But the day after, we come out swinging, for our agenda, and we nd it for that agenda, believe were going to win that agenda. I am very impressed and delightedheithuccess that we have had in elections all over this country. Not only winning reelection for the threell so squad members, by landslide victories but electing new a strong progressives, in missouri, with corey bush, jamal bowmanrk in n and other, and im feeling positive about the future and we will rally themerican people around a progressive agenda. Is biden in some ways a better candidate for yourd votes for working americans than Hillary Clinton was . You know, i dont want to get into personalities. But i think, you know, hillary hit a negative nerve if you like with some of our supporters t a ink what most people see in joe biden is what is absolutely true. And that is he is a very decent you may disagree with him on the war in iraq, you may disagreewi him on health care, but he is a compassionate empathetic and decent human being and i think anybody who knows him, and i do, will tell you that. You areery popular with young people. So what do you tell them if they say they cant vote for joe i tell th they should vote for joe biden and many of them are. The sunrise ntmovefor example, understands that it is imperative thatena beat trump. Let me show you this clip from a rent speech that joe biden just gave. Take a look. I want to make it absolutely clear, i want to be clear about all of this, rioting is not protesting, looting is not protesting, setting fires is not protesting. None of this is protestg. Its lawlessness. Plain and simple. This election has taken a turn toawocusing and order. Is that the message that joe biden nelds toer in order to win . Well, i find it interesting, obviously, ts itrumps mantra, and this is a president who i running the most corrupt administrations probably in the history of the country, where i believe seven of his, i could br g, six or seven of his key Campaign Advisers have already been indicted for one thing or another, but wha the vic president just said is true, we have got to be extremely, ending systemic in this sed on country. And r, to make sure that we tackle a racist and broken criminal justice system. We need real police reform. But burning down buildings, to my mind, has nothing to do with the fight for racial justice. You seem to be alarmed senator, incehich ario in which Vice President biden wins the white house but President Trumpus r to leave the white house. You said, quote, what we have got to do in the next two months is to alert the American People about what that nightmarish sma scenario might look like and what would happen with that possibility and talkut ahat ould uld do if that happen talk us through what that nightmarish scenario would look like. Here is the way i see it. You will recall that after he won the Electoral College in 2016, you remember what trump said as to why he did not win the popular vote, he lost the popular vote by three e million the millions of people who voted illegally, there is nobody o agrees with him, nobody, total absolute lie. Hr he was on wallace show on Fox Television and chris asked him in so many words, you may lose, if you lose the election, e you going to leave, he wasnt clear about saying of course im going to leave if is he wasnt clear about that. Just today. There were 14 different polls, trump was behind in every single one ofhem. Me of them were close. He was behind. And yet he has been saying recely, the only way we can lose this election is if there is fraud. What does that tell you about you want the nightmare scenario . Heres the nightmare scenario. Democrats according toes stu will win by mailin ballots in much greates numbethat republicans. So what could hpen is at 9 00 or 10 00 on election night, trump will be ahead in a number of battlegroundd states. Trump will then get on television, and say, look at thk results, tyou, america, i won, and by the way, we now know people have told me, i just heard this on fox, where Somebody Just wrote me and said massive voterraud all over america, we will kill those mailin ballots, i won, thank you enry much. And wo days later, three days later, the mailin ballots come in in pennsylvania and other states and it turns out trump lost those battleground state, lost the electoral llege. Thats the nightmare scenario. If President Trump refuses to leave, what happens then . Well, then we are probably in the worst constitutional crisis and i would hope on this one, margaret, and i say this very sincerely, that i know erybody who watcheshis doesnt agree with me on every issue, maybe not even on most issues, bu would hope thathere would be coming together of progressives, of moderates of conservatives, and there are some conservatives out will who say you know what, i may agree with trump on this or that policyut i happen to believe in the constitution and the rule of law and weve got to bring all elements of American Society together, including the business community, and say, yos know what, lave, we will have a fierce debate about the future of america, but itill be done within the framework of a democratic rule of law society. And i think when we bring those peopletogether, we can force trump out, no matter what his wishes may be. You have said that everything, you will do everything you can to elect Vice President biden, and the next day well, maybe two days,ar ma. We will take a break with that. Maybe two days. But what does that look like . What do you begin to do . Good question. And what it looks like is this. I think it is fair to say that the working class of his country has not been in the kind of desperate shape they are today, probably since the great depression. What i am going to fight f is a 100day agenda. Now, newgr gh would be surprised if i mention this, but what he did is he put togetr a broad agenda, representing his right wing views, and hehe p that through the congress. I was there. Voting morning, noon, and night. Thats what he did. That is exactly what the democ