Us from backstage at that theater now. Thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate your time tonight. Good to be with you. So congratulations on this big weekend that you had, not just wins in those three caucuses, but blow outs. There arent that many more caucuses on the calendar. The next big state is wisconsin on tuesday. Did you expect to win wisconsin as well. I think if there is a large voter turnout, if working class people who have given up on the political process come out to vote, if young people who have never participated come out to vote, if theres a good turnout, we will win. If theres a low turnout well probably lose so were doing everything we can to create a high voter turnout. Senator sanders, im not going to ask you play pundit. Im going to ask you about some stuff on the republican field in a second. Before we do that i was struck by this cover story that Rolling Stone had recently where they put you and secretary clinton on the cover, they called it the good fight contrasting the fight between you with whats happening on the republican side saying that the democratic primary has been policy driven and decent and intelligent. Its been an argument to be proud of as a country. They said its been game raising for both of you, basically that its made you both better candidates. I want to know if you agree with that, if you think this is a good fight to be proud of thus far and if you think its changed over time . Let me say that comparing us to the republicans, thats a pretty low bar to overcome. Pretty low bar to overcome. I think what is really a National Disgrace and i think this is not just what average americans are saying, but what many sane republicans are saying, this country faces enormous crisis. Climate change, the pay equity issue for women and what republican candidates have now stooped to is to start attacking each others wives. This is an international embarrassment. I think the people around the rest of the world think we are pretty crazy. I think compared to that what secretary clinton are trying do, we are trying to discuss the real issues facing the American People and i think most objective americans appreciate that a lot more than the kind of circus that is taking place on the republican side. I had a chance to speak with secretary clinton earlier today and i asked her this question as well. Last night the republican candidates gave up on what had been their previous pledges that they would all support their partys eventual nominee in the fall. I think a good portion of the party wont support whoever runs for president. As somebody who is running for the democratic nomination, do you look at that on the republican side and say good riddance. Are you concerned because we need both parties to be strong and sane in order to make this system work . First of all, i dont necessarily take at face value what they say. I think at the end of the day they will come together, but the other point, the deeper point, is the Republican Party today has moved very, very far to the right. They are way out of touch with where the American People are and i think if we had a media in this country that was really prepared to look at what the republicans actually stood for rather than quoting every absurd remark of donald trump talking about or the Republican Party talking about hundreds of billions of dollars of tax breaks, cuts in social security, medicare, medicaid, a party with few exceptions doesnt knowledge the reality of Climate Change or do anything about it, a party which is not prepared to stand with women in the fight for pay equity, a party thats not prepared to do anything about a broken criminal Justice System or a corrupt Campaign Finance system, this is a fringe party. Maybe they get 5 , 10 of the vote. What you really need in this country is a Progressive Party standing with the working class and the middle class of this country and a conservative party that has is more fiscally conservative. That is where we should be as a country. What the Republican Party today now is a joke maintained by a media which really does not force them to discuss their issues. So thats my two cents on that. Let me try to get three cents out of this. If they are no longer the conservative party that they appear to be, does that mean that you would applaud if the Republican Party really did blow up . Some people say the nomination of donald trump and the process theyre going through now is enough to maybe destroy that party, maybe end the Republican Party. Do you think that would be a good thing . Well, im not going to give the Republican Leadership ideas on how they can reorganize their party, what i can tell you its imperative for future generations that we do not have a republican in the white house whether its trump or cruz or anybody else. One of the things that im proud of and it hasnt gotten i think quite the attention that it deserves, is that in National Poll after National Poll, what you find is that i am leading people like trump poll came out a few days ago by 20 points and a significantly larger number than Hillary Clinton is. One of the points were trying to get across is if the Democratic Party wants a strong candidate that will defeat trump or some other republican and beat them badly, i think i am the candidate because we appeal not only to democrats but to a lot of independents and some republicans as well. Your campaign has talked about those headtohead matchups, those hypothetical matchups in november, as essentially the case that you might make to the super delegates. We have talked about this before, but since we last spoke about it your campaign has gone into some more detail about this. It was said this week that your campaign would try to convince super delegates to support you at the convention on the strength of what you just said there that you have a better chance in the general election, that they would try to flip those super delegates to support you even if at the convention youre behind both in the pledge delegates and the popular vote. I thought that was surprising. I wanted to find out if that really is your campaigns position. I dont want to get too deeply into process here. First of all, we hope to be ahead in the delegate count. Thats the important thing. What i do believe is that there are a lot of super delegates who have signed on to Hillary Clinton a long, long time ago and then you have other super delegates who are in states where we have won by 20, 30, 40 points and the people in those states are saying you know what, we voted for Bernie Sanders by 30 or 40 points, you got to support him at the convention. So well see what happens down the line, but our main task right now is in fact to come out of this whole process after california with more delegates than secretary clinton. Are you working now on lobbying some of the super delegates . Yes, we are. We are. We have started off by going to those states, states like utah, hawaii, states that have given us very large victories and trying to get to those people and say you know what, your state voted overwhelming for us, listen to what your state has to say. Senator sanders, i promise i wont ask you only process questions here, but i do want to ask you about something that arose this week from your campaign that i disagree with on factual grounds and ill tell you what it is. Your Campaign Said this week that secretary clinton is leading overall basically because you choose not to compete in eight states, in arkansas, alabama, louisiana, tennessee. The reason i take exception with that is i saw footage of your rallies in texas and virginia. We reported you were ahead of clinton. Why is your campaign now saying that you essentially didnt try in those states . You say you dont want to talk about processes, this is exactly what were talking about. One person said that. I dont know the context of that. Of course we were in texas. We had great rallies there. I think perhaps what tad meant by that is we did not put a lot of money into tv advertising, that we knew those states would be difficult states for us and we used our resources elsewhere, but we put a lot of money into South Carolina and we did poorly. So of course we did compete in mississippi, alabama, not a lot to be honest with you, but i think what tad was meaning is that we did not put a lot of resources into those states. You told me in january you articulated that the Democratic Party really needs to run a 50state strategy and people in places like South Carolina and mississippi need strong campaigns there so their voices get heard. How do you square that with not running that hard in places like mississippi. If we had a lot longer time, thats exactly what i would do. But the difficult choices we have to make, what you have to do in the midst of a campaign is say where is our time and our resources best allocated if im going to win this thing. We knew we were never going to win in mississippi or alabama. But the point you make is a different and correct point. I believe starting yesterday the Democratic Party has got to start planting flags in all of those states. Now, they may not win it in 2016 or 2018, but youre never going to win it unless you begin somewhere, unless you mobilize the grassroots in those states, come forward with good strong candidates, so its really not a contradiction. I do believe very strongly if elected president i will create a situation where the dnc is a 50state party. You cannot ignore half the states in america, including those states who have the poorest people, the highest levels of unemployment, the Worst Health Care systems in the country. Democrats have got to Pay Attention to all 50 states. Senator sanders, will you stay with us for just a moment. I have more to ask you in just a moment. Our conversation continues in just a moment. And so my new packing robot wi our conversation continues in ll genius oh. No. Charlene . No. Charlene. No. Charlene. Why is she wearing earrings . Why is it a she . Shh. At jet. Com, were always looking for unbelievable money saving innovations. Your Business Hours as your insurance companys. Now claim calls are eating into work. And you dont know if youll get an insurance check or a severance check. The Liberty Mutual mobile app makes filing a tracking claims fast and easy. Liberty mutual insurance. Put under a microscope, we can see a the bacteria that still exists. Polidents unique micro clean formula works in just 3 minutes, killing 99. 99 of odor causing bacteria. For a cleaner, fresher, brighter denture every day. [engine revs] [engine revving] the allnew audi a4 is here. Joining us again is senator sanders. Thank you for being with us tonight. Appreciate it. So sir, you tweeted today that it was quote shameful, that was the word you used, when donald trump said this to my colleague Chris Matthews here on msnbc. How do you ban abortion . You go back to a position like they had where people will perhaps go to illegal places, but you have to ban it. The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment. For the women . Yeah, there has to be some form. Ten years . I dont know. After word spread that donald trump made those remarks today about abortion, that a woman needs to be punished, you said today that was shameful. What is shameful about it . Shameful is probably under stating that position. First of all, to me, and i think to most americans, women have the right to control their own bodies and they have the right to make those personal decisions themselves. But to punish a woman for having an abortion is beyond comprehension. I just one would say what is in Donald Trumps mind except were tired of saying that. I dont know what world this person lives in. So obviously from my perspective and if elected president i will do everything i can to allow women to make that choice and to have access to clinics all over this country so if they choose to have an abortion they will be able to do so. The idea of punishing a woman is beyond comprehension. Mr. Trump is making headlines today. Its taken the media today by storm. I think there may be a case to be made, and id love your perspective on this, that his opponent, senator ted cruz is more extreme on this issue and i say that in part because one of his national cochairs on his prolifers, is a man named troy newman said they should be punished. Youre living in crazy world there and that is why the Republican Party, if they continue in this direction, will be as i mentioned a moment ago a fringe party. Look, they have nothing to say. All they can appeal is through a small number of people who feel very rabid about a particular issue, whether its abortion or maybe its gay marriage. That is their constituentsy. They have nothing of substance. You mentioned a moment ago that the media is paying attention to donald trump. No kidding. Once again ever stupid remark will be broadcast for the next five days, but what is Donald Trumps position on raising the minimum wage . He doesnt think so. What is Donald Trumps position on wages in america . He said in a Republican Debate he thinks wages are too high. Whats Donald Trumps position on taxes . He wants to give billionaire families like himself hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks. What is Donald Trumps position on Climate Change . He thinks its a hoax perpetrated shock of all shock by the chinese. On and on it goes. But because media is what media is today, any stupid or absurd remark made by donald trump becomes the story of the week. Maybe, just maybe, we might want to have a serious discussion about the serious issues facing america. Donald trump will not look quite so interesting in that context. Are you suggesting that the media shouldnt be focusing on his call to potentially jail women who have abortions because thats another stupid comment. I am saying that every day he comes up with another stupid remark, absurd remark. Of course it should be mentioned, but so should trumps overall position. How much talk do we hear about Climate Change and trump . Any . He said that he cares more about nuclear Climate Change which is a term that hes invented. Nuclear Climate Change . Thats what he comes up with when hes asked on the subject. Trump is nobodys fool. He knows how to manipulate the media and you say an absurd thing and the media is all over. My concern is that today in america you have millions of people who are struggling economically. They want to know how were going to expand the middle class. Overwhelming people think we should raise the minimum wage. Vast majority of people think Climate Change is real and a threat to our planet. They want to do something about that. What do we do . Vast majority of the people think the wealthiest people in this country should start paying their fair share of taxes. But if we dont discuss those issues, it creates the climate for people like donald trump to do much better than he really has a right to do. Senator, you have been a fierce critic of the influence of the wealthy and big business on our politics, not just on who gets their way, but who sets the agenda. As republican legislators and governors have recently been weighing new laws that are discriminatory, big business, including bank of America Today has weighed in strongly against those laws. Do you think those businesses should but out of those issues . They have when we look at politics in america, you have ceos of major corporations who have children who are gay who have friends who are gay, whose wives or daughters have had abortions. They live in the real world and theyre responding to this type of very rightwing reactionary policies and i understand that and i appreciate that. When i talk about money in politics, what i talk about is the Koch Brothers and billionaires spending hundreds of millions of dollars along with wall street to create a situation where politics politicians will be elected who represent the wealthy and the powerful. One of the issues that the Koch Brothers and their networks have supported in a way that has been very effective is an issue concerning veterans. You were the former chairman of the Veterans Committee in the senate and in that capacity you worked closely with senator john mccain on a number of issues. Hes praised you in this campaign. Youve talked about your ability to work with him on veterans issues, but right now senator mccain is pushing a proposal to effectively privatize large parts of the va, which is something that the Koch Brothers and their network have pushed. Whats your response to that . Do you have plans to try to stop him on that given your relationship. Of course, disagree. What you have a group called the concerned veterans of america. They appear on stations like cnn time and time again without being identified as being funded by the Koch Brothers. What theyre doing is taking legitimate criticisms of the va and blowing them up and coming to the conclusion that we should privatize the va. This is an issue that i have dealt with. What i can tell you is having talked to the American Legion and the vfw an