Last week, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders filed petitions in Vermont to run for his third term. The independent began his political career in 1981 as mayor of Burlington, served 16 years in the U.S. House and has been in the national spotlight since running for president in 2016. On Wednesday he appeared on the Daily 202 Live, a program produced by the Washington Post, to discuss policy and politics.
Senator Sanders spoke for nearly an hour with Washington Post national political correspondent James Hohmann on a number of topics and answered Twitter questions. Their initial conversation focused on this week’s primary results and the influence he and the organization that sprang from his presidential campaign — called Our Revolution – has had on politics. “The most important thing and what we try very hard to do is bring millions of more people, young people, working people, into the political process. What my job is is to get Americans involved, get them out to vote, to run for office, to demand that we have an election system which reflects the needs of ordinary people rather than billionaire campaign contributors. And I think in that regard we’re having some success.”
Host James Hohmann noted that Sanders was born in Brooklyn and posed a question regarding New York’s gubernatorial race. “The chairman of the DNC Tom Perez endorsed Andrew Cuomo, who’s locked in a pretty competitive primary with Cynthia Nixon. Our Revolution has endorsed Cynthia Nixon. Do you think that was a mistake for the chair of the DNC?”
Sanders: “Absolutely.”
Hhmann: “Does it make it harder to trust that you know progressive candidates in 2020 will get a fair shake when they’re leading into primaries like this?”
Sanders: “Yup, it does. Look, there is massive discontent with the political system. When you have the head of the DNC, and I’ve worked OK…
