On Sunday, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union,” where he discussed Donald Trump’s unpaid taxes, a leaked audio clip of Hillary Clinton discussing Sanders’ supporters, and Gary Johnson’s second “Aleppo moment” with Jake Tapper. Sanders has been making the rounds as a Clinton surrogate in recent months in an attempt to consolidate his supporters against Trump and for the Democratic ticket.
Asked about a new report from the New York Times that could prove the Republican presidential nominee hasn’t paid a cent of federal income tax for almost to two decades, Sanders replied, “This is why so many Americans are frustrated, they’re angry, they’re disgusted at what they see is a corrupt political system in this country.” He launched into one of his signature lectures about wealth inequality and why the billionaire class should be paying their fair share:
“So what you have at a time of massive income and wealth inequality — in the last 16 years we have seen a tenfold increase in the number of billionaires. And at the same time, many of these billionaires have loopholes that their lobbyist and their friends on capitol hill provide to them, which enable them to avoid taxes, in some cases not paying a nickel in taxes. So you got the middle-class people working longer hours for low wages, they pay their taxes. They support their schools. They support their infrastructure. They support the military. But the billionaires? No, they don’t have to do that, because they have their friends on capitol hill. They pay zero in taxes. So Trump goes around and says ‘Hey! I’m worth billions! I’m a successful businessman! But I don’t pay any taxes. But you, you make 15 bucks an hour, you pay the taxes, not me.’ That is why people are angry and want real change in this country.”
When Tapper played hacked audio showing Clinton possibly condescending to Sanders’ supporters at a private fundraiser in February, Sanders quickly shot down implications that the Democratic presidential nominee meant to insult him. “If you listen to the whole discussion that she had, a very important point that she made is that a lot of young people who went into debt work very hard to get a good education, get out of school and can’t find jobs commensurate with the education they received,” Sanders said. “There is a lot of unhappiness among young people and that’s an issue that we must address.”
“We’re in the middle of a campaign,” Sanders said, reminding Tapper that he had some tough words for the former Secretary of State during the Democratic primary campaign. You can watch Sanders’ full interview below.
