Bernie Sanders: Trump ‘Does Not Understand the Constitution’
Senator Bernie Sanders made his fifth visit to Late Night With Seth Meyers on Monday to discuss threats to American democracy and to remind politicians and voters on the left to maintain a focus on “bread and butter issues” rather than getting caught up in the investigation on the links between President Trump‘s administration and the Russian government.
“I worry very much about the attacks we’re seeing every day in a variety of ways, not only from the Russians, on American democracy,” Sanders said. “We have a president who clearly does not understand the Constitution of the United States, a president who attacks the media every day, and media has a very important role to play in our democracy.”
Sanders also took aim at Citizens United, the Supreme court decision that “allow[s] billionaires to buy elections” and Republican efforts at the state level to suppress voting among “poor people and people of color or young people.” “Of all the enormous issues facing this country, making sure we fight to protect and revitalize American democracy and take on all of those people who want to undermine what men and women fought and died to defend, that is our major task,” Sanders concluded.
The Senator suggested that this crucial fight should unfold on two fronts. First, he told Meyers, “we’ve got to take on Trump’s attacks against the environment, against women, against Latinos and blacks and people in the gay community.”
“But equally importantly,” Sanders added, “we have to focus on the bread and butter issues that mean so much to ordinary Americans. Americans are not staying up every day worrying about Russian interference in our elections. They’re worried about how they’re going to be able to send their kids to college. They’re worried about how they’re going to pay the rent. They’re worried about whether they can afford healthcare.”
Sanders finished with a message similar to the one he delivered on the campaign trail in 2016: “We are the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and our job is to create an economy that works for all of us, not just the one percent.”