QPRESS
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders joins Chris Wallace on ‘Fox News Sunday.’
WALLACE: Senator, now that this is a two-man race and you’re going to have a two-man debate next Sunday, how hard do you go after Joe Biden without carving each other up and helping Donald Trump win reelections?
SANDERS: Well, Chris, that’s the right question. Joe Biden is a friend of mine. Joe Biden is a decent guy.
What Joe has said is if I win the nomination, he’ll be there for me, and I have said if he wins the nomination, I’ll be there for him because we both recognize that we have a president who is a pathological liar, and I say that without any joy in my heart, as somebody who’s running a corrupt the administration, somebody apparently who has never read the Constitution of the United States and thinks he’s above the law. So, Biden and I, no matter who wins this thing, will be together in defeating Trump, but now that it is a two-way race, it is important for the voters of this country to ask themselves two questions. Number one, which candidate is stronger in terms of being able to defeat Trump. And number two, what are the differences in a record.
Joe has been in Washington for a long time as have I. And my point is when people see the records, Joe voted for the war in Iraq, I opposed the war in Iraq. Joe voted for the Wall Street bailout, I vigorously opposed the Wall Street bailout.
When you go to the Midwest — we’re in Michigan right now. You go to Wisconsin, you got to Pennsylvania, people want to know about your views on trade , because disastrous trade agreements like NAFTA and PNTR with China cost this country over 4 million good-paying jobs, decimated communities here in Michigan.
I helped lead the oppositions of those trade agreements, Joe voted for them.
WALLACE: Senator, Joe Biden is also going after you and here he is on who is better able to help working Americans. Take a look.
(BEGIN CLIP)
BIDEN: Now, let’s go to Michigan, Bernie, we’ll see if that’s true. I’m the guy that helped bailout the automobile industry. What did you do, old buddy? Come on.
(END CLIP)
WALLACE: He says you got big plans, he gets results.
SANDERS: Well, I think in terms of results, when you support the disastrous war in Iraq, when you support the Wall Street bailout, when you support terrible trade agreements —
WALLACE: Well, how about the — but how about the auto bailout, sir?
SANDERS: Well, the auto bailout was done by the Obama administration and it was a step forward. But I think sometimes Joe is taking a little bit of credit as vice president for initiatives that were led by President Obama and by many members of the Congress.
WALLACE: Let’s take a look at the practical politics here. The big prize on Tuesday — or the biggest prize — is Michigan with 125 delegates. You scored a major upset win there in 2016 against Hillary Clinton.
SANDERS: Yes.
WALLACE: But on Super Tuesday, you lost to Biden among what many people would think would be your base, white, working class voters in a number of states. And Biden taunted you on your lack of support among some other groups.
Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: It’s is ridiculous. Bernie, you got beaten by overwhelming support I have from the African-American community, Bernie. You got beaten because of suburban women, Bernie.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: If you were to lose in the first industrial Midwest state to vote, Michigan, on Tuesday, how serious is that? How damaging and would you consider dropping out?
SANDERS: Well, no, I certainly would not consider dropping out. You know, Chris, media asks you, is this state or that state life or death? I was asked that at Iowa. I was asked that in New Hampshire.
We won California, the largest state in this country. We are winning among Latino voters big-time. We are winning among young people.
You know, when you talk about the future of this country, or the future of the Democratic Party, one might want to look where young people are at.
And what young people are saying is that we have got to move aggressively to make sure that health care is a right for all. Young people want to raise that minimum wage to at least $15 an hour. Young people want us to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, build the affordable housing that we need. And, by the way, young people understand that we have massive levels of income and wealth inequality. We have three people or more wealth in the bottom half of America. They want changes. They’re concerned about climate change. They’re concerned about racism and sexism.
So, I think if you look at the general electorate, you look at the future of this country, I think you’ve got a lot of energy behind this. Just yesterday, Chris, just yesterday, didn’t get a lot of media attention for whatever reason. We have the rally in Grand Park in Chicago. We had 15,000 people out.
So, I’m feeling good about the momentum that we have. I think we’re going to do well on Tuesday and I think we’re going to beat Biden.
WALLACE: Beat Biden in Michigan?
SANDERS: Yes, I do. Yes. I think the polling — you know, last time around, as you indicated, it was seen as a big upset –
WALLACE: Right.
SANDERS: — because polling has down literally by 20 points one day before the election.