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Not Only Did I Vote Against That War, I Helped Lead The Opposition, And If You Go To My Website, Berniesanders.com, You Will See The Statement That I Made In 2002. And It Gives Me No Pleasure To Tell You That Much Of What I Feared Would Happen The Day After Saddam Hussein Was Overthrown, In Fact, Did Happen.

-Bernie Sanders

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Not Only Did I

Bernie Sanders

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Not Only Did I Vote Against That War, I Helped Lead The Opposition, And If You Go To My Website, Berniesanders.com, You Will See The Statement That I Made In 2002. And It Gives Me No Pleasure To Tell You That Much Of What I Feared Would Happen The Day After Saddam Hussein Was Overthrown, In Fact, Did Happen.

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I Voted Against The War In Iraq. I Voted Against The First Gulf War. I Think War Is The Last Resort - The Last Option Of A Great Military Power Like Us. I Think That We Need To Focus On Building Coalitions. Yes, Isis Must Be Destroyed. But It Should Be Destroyed By A Coalition Of Muslim Nations On The Ground With The Support Of The United States And The Other Major Powers In The Air And In Training The Troops There.

As A Result Of The Citizens United Supreme Court Decision, American Democracy Is Being Undermined By The Ability Of The Koch Brothers And Other Billionaire Families. These Wealthy Contributors Can Literally Buy Politicians And Elections By Spending Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars In Support Of The Candidates Of Their Choice. We Need To Overturn Citizens United And Move Toward Public Funding Of Elections So That All Candidates Can Run For Office Without Being Beholden To The Wealthy And Powerful.

We Can Have Paid Family And Medical Leave. We Can Make Public Colleges And Universities Tuition-free. These Are Not Revolutionary, Radical Ideas. They're Kind Of Common Sense.

All Over This Country You Have Progressive Communities Like Madison And Burlington, But We've Got To Go Well, Well, Well Outside Of Those Communities. We've Got To Go To The Rural Areas. We've Got To Go Where A Lot Of Working People Are Voting Republican.

What Does A Political Revolution Look Like? It Means That 80 Percent Of The People Vote In National Elections, Not 40 Percent. It Means That Billionaires Can't Make Unlimited Campaign Contributions And Buy And Sell Politicians. It Means That The U.s. Government Represents The Needs Of All The People, Not Just The 1 Percent And Their Lobbyists.

Political Revolution

I Think We Bring Together That Broad Coalition Including Russia To Help Us Destroy Isis And Work On A Timetable To Get Rid Of Assad, Hopefully Through Democratic Elections. First Priority, Destroy Isis.

It's Very Easy To Make Fun Of George W.bush, But That Ain't Going To Do It. What We Have To Do Is Knock On Doors And Go Into Communities Where There Are People Who Disagree With Us On Certain Issues.and We Have To Talk To Them. They're Our Friends. They're Our Allies. They're Our Co-workers. We Can't See Them As Enemies.

I Am Deeply Concerned - About Virtually Everything That Trump Is Talking About And Has Talked About In His Campaign And The Kind Of People That He Is Appointing.

We Have Two And Half Million Individual Campaign Contributions, More Than Any Campaign In History.

Whether It Is Television, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, Books Or The Internet, A Few Giant Conglomerates Are Determining What We See, Hear And Read.

What Every American Should Know Is That We Have More People In Jail Today Than Any Other Country On Earth, More Than China. We Have Some 2.2 Million People In Jail. What That Means Is That A Lot Of Lives Are Being Destroyed.

We Need A Very Progressive And Strong Agenda To Bring People Into The Political Process Because I Worry Very Much About The Future Of The American Democracy Where So Many People Are Giving Up.

In Germany, College Tuition Is Free. In America, College Tuition Is Increasingly Unaffordable. In A Highly Competitive Global Economy, Which Country Do You Think Will Have The Best Educated Work Force And A Competitive Advantage? We Must Make Tuition Free In Public Colleges And Universities And Substantially Reduce Interest Rates On Student Loans.

What Democratic Socialism Is About Is Saying That It Is Immoral And Wrong That The Top One-tenth Of 1 Percent In This Country Own Almost 90 Percent - Almost - Own Almost As Much Wealth As The Bottom 90 Percent. That It Is Wrong, Today, In A Rigged Economy, That 57 Percent Of All New Income Is Going To The Top 1 Percent. That When You Look Around The World, You See Every Other Major Country Providing Health Care To All People As A Right, Except The United States.

Democratic Socialism

Education Should Be A Right, Not A Privilege. We Need A Revolution In The Way That The United States Funds Higher Education.

I Think The Immediate Thing Is We Stand Up To Protect Those People Who Are In Trouble.

Low-income People, Racial Or Ethnic Minorities, Pregnant Women, Seniors, People With Special Needs, People In Rural Areas - They All Have A Much Harder Time Accessing A Dentist Than Other Groups Of Americans.

Corporations Are Not Going To Stash Their Money In The Cayman Islands. We Are Going To Reinvest In America, Create Jobs, Make Education Available To All.

When We Talk About The Healthcare Crisis In America We've Got To Also Be Talking About The Dental Crisis And How To Address It.

In Terms Of Iran And In Terms Of Saudi Arabia, Of Course They Hate Each Other. That's No Great Secret. But John Kerry, Who Is I Think Doing A Very Good Job, Has Tried To At Least Get These People In The Room Together Because Both Of Them Are Being Threatened By Isis.

For Better Or Worse, When Sen. Inhofe Speaks, The Republican Party Follows. And When The Republican Party Follows, It Is Impossible To Get Real Work Done In The Congress.

The United States Has More People Living In Poverty Than At Almost Any Time In The Modern History Of Our Country. I Believe That In A Democratic, Civilized Society None Of Our People Should Be Hungry Or Living In Desperation. We Need To Expand Social Security, Not Cut It. We Need To Increase Funding For Nutrition Programs, Not Cut Them.

I Don't Consider Myself A Pariah.

I Am Going To Do My Best To Try To Create A Country In Which Children Are Not Living In Poverty, In Which Kids Can Go To College, In Which Old People Have Health Care. Will I Succeed? I Can't Guarantee You That, But I Can Tell You That From A Human Point Of View It Is Better To Show Up Than To Give Up.

What I Saw In Baltimore Was Distressing And It Tells Me We Need Stronger Policies In This Country.

The Focus, To My Mind, Is To Make Sure That Donald Trump Does Not Become President Of The United States. I Think By Temperament He Is Unqualified To Be President. I Think His Views - You Have A Guy Who's Running For President Who Rejects Science, Doesn't Even Believe Climate Change Is Real, Let Alone Wants To Do Something About It, Wants To Give Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars In Tax Breaks To The Top Two-tenths Of One Percent.

One Can't Predict The Future, That Maybe Our Training And Their Fighting Capabilities Are Improving And We Are Going To Make Some Progress In Destroying Isis.

In America, We Have Lost Millions Of Decent-paying Jobs. That Has Got To End.

There Is A Reason Why These People [from Wall Street] Are Putting Huge Amounts Of Money Into Our Political System. And In My View, It Is Undermining American Democracy And It Is Allowing Congress To Represent Wealthy Campaign Contributors And Not The Working Families Of This Country.

We Are Spending Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars Maintaining 5,000 Nuclear Weapons. I Think We Need Major Reform In The Military, Making It More Cost Effective, But Also Focusing On The Real Crisis That Faces America.

The Reality Is We That Have A Corrupt Campaign Finance System Which Separates The American People's Needs And Desires From What Congress Is Doing. So To My Mind, What We Have Got To Do Is Wage A Political Revolution Where Millions Of People Have Given Up On The Political Process, Stand Up And Fight Back, Demand The Government That Represents Us And Not Just A Handful Of Campaign Contribution - Contributors.

Are We Prepared To Take On The Enormous Political Power Of The Billionaire Class Or Do We Continue To Slide Into Economic And Political Oligarchy?

I'm Not A Democrat, I'm An Independent, But I Caucus With The Democrats.

The Palestinian People's Needs Must Be Respected.

Wall Street Is Perhaps The Most Powerful Economic And Political Force In This Country. You Have Companies Like Goldman Sachs, Who Just Recently Paid A Settlement Fine With The Federal Government For $5 Billion For Defrauding Investors.

I Believe Strongly That We Can Protect Our People Without Undermining Our Constitutional Rights And I Worry Very, Very Much About The Huge Attacks On Privacy That We Have Seen In Recent Years - Both From The Government And The Private Sector. I Worry That We Are Moving Toward An Orwellian Society, And This Is Something I Will Oppose As Vigorously As I Can.

I Think We've Got A Number Of States Coming Up That We're Going To Do Extremely Well And Possibly Winning, Including California And New York State.so I Think We Do Have A Path To Victory.

I Think People Have A Right To Speak. And You Have A Right If You're On A College Campus Not To Attend. You Have A Right To Ask Hard Questions About The Speaker If You Disagree With Him Or Her.

Fifty Years Ago, Great Schools Like The University Of California And The City University Of New York - As Well As Many State Colleges - Were Tuition Free. Today College Is Unaffordable For Many Working Class Families. For The Sake Of Our Economy And Millions Of Americans, We Must Make Higher Education More Affordable.

I Do Believe That Billionaires And Multi-millionaires Should Be Paying More In Taxes.

Congress Doesn't Regulate Wall Street. Wall Street Regulates Congress.

We`ve Got To Stand With Those People Who Are Being Attacked Today, But At The Same Time, It`s Not Good Enough To Say That Racism And Xenophobia Is Bad. We`ve Got To Reach Those People Today Who Are So Angry, Who Are So Hateful And Say, Yes, You Have A Right To Be Angry, Don`t Take It Out On The Muslims. Work With Us To Create An Agenda And Political Movement That Will Make Your Life Better, Not Just Other People`s Life Worse.

The U.s. Constitution Is An Extraordinary Document. In My View, It Should Not Be Amended Often.

Every Candidate Running For President Has Got To Answer The Following Very Simple Question: At A Time When We Need To Address The Planetary Crisis Of Climate Change, And Transform Our Energy System Away From Fossil Fuels And Into Energy Efficiency And Sustainability, Should We Continue To Give $135 Billion In Tax Breaks And Subsidies Over The Next Decade To Fossil Fuel Companies?

Hillary Clinton Does Represent The Establishment. I Represent, I Hope, Ordinary Americans, And By The Way, Who Are Not All That Enamored With The Establishment, But I Am Very Proud To Have People Like Keith Ellison And Raul Grijalva In The House, The Co-chairmen Of The House Progressive Caucus.

I Think The Media And The Candidates Have Got To Talk About Why The Middle Class Is In Decline And Why We Have Massive Levels Of Income And Wealth Inequality.

Health Care In America Must Be A Right, Not A Privilege.

It's Absurd We Remain The Only Major Country On Earth Not To Guarantee Health Care To All People And Paid Family And Medical Leave.

Everyone Can Have Health Care. Everyone Can Earn A Living Wage. We Can Educate All Our Kids - Well. But None Of That Happens Unless There's A Political Revolution. And It's Not Going To Happen Unless We Deal With Corporate Control Of The Media.

Political Revolution

Every Person In This Country Who Has The Desire And Ability Should Be Able To Get All The Education They Need Regardless Of The Income Of Their Family. This Is Not A Radical Idea. In Germany, Scandinavia And Many Other Countries, Higher Education Is Either Free Or Very Inexpensive. We Must Do The Same.

Will I Criticize Hillary Clinton On Her Position Of Tpp, Or The Lack Of Position? Will I Criticize Her On Her Views Of Wall Street? Will I Criticize Her On Foreign Policy? That's What Democracy Is About, But Taking Cheap Shots At People, Making It Personal, I Don't Think That's What Politics Should Be About.

What The Des Moines Register Said - You Know, There Were Coin - I Think There Were Half A Dozen Coin Flips - A Fairly Chaotic Type Situation. At The End Of The Day, No Matter How It's Recounted, It Will Break Roughly Even. I Love And Respect The Caucus Process In Iowa. See, And I Don't Have To Say It, Because They Voted Already.

The End Of The Day

I Don't Think Any Sensible Person Would Disagree That The Invasion Of Iraq Led To The Massive Level Of Instability That We're Seeing Right Now. I Think That Was One Of The Worst Foreign Policy Blunders In The Modern History Of The United States.

I Have Known Secretary [hillary] Clinton For 25 Years And Respect Her Very Much.

I Don't Go Around Every Other Day Calling For Governors To Resign. I Don't Think I Ever Have.

What I Think People Should Realize Is That Programs Like Social Security, Programs Like Medicare, Programs Like The Veterans Administration, Programs Like Your Local Park And Your Local Library - Those Are, If You Like, Socialist Programs; They're Run By [and] For The Public, Not To Make Money. I Think In Many Ways We Should Expand That Concept So That The American People Can Enjoy The Same Benefits That People All Over The World Are Currently Enjoying.

They Talk About Class Warfare -- The Fact Of The Matter Is There Has Been Class Warfare For The Last Thirty Years. It's A Handful Of Billionaires Taking On The Entire Middle-class And Working-class Of This Country. And The Result Is You Now Have In America The Most Unequal Distribution Of Wealth And Income Of Any Major Country On Earth And The Worst Inequality In America Since 1928. How Could Anybody Defend The Top 400 Richest People In This Country Owning More Wealth Than The Bottom Half Of America, 150 Million People?

I Think You Have An Enormous Amount Of Fear And Uncertainty In This Country. And It`s Not Just From San Bernardino Or From Paris.

Experience Is Not The Only Point, Judgment Is. And Once Again, Back In 2002, When We Both [with Hillary Clinton] Looked At The Same Evidence About The Wisdom Of The War In Iraq, One Of Us Voted The Right Way And One Of Us Didn't.

Why Is It That Two-thirds Of White, Rural Men Voted Republican? Why? That's What We Have To Address. That's Crazy. These People Are Working Longer And Longer Hours.

I Actually Think The Only Way That You Can Beat Trump Is Recognizing That He Is A One- Man Wrecking Machine Fueled By This Cult Personality. So You Have To Attack Him On Those Bases. None Of These Ideological Positioning Issues Matter For [donald] Trump.

Many People Can Talk For A Long Period Of Time. But Controlling, You Know, Your Urinary Tract Is Maybe The More Difficult Issue.

Obviously In The Next Few Months We Have Got To Do Everything That We Can To Make Sure That Donald Trump, Who In My View Is The Worst, Least-prepared Candidate For President In My Lifetime. Number Two, We've Got To Obviously Elect Hillary Clinton.

We Have Got To Mobilize People And Rethink Our Commitment In Terms Of What Our Role Is In The Political Process.

It's Time To Make Our Government Work For All Of Us... And Not Just The 1%.

Government Work

The Occupy Wall Street Protests Are Shining A National Spotlight On The Most Powerful, Dangerous And Secretive Economic And Political Force In America.

What I Believe Is That The United States Is Going To Be Playing On A Level Playing Field In Dealing With Israel And The Palestinian People. I Am 100 Percent Pro Israel In The Sense Of Israel's Right To Exist, I Lived In Israel, I Have Family In Israel, Israel Has The Right To Live Not Only In Peace And Security, But To Know That Their Very Existence Will Be Protected By The United States Government.

If There Is A Large Voter Turnout, Not Only Do We Retain The White House, But I Think We Regain The Senate. We Win Governors' Chairs Up And Down The Line. So I Believe If You Want To Retain The White House, If You Want To See Democrats Do Well Across The Board, I Think Our Campaign Is The One That Creates The Large Voter Turnout And Helps Us Win.

If You Look At Our Records, I Stood Up To Corporate America Time And Time Again. I Went To Mexico. I Saw The Lives Of People Who Were Working In American Factories And Making $0.25 An Hour.

It Is Not Good Enough To Say, "well, Hey, I Vote Every Two Years. I Vote Every Four Years." That's Fine, But That Is Not Good Enough.

Not Good Enough

I Am Very Glad, Anderson, That Secretary Clinton Discovered Religion On This Issue But It's A Little Bit Too Late. Secretary Clinton Supported Virtually Every One Of The Disastrous Trade Agreements Written By Corporate America.

I'm Interested In - In That His Power, If That Is The Word, Is Such That He Has Actually Been Able To Be In A Way A One-man Wrecking Crew In The Area Of Deportment And How One Proceeds Politically On The Stump. Marco Rubio Is - Is Attempting, As You Know, To A - To Give [donald] Trump A Fight In Trump's Own Style. I'm Not Sure How That Works, But - But Certainly The Indices Are Good.

You Can't Become A Billionaire Stepping Over Children Sleeping On The Street.

The Government Of Our Great Country Belongs To All Of The People And Not Just A Handful Of The Wealthy.

I Think, You Know, That Trump Has Been Incredibly Divisive. I Think He's Insulted Almost Every Group In America. I Think His Policies Are Outrageous. But In America, People Have A Right To Hold Rallies. So I Think My Own Feeling Is It Is Absolutely Appropriate For Thousands Of People To Protest At A Trump Rally, But I Am Not Great Fan Of Disrupting Rallies.

It Means Joining With Allies To Deploy Renewable Energy Technologies -- Both At Home And Around The World -- To Confront The Very Real And Present Danger Of Potentially Irreversible Climate Change.

The Democratic Party Has Been Very Strong In A Lot Of Areas, In Fighting To Make Our Country A Less Discriminatory Country. And That Is Enormously Important.

You Know, Let Me Be Very Clear. I Supported Barack Obama Originally.

We Are Moving In Exactly The Wrong Direction In Higher Education. Forty Years Ago, Tuition In Some Of The Great American Public Universities And Colleges Was Virtually Free. Today, The Cost Is Unaffordable For Many Working Class Families. Higher Education Must Be A Right For All - Not Just Wealthy Families.

Ever Since [donald]trump Has Been Opening His Big Mouth, You`re Seeing All These Bitter People, Latent Racists Who Are Becoming Emboldened. You`re Seeing Some Ugly Stuff Happening Around This Country.

Washington Is Dominated By Big Money.

I Don't Run Against Hillary Clinton. I Run On The Most Important Issues Facing America.

Should A Small Business Or A Large Business Be Able To Pollute The Water Or The Air Or The Food? No, I Hope You Don't Believe That.

Trickle Down Economics Is A Fraud. Giving Tax Breaks To The Rich And Large Corporations Does Not Create Jobs. It Simply Makes The Rich Richer, Enlarges The Deficit And Increases Income And Wealth Inequality. We Need Economic Policies Which Benefit Working Families, Not The Billionaire Class.

The Message Is Resonating, Not Just In Wisconsin, But All Over America, The People Are Sick And Tired Of Establishment Politics, Establishment Economics. They Want Real Change.

As President, I Will Fight To Make Tuition In Public Colleges And Universities Free, As Well As Substantially Lower Interest Rates On Student Loans.

I Think, When The African-american Community Understands My Record On Criminal Justice, My Record On Economics, The Agenda We're Bringing Forth, Raising The Minimum Wage To $15 An Hour, Dealing With The Fact That We Have More People In Jail, Shamefully, Than Any Other Country On Earth, That I Am Against The Death Penalty, Secretary Clinton Is Not, I Think, As People Become Familiar With My Ideas, We Are Going To Do Better And Better.

Being Jewish And Having Lost Relatives In The Holocaust, I've Always Been Aware Of The Meaning Of Prejudice. These Are Things That Have Remained With Me Throughout My Political Career.

You Want Your Kids To Have An Opportunity. We`re Going To Fight To Give You That.

As The Longest Serving Independent In The History Of The United States Congress, As Somebody Who Came Into Office By Defeating An Incumbent Democratic Mayor In Burlington, Vermont, I Know Something About Third Party Politics. And I Respect Jill [stein].

A Number Of Years Ago, People Were Saying Normal Relationship With Cuba, What A Bad And Silly Idea. They're Communists, They Are Our Enemy. Well Guess What? Change Has Come.

I Would Say That, You Know, Being Jewish, What Has Been Most Significant In My Life Is Understanding What A Hitler - What Horrible Politics Can Mean To People And I Think That's Been One Of The Motivating Factors In My Life In Fighting Against Racism And Bigotry Of All Kinds Because When It Gets Out Of Hand, As We Have Seen And We Are, You Know - It's Obviously Has Unbelievable Repercussions.

The Only Way Change Happens Is When People Become More Significantly Involved In The Political Process.

An America Where Every Person, No Matter Their Race, Their Disability Or Their Sexual Orientation Realizes The Full Promise Of Equality That Is Our Birthright As Americans.

Republicans Talk A Good Game About Veterans, But When It Came To Put Money On The Line To Protect Our Veterans, Frankly, They Were Not There.

I Am A Fierce Supporter Of Planned Parenthood, Naral, And Gay Rights In This Country.

In My View, A Corporation Is Not A Person. A Corporation Does Not Have First Amendment Rights To Spend As Much Money As It Wants, Without Disclosure, On A Political Campaign.

If You Look At Virtually All Of The Issues Of Importance To The People Of America - Issues Like Making Public Colleges And Universities Tuition-free - Hillary Clinton Is Now On Record For Doing That For People Making $125,000 A Year Or Less. You Know What? That Is Pretty Revolutionary. That Will Transform The Lives Of Millions Of Families In This Country. That's What Clinton Stands For.

People Understand That The Economy Is Rigged. They're Working Longer Hours For Low Wages. All New Income And Wealth, Almost All, Is Going To The People On Top.

In Vermont, Governor Madeleine Kunin Has Given Years Of Service To Our State After Becoming The State's First Female Governor In 1985. She Is An Inspiration To Girls Throughout Vermont And The Country In Allowing Them To Know That The Opportunities They Have Are Unlimited.

Now Is The Time To Alter Our Government. Now Is The Time To Stop The Movement Toward Oligarchy. Now Is The Time To Create A Government Which Represents All Americans And Not Just The 1%... No More Excuses. We Must All Become Involved In The Political Process.

I Think We Need To Take On The Greed Of The Billionaire Class, A Disastrous Campaign Finance System.

What Some Of Us Believe Is That It Is Possible That If Chemicals Are Related To Gulf War Illness That Some Of The More Severe Symptoms May Not Erupt Until 10 Or 20 Years Down The Line.

Families Are Struggling To Put Bread On The Table, Send Their Kids To College And Take Care Of Their Basic Needs. America Needs A Political Revolution.

I Am The Longest- Serving Independent In The History Of The United States Congress. People Of Vermont Sent Me To Washington As An Independent. That Is True.

The Billionaires And Their Super Pacs Increasingly Control The American Political Process. This Is Not Democracy. This Is Not What Brave Americans Fought And Died To Defend. This Is Oligarchy. This Is Government Of The Few, By The Few And For The Few. We Must Overturn Citizen United And Move To Public Funding Of Elections.

We Did Really, Really Badly With Older African-american Voters. I Mean We Got Decimated.

African American

American Voters

Countering Violent Extremism And Destroying Isis Must Be Done Primarily By Muslim Nations With The Strong Support Of Their Global Partners.

What You Don't See On Television Is People Dying Today Because They Can't Get To A Doctor And They Can't Afford Prescription Drugs. That's Why They Are Also Dying. They Are Dying In Iraq Because They Are Poor And They Have Gone Into The Military Because They Can't Afford To Go To College. They're Dying Because They're Living In Communities Where Asthma Rates Are Extremely High Because The Air Is Filthy. The Suffering Of The Poor And Working Class People Is A Virtual Nonissue For The Media. But That Is The Reality.

For Democrats To Win, They're Going To Have To Address The Needs Of Working People. They're Going To Have To Address The Needs Of The Middle Class. And That Means Standing Up To Wall Street, Standing Up To The Greed Of Corporate America. Even Now And Then, Standing Up To The Media. And That Means Having A Candidate Who Can Excite Working Families, Excite Young People, Bring Them Into The Political Process, Create A Large Voter Turnout.

We Are Looking At A Lot Of Dishonest News That Comes Across Where People Are Lying Outrageously About Other People. And I Hope That Folks On All Sides Could Say, "look, I Disagree With Him Or Her, But That Is An Outrageous Lie."

I Think, While It Is True That The Hillary Clinton And I Voted Differently On The War In Iraq, What Is Important Is That We Learn The Lesson Of The War In Iraq. And That Lesson Is Intrinsic To My Foreign Policy If Elected President, Is The United States Cannot Do It Alone. We Cannot Be The Policeman Of The World. We Are Now Spending More I Believe Than The Next Eight Countries On Defense. We Have Got To Work In Strong Coalition With The Major Powers Of The World And With Those Muslim Countries That Are Prepared To Stand Up And Take On Terrorism.

In And Out Of Government, I've Always Been Willing To Take On Complicated, Sometimes Unpopular, Issues And Work Them Through To Have A Solution.

I Believe In Public Funding Of Elections, Absolutely. But This System Iscurrently Very Antiquated And No Longer Applies To Modern Day Politics.

I Don't Represent Large Corporations And I Don't Want Their Money.

I Come From A State That Has Virtually No Gun Control. And Yet, At Political Peril, I Voted For An Instant Background Check, Which I Want To See Strengthened And Expanded. I Voted To Ban Certain Types Of Assault Weapons Which Are Designed Only To Kill People.

Assault Weapons

Instead Of Fighting Isis, (the Saudis) Have Focused More On A Campaign To Oust Iran-backed Houthi Rebels In Yemen.

Debating, Doubting, Or Rejecting The Basic Scientific Facts About Climate Change In The Face Of The Overwhelming Evidence And Overwhelming Scientific Opinion Will Not Change Those Facts.

I Think The Way For [marco] Rubio To Say To [donald] Trump Supporters, Hey, Essentially He's Conned You. He's A Con Man. That's What They Do. You Pour Gold People.my Goodness, That's Not The Way To Bring Them In.

I Want To Say Something, And It May Sound Harsh, Not To You, But To The American People. In A Sense, In My View, The Business Model Of Wall Street Is Fraud. It's Fraud. I Believe That Corruption Is Rampant, And The Fact That Major Bank After Major Bank Has Reached Multi Billion Dollar Settlements With The United States Government When We Have A Weak Regulator System Tells Me That Not Only Did We Have To Bail Them Out Once, If We Don't Start Breaking Them Up, We're Going To Have To Bail Them Out Again, And I Do Not Want To See That Happen.

After All, Wall Street Is Clearly The Most Powerful Lobbying Force On Capitol Hill. From 1998 Through 2008, The Financial Sector Spent Over $5 Billion In Lobbying And Campaign Contributions To Deregulate Wall Street.

I'm Not Much Into Speculation.

I Think In Terms Of Who Can Be Trusted, I Think The Evidence Is Clear That There Has Been No Candidate That I Have Ever Seen Who Lies More Often Than Does Donald Trump. I Mean And That's Just Not Me Saying It, That's What Any Independent Media Analysis Has Shown. So In Terms Of Trust, You Really Can't Trust A Word, I Think, That Mr. Trump Has To Say.

You Have A Right To Protest. But I Don't Quite Understand Why Anybody Thinks It's A Good Idea To Deny Somebody Else The Right To Express His Or Her Point Of View.

The Middle Class In America Is At A Tipping Point. It Will Not Last Another Generation If We Don't Boldly Change Course Now.

I Fear Very Much For Our Kids, For Low Income People And For Seniors.

I Move That Hillary Clinton Be Selected As The Nominee Of The Democratic Party For President Of The United States.

The Only Way Change Happens Is When People Become More Significantly Involved In The Political Process. We Have To Increase Voter Turnout And Citizen Participation So That People Know What's Going On And Demand A Government That Works For Everybody And Not Just The One Percent.

I Think - You Know, I Can't Speak For 13 Million People, But I Think Most Of My Supporters Understand Trump Has Got To Be Defeated. We Need To Elect As Many Progressives As Possible. And We Need To Continue The Fight To Create An Agenda Which Works For Working Families And Not Just For Wealthy Campaign Contributors.

The Truth Is We Have A Political System And An Economic System Controlled By A Few Extremely Wealthy People. Not Barack Obama, Not Bernie Sanders, No One Person Has The Influence By Himself Or Herself To Take On This Enormous Array Of Power Unless Millions Of People Begin To Work Together To Demand Changes.

Obviously One Would Hope One Would Have As Much Support As Possible From All Walks Of Life, I Am A Great Fan Of Elizabeth And As For What People Do And Why They Don't Do It, I Am Not Going To Speculate.

We Do Not Need To Have A President Who Insults Mexicans And Latinos And Muslims And Women And Veterans And African-americans, We Need A President Who Brings Us Together, Not Divides Us Up.

We Are Going To Do Everything That We Can To Protect Working Families In This Country.

Let Us Wage A Moral And Political War Against The Billionaires And Corporate Leaders, On Wall Street And Elsewhere, Whose Policies And Greed Are Destroying The Middle Class Of America.

Israel Has An Absolute Right To Exist - Not Only To Exist - But To Exist In A Way That They're Not Under Threat Of Terrorism.

I Think The Democratic Party Has Got To Make Fundamental Choices.

I Would Love To Have The Endorsement Of Every Progressive Organization In America. We're Very Proud To Have Received Recently The Endorsement Of Moveon.org. We've Received The Endorsement Democracy For America. These Are Grassroots Organizations Representing Millions Of Workers.

What We Are Doing In This Campaign [2016], It Just Blows My Mind Every Day Because I See It Clearly, We're Taking On Not Only Wall Street And Economic Establishment, We're Taking On The Political Establishment.

It Is A Dictatorship. They Did Have A Good Health - Do Have A Decent Health Care System And A Decent Educational System. A Lot Of People Have Left Cuba For Better Dreams, To Fulfill Their Aspirations.

Most Republicans Are Not Prepared To Stand Up To The Fossil Fuel Industry Because They Get A Lot Of Their Campaign Funds From The Koch Brothers And Other People In The Fossil Fuel Industry. That Tells Me Why We Have To Reform Our Campaign Finance System.

Campaign Finance

Approximately 82% Of The American People Believe Labeling Should Take Place With Regard To Genetically Engineered Ingredients. All Over This Country People Are Increasingly Concerned About The Quality Of The Food They Are Ingesting And The Food They Are Giving To Their Kids. People Want To Know What Is In Their Food, And I Believe That Is A Very Reasonable Request.

In Any Democratic, Civilized - Even Non-democratic Nations, If You Are A Nation, It Means To Say That In Our Case, If There's A Hurricane In Louisiana, The People Of Vermont Are There For Them. If There's A Tornado In The Midwest, We Are There For Them. If There's Flooding In The East Coast, The People In California Are There For Us.

If You Want To Talk Further About A Relationship With Russia, Look No Further Than The Clintons. As We've Said Time And Time Again, Bill Clinton Was Paid Half A Million Dollars To Give A Speech To A Russian Bank, And Was Personally Thanked By Putin For It. Hillary Clinton Allowed One-fifth Of America's Uranium To - Reserve To Be Sold To A Russian Firm Whose Investors Were Clinton Foundation Donors. And The Clinton Campaign Chairman's Brother Lobbied Against Sanctions On Russia's Largest Bank And Failed To Report It. If You Want To Talk About Having Relations, Look No Further Than There.

I Know A Great Country That Needs To Be Rebuilt In Terms Of Roads, Bridges, Schools. That Is Called The United States Of America.

The Votes Elected Officials Make Should Be Based On The Best Interests Of The American People, Not The Fear Of Retribution When Shadowy Groups Spend Millions Of Dollars On Negative Advertisements.

The Fed Has Got To Become A More Democratic Institution That Is Responsive To The Needs Of The Middle Class, Not Just Wall Street Ceos.

I Have Supported Candidates Whose Views Are Very Different Than Mine On The Need The Break Up Wall Street Banks, On The War In Iraq, On Trade Issues. Of Course I Have Supported Those People. My Hope Is That We're Going To See - And I Believe It Is The Case - We're Going To See More And More Strong Progressives Running For Office. That's My Hope. That's My Desire. But That Is Up To - That Decision Is Going To Be Made By People In 50 States And 435 Congressional Districts.

If You Can't Afford To Take Care Of Your #‎ Veterans , Then Don't Go To War.

Now, Why Would My Supporters Be Supporting Somebody Who Doesn't Want To Raise The Federal Minimum Wage Of $7.25 An Hour, A Starvation Wage, Doesn't Want To Do That. Why Would Anybody That Supports Me Support A Candidate Like Trump Who Wants To Throw Millions And Millions Of People Off Of Health Insurance? We Need To Guarantee Health Care To All People As A Right, Not Throw Millions Of People Off Health Insurance As Trump Wants To Do.

I Happen To Believe That One Of The Great Crises Facing The Planet Is Climate Change. Donald Trump Happens Not To Think That Climate Change Is Real. Hillary Clinton Takes It Seriously.

I Have Spent The Better Part Of My Adult Life Standing Up And Fighting For Working Families.

My Path To Victory Is To Talk About The Issues That Impact The Lives Of Millions Of Americans.

This Is A War For The Soul Of Islam. And Those Countries Who Are Opposed To Islam, They Are Going To Have To Get Deeply Involved In A Way That Is Not The Case Today. We Should Be Supportive Of That Effort.

I'm A United States Senator, And I Have A Responsibility To The People Of My State - Also To The People Of This Country.

What We Need To Do Is To Stand Up To The Big Money Interests, And The Campaign Contributors. When We Do That, We Can, In Fact, Transform America.

The Light Bulb Going Off In My Head Was A Fear That In This Pivotal Moment In History, When America Faces So Many Serious Problems, When The Middle Class And Working Class Of This Country Are Being Decimated, That There Were Not Voices Out There Representing The Tens Of Millions Of People Who Needed A Voice. And The Idea Of Going Through A Campaign Where There Is Not A Serious Discussion About The Most Important Issues Facing America, Where There Are Not Voices Out There Representing People Who Are Hurting - That Seemed To Me Unacceptable.

Here's Something That I Believe We Have To Do As We Put Together An International Coalition, And That Is We Have To Understand That The Muslim Nations In The Region - Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Jordan - All Of These Nations, They're Going To Have To Get Their Hands Dirty, Their Boots On The Ground. They Are Going To Have To Take On Isis.

We Don`t Need To Drive Up The National Debt By Giving Tax Breaks To Millionaires And Billionaires.

I Think People Cast Their Votes For A Number Of Reasons. I Think If You Look At Your Polls, You'll Probably Find That Many, Many People Think That Our Views Are Closer To What They Believe The Future Of America Should Be. That Our Views Are Closer On Economic Issues. And A Lot Of Those Polls Come Down To Demographics, To Age, To How Much Money You Are Making.

All That I Can Say Is That We Are Spending Far More Per Capita Than People In Any Other Country, And Our Health Care Outcomes Are In Many Cases Worse In Terms Of Life Expectancy, Infant Mortality And So Forth.

At The End Of The Day, If Millions Of People Come Together And Say, We Are Not Going To Be A Xenophobic Society, We Are Not Going To Be Throwing Millions Of Latinos Out Of This Country, We Are Not Going To Be A Racist Society, We're Not Going To Be A Sexist Society, We Will Prevail.

The End Of The Day

In Fact, Climate Change Is Directly Related To The Growth Of Terrorism.

We Had The Opposition Of Virtually The Entire Democratic Leadership In Every State In This Country.

At A Young Age, I Became Very Aware That Not Only Did My Family Have To Struggle But That Families Around The Country Were Struggling As Well. Also, Being Jewish And Having Lost Relatives In The Holocaust, I've Always Been Aware Of The Meaning Of Prejudice. These Are Things That Have Remained With Me Throughout My Political Career.

I Happen To Believe That Certain Types Of Assault Weapons, Which Are Manufactured And Designed For Military Purposes To Kill People Very Quickly Should Not Be Used In Civilian Society.

Assault Weapons

The Case To Be Made Is That We Have Got To Get People Involved - Continue To Get People Involved In The Political Process At Every Level.

There's Issue Of A Corrupt Campaign Finance System, Where Big Money Interests And Wall Street Are Trying To Buy Elections.those Are The Issues That Are Resonating.

This Is What I Would Ask Of The American People, And That Is, And The Media Does Not Do This Terribly Often - Put Things In Contact.

If You Ask Me About My Views On The Environment, On Women's Rights, On Gay Rights, I Am Liberal. I Don't Have A Problem With That At All. Some Of My Best Friends Are Liberal.

Not Only Did I Vote Against That War, I Helped Lead The Opposition, And If You Go To My Website, Berniesanders.com, You Will See The Statement That I Made In 2002. And It Gives Me No Pleasure To Tell You That Much Of What I Feared Would Happen The Day After Saddam Hussein Was Overthrown, In Fact, Did Happen.

Every Three Weeks Before An Election The Tv Ads Expressing Great Concern About Our Trade Policy And The Loss Of Jobs To China And Other Low-wage Countries. And Then It's Forgotten About The Day After The Election.

As A Nation, There Are Many Issues We Don`t Talk About, We Just Don`t Talk About, Push Them Under The Rug. Poverty Is One Of Those Issues.

One Of The Ongoing Crises In America Is Institutional Racism. We Have A Very Broken Criminal Justice System. We Live In A Country Where There Are More People In Jail Than Any Other Country On Earth. There Are Some 2.2 Million People Currently Incarcerated And They Are Disproportionally African American And Hispanic. Unarmed African Americans Have Been Abused And Sometimes Killed While In Police Custody. Clearly These Are Issues That Must Be Dealt With And Changed.

For Some Reason, We Can't Go To Cuba, Businesses In American Can't Do Business In Cuba. I Think That That Is Stupid. So I Hope Very Much And Applaud The President For His Efforts In That Direction And Hope That In The Not-too-distant Future, That If I Have Anything To Say About It As President, We Will Work Aggressively To Develop Normal Relations In Every Respect With The People Of Cuba.

I Worry Very Much About Kids Growing Up In A Society Where They Think: "i'm Not Going To Talk About This Issue, Read This Book Or Explore This Idea Because Someone May Think I'm A Terrorist." That's Not The Kind Of Free Society I Want For Our Children.

Hillary Clinton And I Have Worked Together On A Higher Education Proposal Which Will Guarantee Free Tuition In Public Colleges And Universities For Every Family In This Country Making $125,000 A Year Or Less. We're Going To Fight For Paid Family And Medical Leave. Those Are The Issues That The American People Want To Hear Discussed, And I'm Going To Go Around The Country Discussing Them And Making Sure That Hillary Clinton Is Elected President.

The Cost Of Prescription Drugs In This Country Is Far, Far Higher Than In Any Other Country. You May Recall That Donald Trump As A Candidate For President Talked About How He Was Going To Take On The Pharmaceutical Industry And It Was Going To Lower Prescription Drug Costs.

The Last Point That I'd Make. I Had A Hearing. I Had All Of The Veterans Groups In Front Of Me. And I Said To Them, Tell Me When A Veteran Gets In To The V.a., Understanding There Are Waiting Lines And Real Problems, When A Veteran Gets Into The System, Is The Quality Of Care Good?

Democrats Need To Become A 50-state Party. You Can't Have A Great Party On The West Coast And The East Coast. You Need To Have A Party In All 50 States.

I Think, With Trump, The Major Point Is This Guy Has Business Enterprises All Over The World. And You're Looking Just At Immense, Immense Conflict Of Interest.

The Next Time You Do A Filibuster, Keep Walking Around.

You Cannot Be A Party Which Takes Money From Wall Street, Which Is Not Strong On The Pharmaceutical Industry, Which Is Ripping Us Off Every Day, Which Is Not Strong On Health Care In Taking On The Insurance Companies, Which Has Not Shown A Desire To Stand Up And Fight The Economic Establishment, And Then Tell Working Families That You Are On Their Side. People See Through That.

I Fully, Fully Concede That Secretary Hillary Clinton, Who Was Secretary Of State For Four Years, Has More Experience - Hat Is Not Arguable - In Foreign Affairs.

I Do Not Believe That We Must Maintain A Bloated Military Budget Which Spends Almost As Much As The Rest Of The World Combined And May Lead Us To Perpetual Warfare In The Middle East.

Wish We Could, And Allow The Taliban Or Anybody Else To Reclaim That Country. But What We Must Do Is Some Progress In Iraq, Where Finally The Iraqi Army, Which Has Not Been A Particularly Effective Fighting Force, Retook Ramadi.

You've Got The Top 400 Americans Owning More Wealth Than The Bottom 150 Million Americans. Most Folks Do Not Think That Is Right.

I Think We Should Look To Countries Like Denmark, Like Sweden And Norway, And Learn From What They Have Accomplished For Their Working People.

As A Single-payer Advocate, I Believe That At The End Of The Day, If A State Goes Forward And Passed An Effective Single-payer Program, It Will Demonstrate That You Can Provide Quality Health Care To Every Man, Woman And Child In A More Cost-effective Way.

When You Have Kids That Have No Jobs And Are Not In School, Too Often They Get Themselves Into Trouble. So What We Have Got To Do Is Invest In Education And In Jobs, Something Which I Have Fought For, Rather Than More Jails And Incarceration.

It Is Beyond My Comprehension Why Today In America, Hundreds Of Thousands Of Bright Young People Are Unable To Go To College - For One Reason: That Their Family Lacks The Funding. And Together We Are Going To Change That.

The Struggle To Create A Nation And World Of Economic And Social Justice And Environmental Sanity Is Not An Easy One. The Struggle To Try And Create A More Peaceful World Will Be Extremely Difficult. But This I Know: Despair Is Not An Option If We Care About Our Kids And Grandchildren. Giving Up Is Not An Option If We Want To Prevent Irreparable Harm To Our Planet.

I Have One Of The Strongest Records In Fighting For Senior Citizens. I Led The Effort To Prevent Cuts To Social Security. But I Think For Some Seniors, They Remember The "evil Empire" Of The Soviet Union. They Conflated The Term "democratic Socialism" With Communism.

The Police Killings Of Unarmed African Americans Has Got To Stop.

African American

There Is Something Fundamentally Wrong About The Way We [americans] Are Moving As A Country, When Billionaires Are Able To Buy Elections As A Result Of Citizens United. There`s Something Fundamentally Wrong When 99 Percent Of All New Income Goes To The Top 1 Percent.

Two-thirds Of The Directors At The New York Fed Are Hand-picked By The Same Bankers That The Fed Is In Charge Of Regulating.

Prescription Drug Prices Are Skyrocketing And One-third Of All Seniors Depend On Social Security For At Least 90% Of Their Income.

Sometimes The Media Says, Well, This State Had An Election, It's The End Of The Campaign. It Is Not. We Have Dozens Of More States To Go. We're Feeling Good About The Future.

How Do We Say, Why Do You Keep Voting For People Who Are Giving More Tax Breaks To Billionaires, Who Are Going To Send Your Jobs Abroad, Not Going To Let You Form A Union, Not Going To Allow Your Kids To Go To College? Why Do You Keep Voting For These Guys?

The United States Has Got To Join The Rest Of The Industrialized World In Making Sure That Working Families Of The Middle Class Have Benefits That They Absolutely Need. We Are The Only Major Country On Earth That Does Not Guarantee Health Care To All People As A Right. We Are The Only Major Country On Earth That Does Not Provide Paid Family And Medical Leave. There Are Many Countries Around The World Which Make Sure That Public Colleges And Universities Are Tuition-free. In Our Country, It's Becoming Increasingly Difficult To Afford To Go To College.

I Think It Is Important That Independent Government Agencies Be Put In Charge Of Investigating Misconduct So That Police Departments Are No Longer Allowed To Police Themselves. There Is A Conflict Of Interest There Which, I Believe, Allows Police To Excuse Their Own Behavior.

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