In a surprisingly tough series of interviews on all three network morning shows on Wednesday, Bernie Sanders was grilled over his endorsement of Hillary Clinton. The hosts suggested he was simply supporting the “lesser of two evils” in the campaign and fretted that the socialist senator was “capitulating” his left-wing “values.”
On NBC’s Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie pressed: “Senator Sanders, let's be blunt about it. Is this an enthusiastic endorsement of Hillary Clinton or is this more about you saying Donald Trump really ought not to be president? In your mind, is this really a choice between the lesser of two evils?”
Moments later, Guthrie actually brought up Clinton’s e-mail scandal and wondered if it gave him “pause” in voicing support for the Democratic candidate:
Last week, the FBI director came out and said that Hillary Clinton was extremely careless with highly sensitive e-mail information. That in fact many of the explanation she’s given about her e-mail practices, turned out to be not true. Did any of that from Director Comey give you pause before you endorsed her? And if not, why not?
Sanders tried to dodge the question: “Well, look, Hillary Clinton is not a perfect human being, Bernie Sanders is not a perfect human being.... it’s not Donald Trump as a person, not Hillary Clinton as a person.” Guthrie interrupted: “But that's not a personal – that’s not a personal issue.”
On ABC’s Good Morning America, co-host George Stephanopoulos began the exchange by worrying that Sanders had “betrayed” his supporters: “...a lot of your supporters still pretty upset. Some Facebook posts. ‘You broke my heart and betrayed the left, Senator Sanders.’ That’s from Cesar Diaz. Jessica Boyer, ‘You chose her over us.’ What do you say to your supporters who feel betrayed?”
In part, Sanders replied: “What I say is absolutely imperative for the future of this country that Donald Trump not be elected president of the United States.” Stephanopoulos remarked: “So it's about the lesser of two evils?” Sanders denied the charge: “No, it's not about the lesser of two evils.”
CBS This Morning didn’t refer to Clinton as “evil,” but co-host Norah O’Donnell did demand: “You have made attacking Wall Street a pillar of your presidential campaign. Are you now capitulating some of your values by endorsing Hillary Clinton?” Later, she asked: “If I'm a Bernie Sanders supporter, raised money for you, campaigned for you, I want to know from Bernie Sanders, what did you extract from Hillary Clinton? What promises did you extract from her?”
Fellow co-host Charlie Rose wondered: “Do you believe you have pulled her to the left?” Sanders declared: “I think when you get 13 million votes, which is what we got, when you win 22 states, when young people all over this country are demanding real change, Secretary Clinton and her team are smart enough to understand that they have got to go where the action is...”
Here are excerpts of the three July 13 interviews:
Today
7:09 AM ET(...)
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Senator Sanders, let's be blunt about it. Is this an enthusiastic endorsement of Hillary Clinton or is this more about you saying Donald Trump really ought not to be president? In your mind, is this really a choice between the lesser of two evils?
BERNIE SANDERS: No, this is a choice about making sure that the middle class of this country, which has been in decline for 40 years, gets rebuilt.
MATT LAUER: So it’s sounding like you’re firmly on Hillary Clinton’s team. In your speech yesterday, you said you intend to do everything you can to make sure she is the next President of the United States. What exactly does that mean? Are you two going to campaign side by side? Will you speak at the convention?
SANDERS: Well, I suspect that I will speak at the convention and I suspect that I will be running all over this country. Look, I think the election of Donald Trump as president will be a disaster for this country. This is a man who does not have the, in my view, temperament to be President of the United States. I don't think the people of this country want to see somebody proposing hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks for the richest two-tenths of 1% while you cut back on programs for working families. That is not what this country needs. So –
GUTHRIE: Senator –
SANDERS: Yeah.
GUTHRIE: Sorry to interrupt. Last week, the FBI director came out and said that Hillary Clinton was extremely careless with highly sensitive e-mail information. That in fact many of the explanation she’s given about her e-mail practices, turned out to be not true. Did any of that from Director Comey give you pause before you endorsed her? And if not, why not?
SANDERS: Well, look, Hillary Clinton is not a perfect human being, Bernie Sanders is not a perfect human being. And you know, that’s the way life is. But I think what we have to focus on is not – and this is what I said yesterday in my remarks – it’s not Donald Trump as a person, not Hillary Clinton as a person. It is the needs – let me finish –
GUTHRIE: But that's not a personal – that’s not a personal issue.
SANDERS: It is the needs of the middle class and working families. Which candidate is going to do more for ordinary Americans? And I think the answer to that is very, very clear. If you’re talking about creating jobs and rebuilding our infrastructure, expanding health care, making college affordable for all people, I think that, that is Hillary Clinton's agenda.
(...)
CBS This Morning
8:03 AM ET(...)
NORAH O’DONNELL: You have made attacking Wall Street a pillar of your presidential campaign. Are you now capitulating some of your values by endorsing Hillary Clinton?
BERNIE SANDERS: No, I'm standing up for working families in the middle class and saying that Donald Trump would be a disaster for the future of this country. What this campaign is about is taking a hard look at which candidate is gonna do more for ordinary Americans. And I think that choice is very, very clear. We have worked with Secretary Clinton's campaign. She's talking now about making public colleges and universities tuition free for all families under $125,000. She is talking about expanding health care while Donald Trump wants to throw 20 million people off of the health insurance they now have and cut Medicaid. Donald Trump does not accept science, thinks that climate change is a hoax. Hillary Clinton wants to rebuild our sustainable energy system and move away from fossil fuels. The differences between the two candidates are very, very clear. Clinton is by far the superior candidate for the middle class to my mind.
(...)
O’DONNELL: If I'm a Bernie Sanders supporter, raised money for you, campaigned for you, I want to know from Bernie Sanders, what did you extract from Hillary Clinton? What promises did you extract from her?
SANDERS: It's not a question of extracting. It's a question of working with the Clinton campaign. Let me give you two –
O’DONNELL: What did she promise that she would do that got your endorsement?
SANDERS: Let me give you two examples. What she has recently proposed – as you may know, it was a working between the campaigns – is to say anybody 55 years of age or older can opt in to Medicare. That's a big deal. That people all over this country will have a public option in the health care exchange, which likely will be a lot less expensive than the private insurance options they now have. And a massive expansion of community health centers all over this country so that people can walk in the door and get the health care, the dental care, the low-cost prescription drugs, the mental health counseling that they need. That is an amazing step forward in terms of expanding health care.
(...)
Good Morning America
7:06 AM ET(...)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's talk to Senator Sanders about that right now. Senator Sanders, thanks for joining us this morning. We saw that hug of Hillary Clinton yesterday. But, boy, Cecilia was suggesting a lot of your supporters still pretty upset. Some Facebook posts. “You broke my heart and betrayed the left, Senator Sanders.” That’s from Cesar Diaz. Jessica Boyer, “You chose her over us.” What do you say to your supporters who feel betrayed?
BERNIE SANDERS: What I say is absolutely imperative for the future of this country that Donald Trump not be elected president of the United States. And what I say in a time when this country has enormous crises, we do not and cannot have a man with Trump's temperament, with the nuclear code and running this country.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So it's about the lesser of two evils?
SANDERS: No, it's not about the lesser of two evils. If you look at issue by issue, we have Hillary Clinton who wants to significantly raise the minimum wage because we have got millions of workers in this country working at starvation wages. Donald Trump wants to allow states to have the right to do away with the concept of the minimum wage. People could be working for five bucks an hour. Hillary Clinton wants to expand health care. Hillary Clinton wants to make public colleges and universities' tuition-free for all families in country making $125,000 or less. Trump wants to end the Affordable Care Act and throw 20 million people off of health insurance. Trump does not even believe what the entire scientific community is telling us about climate change and the need to transform our energy system.
(...)
