During an exclusive interview with Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Friday’s Today show, co-host Savannah Guthrie actually worried that the self-avowed socialist was “too far left to win a general election.” While she never actually pressed him on the specifics of some of his radical policy proposals, the NBC anchor did channel Democratic Party fears over Sanders being their 2020 nominee.
“Democrats above all things, if you talk to them, if you look at polls, they put electability at the top of the list. They want to win. They want to beat Trump,” Guthrie declared. She then asked: “What do you say to those who are worried that your message is too progressive, too far left to win a general election?”
After Sanders tried to dismiss the concerns, Guthrie followed up by pointing out the failure of many left-wing candidates in the 2018 midterms:
Can I just ask you, if you look at 2018, our most recent national elections, the midterms, the candidates you endorsed, I believe of all the competitive districts that could have gone red to blue, only one of them flipped. Democrats got the House back, but they did it by running more centrist campaigns and they flipped districts. I mean, so a lot of Democrats are saying maybe that’s the way to win.
Sanders bristled at the question and argued “it’s more complicated than that.”
Before pressing Sanders about his ideology being out of the mainstream, Guthrie also repeatedly questioned whether the Senator’s health and age could be a issue:
Let’s talk about you in general. Since we last saw each other, I believe you’ve had a heart attack. You’ve kept up a very vigorous campaign schedule after that. Since October, you’ve released three letters from your medical doctors talking about your medical condition. But for Democrats who are looking at this race and sizing it up, what do you say to those who feel like it’s a little risky to nominate a 78-year-old man who had a heart attack a few months ago?
When Sanders attempted to change the subject by talking about his campaign, Guthrie called him out: “And that speaks to your experience and there can be a debate about that, but the question was about your health. What about if somebody’s worried about someone of your age, forgive me, who just had a heart attack?”
The interview began with a softball about Iran:
Last night, for the first time, the President revealed what he says was the justification for the attack on General Soleimani. He said intelligence shows that multiple embassies overseas were being targeted by Soleimani. Do you believe him? Do you believe that intelligence?
Predictably, Sanders said he didn’t believe the President and ranted that Trump was “a pathological liar.”
On Thursday, Guthrie grilled Vice President Mike Pence about the killing of Iranian terrorist Qasem Soleimani and fretted that the rogue regime was “even more hungry for revenge now.”
It’s refreshing to see a journalist hold Sanders accountable for his far-left views, but it would have been nice if Guthrie could have listed some of the extreme ideas the Senator has been pushing for on the campaign trail.
Here are Guthrie’s questions to Sanders during the January 10 exchange:
7:40 AM ET
(...)
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Let’s talk about the news. Last night, for the first time, the President revealed what he says was the justification for the attack on General Soleimani. He said intelligence shows that multiple embassies overseas were being targeted by Soleimani. Do you believe him? Do you believe that intelligence?
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: No. I sat in an intelligence briefing, classified briefing, the day before, where we had all of the top-ranking intelligence people, military people. And not one word of that was mentioned.
(...)
GUTHRIE: Is it possible that it could be true but you wouldn’t have heard about it there?
SANDERS: Look, the difficulty that we have, and I don’t mean to be rude here, is we have a president who is a pathological liar.
(...)
GUTHRIE: You’ve said this week that you did not support the killing of General Soleimani.
SANDERS: Right.
GUTHRIE: Ultimately, what’s happened so far is Iran did respond. However, it was rather subdued in that there was not any loss of life. Did that work out better than you anticipated? Do you give credit to Trump for that at all?
(...)
GUTHRIE: Iran – the President said Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. Obviously, you’ve said, everyone says, in fact, that diplomacy is the best course there. But if you were president, could you live with a nuclear Iran or would you be willing to use military force to stop it?
SANDERS: Well, you know, we had a process in place, working with our allies, which prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
GUTHRIE: But the situation as it is now? Let’s say you’re the president tomorrow.
(...)
GUTHRIE: Real quickly, could you – would you be willing to live with a nuclear Iran?
SANDERS: Well, we do not want – let’s be very clear – we do not want Iran to have nuclear weapons.
GUTHRIE: Let’s talk about impeachment. As you know, the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been holding up the Articles of Impeachment, hoping to get some leverage and negotiate about what the process in the Senate is. What’s your feeling on that? You’re going to be a juror in the trial. Do you think she should move on with it?
(...)
SANDERS: It is astounding to me that we have Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, trying to prevent witnesses, some of whom want to testify, from being present in the trial.
GUTHRIE: I think their position is we’ll turn to that later. Do you think she needs to send them over and just get the process started?
(...)
GUTHRIE: Would you like her to send them over quickly?
(...)
GUTHRIE: Let’s talk about you in general. Since we last saw each other, I believe you’ve had a heart attack. You’ve kept up a very vigorous campaign schedule after that. Since October, you’ve released three letters from your medical doctors talking about your medical condition. But for Democrats who are looking at this race and sizing it up, what do you say to those who feel like it’s a little risky to nominate a 78-year-old man who had a heart attack a few months ago?
(...)
GUTHRIE: And that speaks to your experience and there can be a debate about that, but the question was about your health. What about if somebody’s worried about someone of your age, forgive me, who just had a heart attack?
(...)
GUTHRIE: Democrats above all things, if you talk to them, if you look at polls, they put electability at the top of the list. They want to win. They want to beat Trump. What do you say to those who are worried that your message is too progressive, too far left to win a general election?
(...)
GUTHRIE: Can I just ask you, if you look at 2018, our most recent national elections, the midterms, the candidates you endorsed, I believe of all the competitive districts that could have gone red to blue, only one of them flipped. Democrats got the House back, but they did it by running more centrist campaigns and they flipped districts. I mean, so a lot of Democrats are saying maybe that’s the way to win.
(...)
