On Wednesday afternoon, shortly after socialist Senator Bernie Sanders announced he would be dropping out of the 2020 presidential race, MSNBC’s Chuck Todd hoped that the far-left lawmaker’s radical “vision” would live on and even be implemented in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I do want to get at the policy legacy here....the Bernie Sanders ideas, the Bernie Sanders proposals, may be meeting their moment at a time when there is an appetite for government to be more involved,” Todd proclaimed early in the 1:00 p.m. ET hour. He then turned to Capitol Hill correspondent Kasie Hunt and wondered: “Do you imagine his ideas become more talked about on Capitol Hill, at least and does he play that role? Or is it somebody else? Is it AOC or is it other people that carry the baton?”
Hunt responded: “I think he’s definitely going to have a role to play. I do think a lot of the younger supporters have really looked to Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez as potentially the future of the movement.”
She also seemed to gloat over Republicans supporting emergency government relief efforts:
I mean, we’re all now old enough to remember when Republicans were talking about how Democrats were going to nominate a socialist. That was before a Republican president signed a $2.2 trillion rescue package that really amounts to the government trying to take on a role it’s never had to do before....who would have thought that Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans would have been spearheading the kind of bill that they passed just a week or so ago.
Todd concluded: “I just have a feeling you and I are going to have a conversation in a couple of years and say, boy, you had Bernie Sanders trumpeting a lot of ideas. The pandemic hits and suddenly the Bernie Sanders vision suddenly became an answer for a lot of Americans.”
Even when liberal politicians lose in a campaign, the media try to find ways to still declare them the winner – even if it means exploiting a global health crisis.
Here is a transcript of the April 8 exchange:
1:03 PM ET
(...)
CHUCK TODD: Look, I do want to get at the policy legacy here. Because, you know, Kasie, we are at a moment where I think more Americans are going to be looking to government for answers than at any other time before. Whether it’s because they’re filing for unemployment or they’re a small business owner. As we unpack the issue of working class people, people of color being impacted even harder by this virus because of harder access to health care. The Bernie – the Bernie Sanders ideas, the Bernie Sanders proposals, may be meeting their moment at a time when there is an appetite for government to be more involved. And yet, Bernie Sanders, the legislator, has never been an aggressive guy. Do you imagine his ideas become more talked about on Capitol Hill, at least and does he play that role? Or is it somebody else? Is it AOC or is it other people that carry the baton?
KASIE HUNT: I think he’s definitely going to have a role to play. I do think a lot of the younger supporters have really looked to Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez as potentially the future of the movement. But I think your underlying point is absolutely correct. I mean, we’re all now old enough to remember when Republicans were talking about how Democrats were going to nominate a socialist. That was before a Republican president signed a $2.2 trillion rescue package that really amounts to the government trying to take on a role it’s never had to do before.
And the events, we’re right in the middle of it, it’s hard to grapple how it’s going to fundamentally change things going forward. But when you have millions of people potentially losing employer-sponsored health insurance, our safety net programs, Medicare, Medicaid, are going to be needed by more people than ever before, I don’t see how our national conversation doesn’t change dramatically in some way.
I think we’ve already seen, you know, who would have thought that Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans would have been spearheading the kind of bill that they passed just a week or so ago. And you know, I feel like we’re still only at the beginning of the policy portion of this, Chuck. And I also feel like we’re still really –
TODD: I do too, yeah.
HUNT: We’re all just hoping that Congress has tools to try and address some of this. Because I think we may be getting to the point where there’s questions about whether they’re even able to make the difference that they want to be able to make.
TODD: Kasie, I just have a feeling you and I are going to have a conversation in a couple of years and say, boy, you had Bernie Sanders trumpeting a lot of ideas. The pandemic hits and suddenly the Bernie Sanders vision suddenly became an answer for a lot of Americans. It’s just going to be fascinating to watch, whether it’s paid leave, whether it’s the student loan – the student debt issue, whether it’s Medicare for All. Enlarging the social safety net might be one of the biggest impacts of this virus going forward and Bernie Sanders is the guy laying out half of these ideas. Anyway, Kasie Hunt, thank you.
