▶️ Full interview: Sen. Bernie Sanders on "Face the Nation''
Feb 19, 2023
Watch the full version of an interview with Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont that aired on Feb. 19, 2023, on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.
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of the American people's understanding of who and what Democrats are, to our detriment. Sanders claims what Democratic achievements he wishes people to attribute to him as his own, but that requires misrepresenting his fellow Democrats -- not just taking credit away from Democrats but denying what they believe in.
As a mostly self-exiled single "independent" in a body that only achieves through majority teamwork and consensus, Sanders owes whatever opportunity he's had to make a legislative difference over his 30 years in congress to the reality that he's spent them voting for the decisions of our liberal Democratic caucuses.
Think what it means that his entire time in congress he's been voting virtually entirely for legislation decided on, written, negotiated and passed by the liberal Democratic caucus leaders and other members who have their own beliefs, their own goals.
His constant criticism outside congress actually is pretty representative of his "how NOT to win friends and influence colleagues" behavior in congress. And his sitting alone a huge clue to how much influence he has over his colleagues. He did not change the ideology or goals of his Democratic colleagues, and he certainly did not make them more representative of the people who chose them, not someone like him.
People listening to his complaints probably wouldn't suspect going along with the Democratic caucus changed him and made him more liberal ideologically either. And I think it hasn't at all.
BUT, what is provably completely true is that the work of his liberal Democratic colleagues has become Bernie Sanders' legacy too. He's voted reliably for their work throughout his career. His claims about "their" lack of principle and corruption, and so on, don't change that in the slightest. In legislative effect, he IS them.
"I am not now, nor have I ever been a liberal Democrat." Ideologically true, but...
He says people vote for Republicans because the Democratic Party ignores the working/middle class and there is no evidence of this. 