Bernie Sanders 1-on-1: Why Vermont Sen. donated $1M to El-Sayed

You know, this is, of course, the big time for Decision Day, and our newsroom behind us has been working nonstop as we lead up to this critical election. We're talking about 11 days until it's time for everyone to go cast their votes. As we say, early voting in person does begin very soon, and so the stakes are high. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed versus Mike Rogers and that battle line, those lines have been drawn, and they've been drawn for months now. Perhaps you may be tired of the political ads going back and forth, but now we're having some heavy hitters come to town and also put their money where their mouths are. Joining us now live is Senator Bernie Sanders, and Senator Sanders is a big supporter of Dr. El-Sayed, and now he's putting down a million dollars, much like AOC did, to help his campaign. And Senator Sanders, it's always good to talk to you. Thanks for joining us. Why put a million bucks down in this race? I'll tell you why. Because I was outraged that with two weeks left to go to the campaign, AIPAC, the American-Israel Political Action Committee, dumped $9 million in support of Mike Rogers. And what this means and what AIPAC wants is continued US financial support for the Netanyahu government in Israel, which in my view is a genocidal government, done horrible, horrible things to the Palestinian people. And second of all, a continuation of the war in Iran, which is illegal, unconstitutional. AIPAC, Netanyahu want to continue that war with Trump, and I think we've got to end that war. Abdul believes we've got to end that war. The American people do. AIPAC does not. So I'm going to do everything I can to see that Abdul is elected next U.S. senator from Michigan. I have a question for you about some context here, because people do wonder about context. It wasn't but in July, of course, that you had the big debate between Haley Stevens, who is being backed by $40 plus million of AIPAC money against Dr. Al Sayed. Did you have similar thoughts and did you think to donate money? Absolutely, absolutely I did. And here's the absurd situation why we've gotta get rid of this very corrupt campaign finance system. And it's not just AIPAC, it's artificial intelligence money. It's all of the large corporations who are putting huge amounts of money into super PACs. AIPAC put a ton of money trying to beat Abdul in the Democratic primary. They lost, he managed to win. And now what they said, okay, now we're gonna support the Republican, forget about the Democrats. That is what a corrupt campaign finance system is about. We've gotta overturn Citizens United. We gotta get super PACs out of elections. We gotta move to public funding of elections. Let me ask you this. When you look at these two candidates, they are obviously very, very different. The contrasts are very apparent between Al Sayed and Rogers. Is there some advice you'd give the Al Sayed camp right now in terms of moving more to the center to try to attract some of these voters who feel disenfranchised by the party? Why? No, I think there is profound disgust and anger all over this country against the Republicans, against Trump, against the Democrats. And what people are saying, I'm working longer hours for low wages, I can't afford health care, I can't afford housing, can't afford to feed my family. And yet the richest people on earth are becoming phenomenally richer. And the reason that Abdul is doing so well against all the money that's pouring into Michigan is he is standing up for the working class of Michigan and America. He is saying, among other things, that healthcare is a human right, not a privilege. We should not be the only major country on earth not to guarantee healthcare to all people, despite the fact that healthcare in America is so very expensive. So he is standing on the side of workers in terms of healthcare, raising the minimum wage to a living wage, ending endless wars. Senator, last question for you about how you pay for stuff. Listen, you've been in the room where this happens for decades. And you have someone who has some great ideas, according to some, with this healthcare for all, this Medicare for all. You have to convince 99 other people in a room to make that happen. Is this a viable idea that Abdullah al-Sayed has? Well, it is. That's a fair question. And the answer is that the latest polls I've seen, 63% of the American people now support Medicare for all. Everybody knows the current system is broken. It's designed to make huge profits for the insurance companies and the drug companies. We are spending almost twice as much per capita as the people in Canada and in other countries. Of course, we can't afford Medicare for all. All right, Senator Bernie Sanders, you're putting your money where your mouth is, donating a million bucks to help the Al-Sayed campaign. Coming up a little bit later in this newscast, we're gonna be talking with Mike Cox, a former gubernatorial candidate and someone who is stumping for Mike Rogers. That's coming up in the 5.30, half hour. But Senator Sanders, thanks for your time here tonight.