Sanders on Harris’ Policy Reversal on Medicare for All, Border, Fracking: ‘She Has to Run Her Campaign’

BASH: “Just talking about some of the policies that you care most about, she has reserved — reversed herself, rather, on some, like Medicare-for-all, on some parts of immigration policy, fracking. Does that give you cause for concern?”
Sanders: “Well, look, she has to run her campaign, and I am sure she is talking to all kinds of people to come up with an agenda that will lead to victory in November. But I believe that, when you contrast what her policies are compared to Donald Trump, who doesn’t even believe that climate change is real, he thinks it is a hoax, who wants to give more tax breaks to billionaires, who hasn’t begun to talk about the kind of income and wealth inequality that we have in this country, who talked a big game about taking on the drug companies, but did nothing during his administration, I think the contrast is very clear. But, having said that, as you may know, we did a poll. My campaign did a poll last week on some of the major issues facing working families. And what we found, not to my surprise, because it’s consistent with other polls, is that the American people overwhelmingly, for example, want to expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision. Why? Because 50 percent of our seniors are living on incomes of $30,000 or less, and a quarter of them are living on $15,000 or less. Not to anybody’s surprise, the American people want to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. The American people want to expand Social Security — it’s over 70 percent of the American people — expand Social Security by lifting the caps — cap on taxable income, so that the wealthiest are contributing. So I think the agenda that we have talked about for working people, expanding Medicare, expanding Social Security, raising the minimum wage, demanding that the wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes, this is an agenda that is not only good policy. It’s what we should be doing when so many of our working people are struggling. But it is good politics as well.”