Sanders:"Americans Are Not Staying Up Every Day Worrying About Russias Interference In Our Election"

[Mediumsizedhand]

In an interview, Monday night on NBC’s 'Late Night with Seth Meyers,' Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) warned that Democrats' focus on the Russian scandal was in danger of eclipsing more "bread and butter issues" for the party.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: We have got to focus on the bread and butter issues that mean so much to ordinary Americans.

Americans are not staying up every day worrying about Russia’s interference in our election. They’re wondering how they’re going to send their kids to college. They’re wondering how they’re going to be able to pay the rent. They are worried about whether they can afford health care. They’re worried about the income they make-- if it is enough to put food on the table. We are the wealthiest country in the history of the world. And our job is to create an economy that works for all of us and not just the 1 percent. And those are issues that we absolutely cannot afford to lose sight of.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/10/31/bernie_sanders_americans_are_not_staying_up_every_day_worrying_about_russias_interference_in_our_election.html

[link:|

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. I don't know about him

but I'm worried about how Russian interference affected last year's election that helped bring us President Trump and a Republican majority and how that is going to CLEARLY affect "bread and butter issues". I'm worried about how Russian interference may affect elections- and the candidates they help elect- from here on out if nothing is done about it.

[Mediumsizedhand]

4. Pretty important to me, too. As is women, black, Latino and gays as or MORE important than bread

and butter.

[Me.]

126. I Caught That Too

Perhaps he needs to read this NY Times articles that says...“The Economy Can’t Grow Without Birth Control”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/29/opinion/economy-birth-control.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region®ion=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region

[snooper2]

5. Well, the lovely Russians bought Facebook ads backing Sanders, Stein and Trump

Has he denounced that crap yet?

[Squinch]

18. Hmmmm.... come to think of it.....

[TheDebbieDee]

71. The Sanders defender who trashes Clinton and the

Last edited Tue Oct 31, 2017, 10:18 PM - Edit history (1)

DNC is LATE!

It's strange the way they almost always say the same things that a Russian troll would say, isn't it?

[Honeycombe8]

181. Oh, that hadn't occurred to me. Good point. nt

[Eliot Rosewater]

84. How come I cant say what you just said

but I am glad you said it. I dont dare, though.

[Honeycombe8]

184. I remember something you said once like that.

It wasn't exactly what you said that I think got other posters' ire up. It was the way you worded it. (I wasn't in that discussion, so it wasn't me.) If I'm thinking of the same discussion you're referring to.

[brush]

65. Sanders worries me too. Sometimes it seems he takes contrarian stances just to be different

We should all be worried about Russian influences on 2016 and future elections.

[George II]

114. Exactly my thoughts. These aren't stand-alone issues, they're all inter-related....

The right wing trump supported "tax cut" that will raise taxes on low and middle class Americans, isn't a "bread and butter issue"?

Without meddling in the elections, we wouldn't have to contend with such an issue.

[Bleacher Creature]

2. I'm pretty concerned about it.

I don't know his criteria for what constitutes a sleepless night, but the idea that a hostile nation is attempting to subvert our nation using an elaborate and expensive media operation certainly keeps me up at night.

[NCTraveler]

3. I find it hard to believe he said a lot of this.

I'm at work so I don't want to watch the video but he is simply smarter than a number of the quotes being attributed to him here.

[moriah]

45. Well, him saying essentially we do need to deal with "identity politics"...

... as well as economic justice is an improvement IMHO.

But these is the fact that while Russia is in the news, Congress doesn't have as much focus on them and they get away with shit.

We need to address it all.

[DLevine]

47. Taken out of context, of course.

The first thing Bernie talked about was how significant the indictments were and the importance of the Mueller investigation.

Then, in response to Seth's question about liberals perhaps making a mistake by only focusing on the Russian investigation while Trump pushes his agenda, he said yes, we must not forget these other very important issues.

[NCTraveler]

54. "by only focusing on the Russian investigation while Trump pushes his agenda"

That is the type of comment I am talking about. Not only is it completely dishonest, it's ignorant. It's trashing Democrats by way of lying. That's really low.

Thanks for the confirmation. Putting it in context sounds even worse.

[DLevine]

72. He did not attack Democrats.

I was paraphrasing Seth's question to him. I don't have a transcript. The gist of it is Bernie replied that yes, we must focus on fighting the Trump agenda while the Mueller investigation continues.

He never said Democrats were only focusing on the Russian investigation, Seth suggested that perhaps liberals were counting too much on Mueller taking Trump down.

[NCTraveler]

79. He did falsely attack democrats.

Please show me anyone on our side who has been doing as he dishonestly described in the quote you gave for context. The quote you provided really paints a bad picture of him. From you own quote he flat out lied about democrats and us on the left. If that was you doing it, and not him, you should make that more clear.

[DLevine]

87. Where did I quote anyone? I paraphrased.

Watch the video.

[angrychair]

69. You are more right wrong

While he did say those words, it is out of context and not intended to be dismissive of the current trump-Russia treason as the headline try’s to make it.

I do like Sanders a lot but even I have to admit he has a tendency to speak more ineloquently than he actually means. I think that is the case here.

My perspective is that he doesn’t want so much of the oxygen sucked out of the room that people stop paying attention what the republicans are doing with healthcare issues or tax bills or the environment or women’s rights or all the things that are impacting them today as opposed to an ongoing investigation that could go on for months or more.
I get it but he probably could have said it a better way.

[NCTraveler]

75. The context was provided to me above. It made it even worse.

The op was very kind to keep the context out.

[angrychair]

118. I dont know

I didn’t take it that harshly. Could he have said it better? Definitely.
Again, while I like him, it one of my greatest criticisms of him is his ability to choose his words poorly at times.
No one is a great speaker all the time but unfortunately for him, it happens a little to much and it does him no favors.

It’s frustrating because I believe he has brought a lot of good attention to very important issues but he may not always be the best messenger and because of that it hurts the message as well as him.

It’s why I advocate so hard for moving on and to focus on strengthening the Party by raising up the younger and intelligent and focused people of our Party, we need to start working at the county and state level and building up our foundation in each and every state. We have to focus on a bottom up and not a top down model. We need to stop worrying so much about who we are going to nominate as president and worry more about our state legislatures and House and Senate races.
If we had more state legislatures and had control of the House and Senate it would not matter if an idiot like the dotard got elected.

[George II]

120. From those comments, he seems to be out of touch with the average American and....

....Americans who live in our largest cities.

Many of us ARE "staying up every night*" worrying about Russian interference in our elections and the consequences on our everyday lives.

*most of us sleep at night, not during the day!

[NCTraveler]

121. I will never understand...

His multiple attempt to differentiate election tampering and the consequences we are dealing with today. And he almost always hedges after saying it. It’s insider politician talk.

[JCanete]

236. It absolutely needs to be dealt with. It is not our biggest issue. Corporate meddling in our

elections and our democracy is no better and far more pervasive. As I've said many many times, Russia didn't bring us Trump, our own shitty propaganda machine did.

That doesn't mean laws weren't broken and I don't want Trump to get indicted or impeached. I'd love for either of those things to happen, but Russian interference of public opinion? On the margins maybe, and only by virtue of our own shitty press not doing its job.

If on the other hand, they messed with our machines, of course that is insanely critical.

[George II]

256. "Corporate meddling in our elections" came about because of republicans being elected and...

...appointing conservative judges.

How does continued bashing of Democrats help in preventing republicans from being elected in the future?

Russian interference on public opinion wasn't just on the margins - more than 120 million Americans were exposed to Russian interference on Facebook alone. Who knows how many were exposed to Russian propaganda on twitter or Google?

[JCanete]

269. exposure does not equate to effectiveness, for starters. And corporations aren't exactly beholden to

R's in any way.

Democrats absolutely deserve their share of criticism and getting it lets them see what some of their voters want out of them AND will back them for doing. This is how they win the future elections, not how they lose them...by responding(or not) to those criticisms.

Pretending people aren't disaffected and speaking no evil doesn't change the reality. Dems, to their credit, are actually capable of listening, whereas Republicans are entirely bought and paid for.

[R B Garr]

278. "Russia didn't bring us Trump," We need to stop this irresponsible denial of reality.

Russia absolutely did prop up those who criticized Democrats. You trying to wrap it up in some "corporations" drivel is not what this is about. There is a reason the GOP lies, cheats and steals to keep power -- so they can exert influence in every way possible, like the Supreme Court, which will be lost now for decades. All for what? Loyalty to some talking points that don't match reality.

Russia did come in and shape public opinion -- by helping the GOP to smear Democrats. This is not a difficult concept. It's all over the news. Mueller has indicted people over it. Huge news.

[JCanete]

281. what the fuck do you think CNN and Fox news and most corporate media has been doing? So

Russia gave them a helping hand? It pales in the face of the work our corporate media has done. Trump should not have gotten close to the White House. How can you act like what our own American media did is my "corporations" drivel? There is a reason why the GOP gets away with the shit it does.

Yes, hacking is a huge issue of national security. Using the information derived from that hacking to hurt democrats is, regardless of the informational value, certainly a hit job designed to influence the race in one direction, and I will cede that yes, this element is uniquely a feature of a hostile state that is above American laws and outside of American jurisdiction. That does not change the fact that actors here, money here, homegrown disinformation and shoddy journalism, all influenced this outcome at a far greater level than Russia.

[R B Garr]

282. A lot of people don't watch cable news like CNN and Fox, and there has been plenty of

news on all the stations about why the Russians targeted Facebook and social media exactly for that reason.

edit: they literally reached tens and tens of millions more with their Facebook ads alone.

[ehrnst]

250. "Ordinary Americans" seems to have a very narrow definition.

Apparently, if your issues aren't solvable with a higher wage, then your issues aren't really those of an "average" American.

[Caliman73]

265. That stood out for me too...

It always gives me pause when a person uses, "ordinary" after making a distinction about Latinos, women, etc... that always says a little something about what the speaker thinks "ordinary Americans" are. I don't think Sanders is intentionally trying to separate or demean people of color, but it certainly shows that there is a big blind spot there in the intersection of race, gender, and economic issues that he is not aware of.

[Honeycombe8]

187. I watched the part of the video.

It doesn't come off the same way, when you hear him say it, as opposed to the written word.

When I read the OP, I thought well, I DO dwell on the Russia thing a lot. It's infiltration of our govt by a foreign enemy. But when I watched the video, I see what he's saying, and he is correct in that.

He's saying that the average American (not us political junkies) isn't so focused on that as they are on the economy, their wages, taxes, jobs, the things that affect them day to day. It's another way of saying the long time slogan, "It's the economy, stupid!"

He's not saying that the Russia thing isn't important, or nothing else is important. But to address concerns of the average American, they are concerned about things that affect them daily.

[Mediumsizedhand]

189. Whether the average Joe is aware or not, it is that important to our Democracy and Sanders should

state as much so the "average Joe" is educated. It is the matter of a single vote counting, and not.

[NCTraveler]

225. Thanks.

This is the part I don’t get from him and what I was referencing above.

“But to address concerns of the average American, they are concerned about things that affect them daily.”

It’s like he lives in his own world, reality be damned. It’s a cheap focus group based attack.

[ehrnst]

251. Differentiating the "average American" from female Americans, Americans of color

and LGBTQ Americans is still very present in the video.

[moda253]

6. We need to get to washington and protest all night outside white house

Show em that we are up all night.

[joshcryer]

7. I thought this was Sarah Sanders for a second.

Which is why I think they chose her as the press correspondent. You won't know a headline without clicking.

Sorry Bernie, 65 million people are not getting sleep because of this. They are attuned completely to the possibility of Trump going down. They are not at terms with it.

[Squinch]

15. I did too. It's a Trumpian talking point.

[lagomorph777]

27. I haven't slept well for almost a year.

Bernie's wrong on this one.

However, I do agree that the Dems need a clear message that even unsophisticated voters can grasp in a second, something that is a compelling affirmative reason to vote Democratic. Then they need to push it and push it and push it. Starting right effing NOW.

It should be an emotional appeal for economic and social justice, and a clear simple set of policies to make it happen.

[smirkymonkey]

42. We need to make it absolutely clear to them that republicans are robbing them blind and have

been for a long time. That republicans not only want to take away every safety net we have, but they want to destroy our chances of making a decent living and having a healthy economy in which we can participate. Not the stock market, jobs and decent wages.

Why can't we make them understand that the republicans are the enemy of the average worker. Why can't we stay on message there? These tax cuts they are proposing are just another in a long line of giveaways to the rich on the backs of the poor and middle class. We need to make that as clear as day.

[lagomorph777]

56. Thank you! Great start on the language: "Republicans are robbing you"

They are stealing your money, your health, and your safety, and they think they can fool you forever. Well, you're no fool are you?

[Bluepinky]

214. I think we need to stress that todays Republican Party has been corrupted.

A lot of people vote Republican because that’s what they have always done. We need to rename the party, maybe call it the Predatory Party, and state how the policies of the Predatory Party harm most of us.

[Mediumsizedhand]

215. You are right. I am going to change my language.

This is a very good point and I believe that my Republicans will be able to hear and acknowledge that a lot more gracefully than Republicans are a bunch of bigots, lol. I am glad I read your post.

[malchickiwick]

8. Wait, so he is calling me a non-American??

Because I sure as HELL care about our free and fair elections being subverted via one party's (and I mean the ENTIRE GOP) collusion with a foreign adversary.

[MariaCSR]

9. The FUCK WE AIN'T

Speak for yourself, old man....

[Ferrets are Cool]

10. I agree with him 100%

The people who are on DU are NOT the majority of Americans. Most of us are more invested in the political spectrum.

The MAJORITY of Americans I know are concerned about how they are going to pay their bills this month and are hoping that they have no devastating illness that destroys them. (not saying we don't have the same concerns here)

What they do not do is add two plus two and understand that the Russian interference is absolutely connected to those every day concerns.
Many here will not read past the subject line and miss the part that Bernie understands that we have to do BOTH of these things at the same time. Impeach the PGIC and work on making America better for the average American, not the 1%.

[Squinch]

22. According to the article, Bernie never said we have to do both. He never mentioned impeachment.

So, no.

[frazzled]

33. Well, he's the senator: HE should be concerned even if the average person is not

Because, yes, the Russian interference is absolutely connected to our ability to address those everyday concerns. And we can't address a single one of those concerns if the Russians are helping to put people like Trump in office. You can kiss those concerns good-bye, and talking about them to the "people" is worthless.

It's Sanders's job to care about these other issues that are vital to our national interests. You care about what the people want to hear if all you care about is garnering them as followers and getting their votes. But that would be misleading the people: because if you don't take care of complicated things like the Russian interference you are just handing them a bunch of empty promises. If you care about the country and its ability to pass legislation that will affect the people's concerns, you better damn well care about what happened this past election and what may well happen again in the next one.

Aaargh.

[DLevine]

50. The first thing he said in the interview was how important the Mueller investigation is. nt

[frazzled]

102. The Mueller investigation can only have significance if the people care about the issue

and if Congress takes up its results. Mueller can continue to prosecute around the fringes, but he can't prosecute the president criminally. He can only reveal the findings of wrongdoing. Congress will have to instigate impeachment and conviction proceedings. And that, in turn, can happen only if the public is fully engaged ... and outraged. That is the power of the people.

Tossing off the issue onto Mueller is a way of washing his hands of it. And it doesn't work like that. This interview is basically Bernie saying (once again), "let others take care of this stuff. I'm telling the Democratic Party, to which I do not belong, what they should be talking about (as if they are not already talking about bread and butter issues each day), and what they should be talking about is my talking points." It doesn't set right with those of us who actually do care about things not on his list, and do stay up at night worrying about how this administration--with some help from the Russians--is ruining everything we care about. Personally, I feel that we were invaded by a foreign entity. And that scares the bejeezus out of me.

We don't need another "Listen to me, I can fix it" personality. We need to protect our very basic and vast institutions of democracy.

[Cobalt Violet]

100. I'm guessing the ones who disagree are well fed.

[Squinch]

154. I'm guessing the ones who disagree take it seriously when a hostile foreign power puts

an imbecile in the white house with the sole purpose of blowing up the government.

[Jamaal510]

203. +1

[delisen]

119. We are doing both. If Sanders only wants to focus on one

he is free to do so.

[Demsrule86]

149. I truly have no interest in what Sen. Sander says. He is not a Democrat and as another

poster pointed out the Russians helped Sen. Sander, Stein and Trump. Sen. Sanders also didn't vote for Russian sanctions as I recall which I found disappointing.

[Adrahil]

162. I'd say you are both wrong, then.

https://www.axios.com/americans-worried-russian-influence-elections-2502923720.html

[phleshdef]

11. Duh. For people who have to battle just to live, their priorities are different.

Trump/Russia is a huge concern for me but I have a good job, employer provided healthcare and a nice house.

[Squinch]

155. Trump/Russia is actually going to put millions more people in that category of "people who have to

battle just to live."

This matters.

[pandr32]

12. It keeps me up at night, too!

Eats at me all day causing major stress.

[Squinch]

13. WTF? Yes, Americans are. A hostile foreign power installed their puppet president to

bring down our Republic. What kind of fool doesn't think that's an important issue?

[Cuthbert Allgood]

23. Jesus Christ

Seriously?

[Hornedfrog1985]

16. Hes 100% wrong.

We cant focus on "bread and butter issues" if we cant win an election, or influence our representatives. This needs dealt with NOW! What if they get another bought supreme court judge? Will we ever win another election then? No, the number one priority is to take out the russian scum that have waged war on our country.

He is giving me bad vibes...

[Hornedfrog1985]

231. They had plans

Hillary had plans for issues. She couldnt even talk about them because of trump accusing her of email nonsense. It makes zero sense to worry about bread and butter if we cant even discuss actual facts. What happens if in 2020 they get half the country to think our candidate is a child molestor, or whatever? You see the point here? Nobody will care about our issues because theyll make a new email scandal, benghazi, etc... people need to wake up. Our voice is gone.


RUSSIANS HAVE ATTACKED US AND OVERTHROWN OUR GOVERNMENT WAKE UP

They have installed bought/blackmailed plants all over.

Supreme court judge
Paul ryan
Mcconnel
Schaffetz
Nunez
Gowdy
Trump
Jill stein
State attourney generals
Judges
Fox news
Right wing radio


They are literally taking over our country. Americans need to look at war differently than blood, bombs, a bullets. We are invaded.

[Hornedfrog1985]

233. Yep

Wikileaks is a russian tool!? What are you talking about comrade... people need to start calling out these russian trolls. Youre a russian arent you?

[Hornedfrog1985]

235. Bwahahaha

Yeah, we are done here. This forum was hacked by russians election night. They know this site is a threat to them. Call out the russians. Its blatantly obvious.

[NightWatcher]

17. Nah, we're really hoping that billionaires get a tax break.

I really want that person to go to jail, or at least go away and fade into oblivion.

[Evergreen Emerald]

19. So, he is sanctioning that the Russian interference continue.

The bread and butter issues will not matter without elections. To ignore is to sanction. I have to wonder what is up with him?

[Hornedfrog1985]

20. Exactly

How do we win these votes, if we dont have fair elections.

[DLevine]

52. No, he is not sanctioning Russian interference.

Watch the first few minutes of his interview, where he stresses the importance of the Mueller investigation.

[Vinca]

21. That might be true, but Americans should be focused on Russian interference.

[virtualobserver]

24. You have to forgive Senator Sanders.....

He is focused on winning elections in 2018 and 2020.

"The Russians tried to influence our elections".....is not a strategy to take back the House and Senate.....or the Presidency.

[Hornedfrog1985]

25. We cant win an election in 2018 if our votes dont count,

[NCTraveler]

28. "You have to forgive Senator Sanders....."

"He is focused on winning elections in 2018 and 2020. "

For who? Some of these quotes throw that into doubt.

"The Russians tried to influence our elections"

Then again, if you are still using the word "tried" in this context, then dismissal is the goal in the first place.

[virtualobserver]

82. no, not dismissal.....

But there were larger factors by many orders of magnitude compared to what the Russians did.

[lagomorph777]

31. Start with the language: "...tried to.."?? Really, isn't it obvious they succeeded?

Dems (and Bernie) really need to stop mincing words and start speaking bluntly.

Putin installed a puppet in the White House to destroy America the same way he's destroying Ukraine and a dozen other countries.

[virtualobserver]

58. It is not obvious.

The Russians bought a tiny fraction of the ads when compared to the ads that the Trump campaign bought.

The Russians, from what I've seen, bought maybe $300,000 worth.

The Trump campaign bought $70 million.

[lagomorph777]

59. Russian ads (according to what Facebook ALONE admits to) were shown to 126,000,000

people. Putin was (duh) a lot more clever in getting bang for the rouble.

And it's not just the ad dollars, obviously. Most of the fake content was not paid content; it came from bots on fake accounts.

And oh by the way they stole the emails and gave them to Turd; he made a lot of hay on that. That one thing outweighed hundreds of millions of dollars spent by HRC.

[virtualobserver]

66. "shown" does not translate to "bang"

Imagine how many times the $70 million dollars worth of Trump ads were shown.

"bots" on "fake accounts"? Fake content where?

[lagomorph777]

70. Are you serious? This is the first you are hearing of bots and fake accounts?

https://www.axios.com/how-bots-and-fake-accounts-work-2503972339.html
https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-twitter-social-media-russian-troll-politics-chaos/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-parsons/facebooks-war-continues-against-fake-profiles-and-bots_b_6914282.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/us/politics/russia-facebook-twitter-election.html

Not much point peddling an alternative universe here, but RW FB users sure lapped it up.

[virtualobserver]

76. I understand that they exist.....

but the effect of creating a "trend" on twitter does not swing an election when compared to the enormous online spending by the Trump group.

[bettyellen]

130. The combo of Tweets and FB posts pushed real looking fake stories to the top of google searches to

Such and extent that you'd have to go to page 3 of their results to find stories on the topic written by the real press. There were tons of fake web sites with very real sounding names, and the bots constantly pushed them to the top of search results.

[R B Garr]

99. +1, they can't accept any actual reality that does not fit their narrative blaming

Democrats. It's now common knowledge that they were targeted. All it took was 75,000 people influenced over about 4 states. Those are the facts now, but look at the continued denial.

[virtualobserver]

186. The $70 million spent by Trump on Facebook was thousands of times more powerful

Their operation was incredibly sophisticated

The Trump campaign constantly tested minute variations in the design, color, background and phrasing of Facebook ads, in order to maximize their impact....between 50,000 to 60,000 variations were tested each day...and sometimes as many as 100,000.

I have studied the use of Facebook ads for my own use.....you only pay when they click on the ad.......This kind of testing for the perfect ad costs you nothing on the Facebook side....until it works.

[R B Garr]

213. This is just more excuses and sidestepping reality.

He was targeted because he helped the anti/Democrat agenda.

[virtualobserver]

217. What are you talking about?

I don't understand who and what you are referring to.

[R B Garr]

220. You are trying to divert away from the reason for the

Facebook attacks in the first place by saying Trump’s were so good that it didn’t matter what Russia did. That kind of dismissive attitude about Russia’s interference is also what Sanders was trying. It’s a very transparent diversion.

[virtualobserver]

226. What Russia did does matter, because it was a foreign power trying to interfere with our election..

It does not matter much to the voters, though, which is Bernie's point.

Bernie believes that we should focus on what the voters actually care about, their pocketbooks.

The Clinton '92 campaign slogan should be the permanent slogan of the Democratic Party.

"It's the economy, stupid"

[R B Garr]

228. No, even his own words dont match what you said.

He is dishonestly trivializing Democrats by a cynical admonishment that they need to quit messing around with Russia and focus on his stump speech.

At least you give that economy quote the proper credit to the Clintons’. It’s too bad so much time was devoted to demonizing them.

[mcar]

32. To ignore human rights, women's rights and civil rights

is no way to get the Democratic base out to vote. The Senator's statement was tone-deaf, to say the least, IMO

[virtualobserver]

35. if Trump's performance isn't enough to get out the base....

words won't help.

[mcar]

39. Agree

But what do you think Sanders means by "ordinary Americans?"

[virtualobserver]

62. People for whom the economic struggle requires so much attention

that they rarely focus outside of it.

[mcar]

90. But people for whom the struggle for equal rights

are not "ordinary?" I beg to differ.

[virtualobserver]

147. they also have ordinary problems, but no, they are not ordinary

Having to fight for civil rights is not mundane.

[lapucelle]

125. The Russians didn't merely "try". They succeeded. N/T

[JI7]

138. Russians influenced the elections is a fact.

[bdamomma]

146. We won't get the results we want

in 2018 election if this Russian interference is not take care of. Our voting system needs to be fine tuned, and every vote must be counted.

[PDittie]

247. Blaming the Russians

in advance for whatever they may do in 2018 is not the key to Democratic victory.

[Demsrule86]

150. I don't think his advice as to what will win elections is anything that really works. I have worked

elections for years...and earnest candidate, the I need more homework teach...candidate always loses.

[stevenleser]

170. Tell that to President Ford's Second term and the 1974 congressional elections nt

[virtualobserver]

174. basing your entire winning strategy on a Trump resignation is a risky proposition

We need to win the house and senate first.....then hopefully Mueller can take down Pence and Trump (through resignation).

I would be very happy with a President Pelosi....She can get things done.

[stevenleser]

201. I'm not basing an entire strategy on that. But it is comforting to know the history.

The voters "reward" proof of massive corruption and serious lawbreaking with a punishing rebuke at the polls.

Investing a lot of time and effort into the search for justice on Trump-Russia is not only the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do.

[virtualobserver]

210. I do worry though

in 1992 GHW Bush pardoned a shitload of criminals .....by 1994 We had the Republican takeover of Congress.

in 76 we got Carter....by 80 we had Reagan

The land of short attention spans and short memories

[njhoneybadger]

26. C'mon Bernie, that's what Hillary ran on

Russian propaganda won the election for tRump and there must be consequences for all those involved.


Please stop trolling the Democratic Party

[Wwcd]

78. + a million.

When hasn't he?
Give it a rest bernie

[mcar]

29. Who, exactly, does the Senator define as 'ordinary Americans?'

[Tarheel_Dem]

132. I'm guessing straight blue collar white men, but I'm just guessing. n/t

[mcar]

140. That does seem to be it

Guess us women and POC need not apply.

[liquid diamond]

30. Without Russian interference

rump would not be president, and Hillary would be working on those issues. JFC.

[RandySF]

34. How far would he have gone in the primaries

without the Russians throwing dirt in Hillary’s face?

[Demsrule86]

151. Don't know but those who cost us the elections were knee deep in facebook propaganda.

I bet money Stein was in with the Russians too...maybe she will dress in orange...that would be just great!

[traladeda]

36. Yeah, I am.

I'm very concerned about the Russian attack on our country. And I'm even more concerned that he along with the GOP isn't taking it seriously.

[Freethinker65]

37. Bernie will focus where Bernie wants to focus

If he wants to be front and center exposing harmful legislation proposed by Trump/Ryan/the GOP, let him.

I am fine with others taking up the ‘exposing incompetence, misuse of funds by appointees, collusion with foreign governments to influence our elections’ causes.

Voters will focus their attention to what is most important to them at the time.

Honestly, many low information voters did not vote for Trump on pocketbook issues. They hated Hillary and Obama and wanted a TV star celebrity to bully and screw over anyone doing better than or different from themselves.

[smirkymonkey]

38. Fuck him! The whole reason we are in this mess in the first place is because

Russians meddled in our elections and brought us Trump, who has brought us all these greedy 1%'ers in his administration. Many of us want to see justice done, because if we don't stop it this time, it will just continue and we will basically be owned by a hostile foreign power and a group of plutocrats who want to destroy the poor and the middle class in this country.

If the average American really gave a shit about economic issues, they would try to educate themselves about who is going to fight for their economic interests. Instead, too many of them are more concerned with hating Democrats, Liberals, Minorities, LGBT people and Feminists and blind themselves to the fact that republicans are ACTIVELY trying to screw them over and destroy them.

I'm so sick of Bernie's 1-track bullshit. He's a broken record. Go away old man!

[FreeStateDemocrat]

40. Isn't the expression, "Staying up all NIGHT" this "staying up all day" makes little sense to me?

I doubt if the American people give much of a shit what Sanders has to say either but he is right in that it could be distraction on "tax reform."

[DavidDvorkin]

41. Shut up, Bernie.

[GoCubsGo]

43. We really are through the Looking Glass.

When I saw "Sanders", I was expecting it to be a comment from Sarah Huckabee Sanders, not Bernie Sanders. SMGDH.

And, if ordinary Americans aren't worried about Russian interference in our elections, they goddamn well should be. It's how we got Trump and his attacks on our environment, women, racial minorities, LGBQTs, religious minorities, etc. in the first place. We don't need more like him, and ignoring this issue will not prevent that.

[standingtall]

44. Democrats damn sure better talk about the Russia scandal

and I'm tired of hearing people say shut up about it. There is no reason why we cannot package the Russia scandal into talks about bread and butter issues. The fact is at the very least members of the Trump campaign tried to conspire with Russians to steal the election for Trump and it is very likely the had success. The Presidency was obtained for Trump by fraudulent means and the GOP has been trying to use their fraudulent President to get through their toxic legislation against the will of the American people.

[fallrey]

51. If Trump cheated, then Clinton really won

So if the Russia scandal remains in focus then the ideas put forth by followers of Sanders--who say that she ran a bad campaign, he could have won, etc.--are undermined.

[lunamagica]

219. +1

[sprinkleeninow]

85. Conspiracy/subversion with/by a foreign power influencing

the outcome of any of our elections should be front and center!

If this damage doesn't get rectified, there's gonna be a ton more of sleepless nights .

[WhiskeyGrinder]

46. LMAO.

"I'll throw in the keywords some people want to hear, and then we can REALLY get to the issues that ORDINARY Americans are concerned about!"

[Wwcd]

48. Sen Sanders,"Do NOT speak for me & I am part of that Democratic Party

"Americans are not staying up every day worrying about Russia’s interference in our election. They’re wondering how they’re going to send their kids to college. They’re wond.."

WTF, where has he been since early 2016 when it was made clear that Russia Was Interfering In Our Election!!!!

Since he's suddenly 'not a democrat' I suggest he stop speaking for our Party.

WE DAMNED WELL ARE LOSING SLEEP, & the only ones that haven't been worried about Russia, are..well....

[WhiskeyGrinder]

49. If "ordinary Americans" aren't women, "Latinos," "blacks," and "people in the gay community,"

then who, exactly, are they, Bernie?

[uponit7771]

63. IKR !?!?!? People who aren't threatened by Red Dons Kremlin KKKlan can afford to be blase'

[smirkymonkey]

68. White men, of course.

They are the only ones whose interests really matter.

[comradebillyboy]

74. Who's left? Straight white men like me.

[Eliot Rosewater]

88. Thank you for saying this.

[MontanaMama]

53. Wrong Bernie.

Couldn’t be more wrong. I haven’t slept well in a year. Been in therapy since the election. If we don’t get the Russians out of our elections, none of your proposed legislation has a snowball’s chance in hell of helping anybody.

[MrsCoffee]

55. No on Russian sanctions. His campaign manager with ties to Manafort tweets there was no collusion,

and now Bernie is back to minimizing the cyberwar.

I also thought this had to be Sarah not Bernie.

Done with him.

[nolabear]

57. Good grief. I thought it was Huckleberry.

I’m sick of being told I’m not an American.

[DURHAM D]

60. Obviously concerned about what

Mueller will learn about Tad.

[MrsCoffee]

93. ++++++ infinity

[lunamagica]

222. Hmmmm...interesting...and so disturbing

[R B Garr]

116. AH, absolutely! They both should show us their taxes.

[yardwork]

243. Follow the money.

It will come out that Russian money helped fund Bernie's campaign.

[DonCoquixote]

61. shit with something this stupid

I thought this was from Sarah Huckabee sanders, not bernie.

[0rganism]

64. don't know about Sen. Sanders, but i for one have lost a lot of sleep over it

granted, the health care stuff bugs the hell out of me too, but that's been going on for many years. i've found ways to sleep in spite of it.

having the illiterate Russian operative acting as president and destroying democracy and maybe getting us into a nuclear war tomorrow, well that fear is fresh and new and exciting enough to keep me up at night.

generally i tend to side with Sen. Sanders on a lot of things, but i think we part ways here.

[Watchfoxheadexplodes]

67. It's time for one side of the fence or the other

Stop riding the middle!

[pnwmom]

73. If they aren't, then it means people like Bernie Sanders are FAILING with their messaging.

Even Bernie must understand that the aim of the Russian interference was to prevent the American people from achieving their political goals -- especially his bread and butter issues.

He should be educating people about the Russian interference, not dismissing it. Why does he think it's not going to happen again in every election if we can't stop them?

[DFW]

77. They're not? Well, they should. He's right on certain points, of course.

"They’re wondering how they’re going to send their kids to college. They’re wondering how they’re going to be able to pay the rent. They are worried about whether they can afford health care. They’re worried about the income they make-- if it is enough to put food on the table."

Correct on all counts. However, if our elections are hackable, and people who mean us harm can arrange, against the will of the voters, the election of a president and a congress that is AGAINST Americans being able to send their kids to college, AGAINST their being able to pay the rent, AGAINST their being able to afford health care, and AGAINST their being able to put food on their families' table, then yeah, we had goddam well BETTER be staying up nights worrying about it.

But if Bernie Sanders dosn't get the connection, he could do worse to recognize it. If the oligarch billionayahs' names are Putin and friends, and not just Koch, Mercer and Adelson, then yeah, something DOES need to be done about it, and we DO need to worry about it.

[bluepen]

80. He does not speak for many of us. Never has and never will.

[Eliot Rosewater]

89. Thank you.

[Progressive dog]

81. Speak for yourself Bernie nt

[Eliot Rosewater]

83. Oh my GOD

[R B Garr]

101. My exact reaction, too!

[Garrett78]

86. He's more or less correct, but...

...that message needs some major refining. Instead of dismissing the scandal, talk it up and then talk about the importance of those everyday issues. Talk about how not only is the Trump Administration corrupt, it's also proven to be a disaster in so many predictable ways. Then give specifics.

[DLevine]

92. He didn't dismiss the scandal. The first thing he talked about was the investigation,

and it's importance. He also gave specifics regarding the corrupt Trump administration and how we need to fight back.

[Garrett78]

95. The quote in the OP suggests dismissiveness.

And suggests Democrats shouldn't focus on it so much.

[DLevine]

111. The OP is taking his remarks out of context.

I would recommend watching the full interview. I don't agree with everything Bernie says, but I think the OP is making a mountain out of a molehill. JMO.

[Garrett78]

115. I can't watch it right now but will try to later.

Regardless, I take issue with the way he worded things, assuming he's quoted correctly in the OP.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

96. What you propose is what he did.

But you won't get that out of the phony outrage posts in this thread.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_holdout

[Garrett78]

112. I'm not able to watch the video right now, but the quote in the OP suggests otherwise.

The quote in the OP suggests he's being dismissive of (or minimizing) the scandal, while taking a shot at Democrats.

What I propose would have come out much differently.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

122. The very first word out of his mout are "it's a big deal" -- meaning the investigation/indictment

He goes on to point out that Mueller is a republican -- to show this is not some partisan witch hunt.

He says "this is a major step forward with the indictment of Manafort"


Then he goes on to say he is worried about attacks in a variety of ways -- a president who attacks the media and doesn't understand The Constitution. He talks about corrupt Citzens United attacks on democracy and republican governors suppressing the vote.


He says a lot before he answers the question about Democrats putting all the eggs in the Russian basket.

And he's correct. The Russians bought a couple hundred thousand dollars of Facebook ads and published some embarrassing emails. The fact that this worked to elect the worst presidential candidate in history should frighten us way more than some twitter bots.

This election should never have been this close in the first place.

[R B Garr]

123. ffs, the Democrats are not putting all their eggs in one basket. That was just

a way to pivot to his canned lines that are actually evidence of why the Russian's targeted him -- they like his attacks on Democrats.

Your quote: "This election should have never been this close in the first place." The RW'ers have been attacking Hillary to bring her numbers down for years, and that was straight out of the mouth of a RW congressman. What is his excuse? Enough of these blatant distortions.

[George II]

124. In a way he's correct.....

....I know I don't stay up every day worrying about Russia's interference, but it sure keeps me up many nights, when most of us sleep, worrying about it.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

91. Americans were not initially "worried" about the Watergate cover-up until the shit hit the fan.

[MrsCoffee]

98. Well there are about 65 million of us who have been worried about it since Nov. 8th.

Give or take a few million.

[stevenleser]

171. Yup, and after that Democrats won the 1974 congressional elections in a landslide and prevented

Ford's second term.

So, yes, exposing massive wrongdoing on the behalf of a Republican President has a massive effect on the elections that follow.

[Cobalt Violet]

97. I agree with him.

As someone losing sleep these days over not be able paying rent, food, health care I can testify that it does lead to sleepless nights. I'm very worried about Russia stealing our country too but I feel more hopeful that we can and will win that war.


I guess if you aren't worried about your next meal it's not going to keep you up at night.

[MrsCoffee]

104. Because people can only be worried about one thing at a time?

My son was just homeless living in his car for seven weeks. I have plenty to keep me up at night. Russia is one of them. I'm concerned it will happen again next year and rent, food and healthcare will be out of most Americans reach.

[Cobalt Violet]

106. I didn't say that.

read.

[MrsCoffee]

109. "I guess if you aren't worried about your next meal it's not going to keep you up at night."

Yeah, you kind of did.

If I'm reading it wrong, my apologies.

[lunamagica]

223. I worry about all that. But my worry has increased tenfold since the Russian interference in the

election put trump in the WH. If this doesn't get fixed first, the rest will never improve. The importance of the danger this interference has created should never be dismissed.

[MyNameGoesHere]

103. Arghhhhhhhhh!

I'll say it again because it's the only thing I can say right now without consequences, Murtha fucking, arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhj!!

My brain hurts now.

[Cadfael]

107. This American is...

[TheFrenchRazor]

108. legitimate elections are somewhat necessary to fix the other problems, IMO. nt

[George II]

110. How does he know that? Many of the people I know are worried about Russian interference....

....that's what gave us trump, which could ultimately cost millions of American lives.

I'm sure he never asked me what I'm worried about.

[MaryMagdaline]

113. I am

Haven't slept since Friday.

[grantcart]

129. Me too, welcome to DU

[delisen]

117. We are not ordinary, Senator Sanders.

We are citizens of the oldest continuous representative democracy on this planet (at least until 2016).

The people are no more ordinary, than a senator in our form of government.

We have the right to have our votes counted and counted accurately and not have our elections decided by a foreign power.

Feel free to focus your attention where you want. Do not interfere with our march to justice and do not insist that we march to your drum only.

[Blue_Tires]

127. As always, big on talk but short on details....

[lapucelle]

128. I hope the Republicans don't exploit that sound bite in their 2018 ads. N/T

[NurseJackie]

133. No doubt they will.

[lame54]

131. The last couple days we got up early to check the news

[Initech]

134. They must be smoking some good Covfefe!

[PDittie]

135. These threads have value

I found five or so more brand new accounts -- less than 100 posts -- that had to be put on 'ignore'.

The Russians did not steal the election, did not hack the election. They certainly tried to.

if you're truly losing sleep about your vote not counting, your concerns need to be placed with electronic voting machines. GUESS WHAT WOULD STOP HACKING!? PAPER BALLOTS!!!1!

[kentuck]

136. Bernie has grown out of touch, it seems?

He sounds like Paul Ryan preaching about his tax cuts.

I guess they do not see Trump as the threat to our country that many others see?

[Mediumsizedhand]

168. I do not see the Bernie of 2016 posturing for 2020 any differently.

[Madam45for2923]

137. I disagree. Me, ordinary American, I worry about Russian influences on 2016 and future elections.

It keeps me up at night.

[milestogo]

139. Wrong.

[ismnotwasm]

141. Who?

[WePurrsevere]

142. If your house is overrun with termites destroying your roof and foundation...

Last edited Wed Nov 1, 2017, 04:20 PM - Edit history (1)

you don't just ignore them and you don't do your kitchen and bathroom remodels while your house falls down around your ears.

I agree with Bernie on many things but this is one area I absolutely don't. First of all I don't see why we can't continue to fight for what he calls "every day issues" too BUT if we DON'T go after those damn 'termites' eating away at our country's "foundation" and 'roofing' we won't have a friggin home we can take pride in and enjoy for centuries to come.

[lunamagica]

224. Perfect analogy. Who could argue against that?

[diva77]

143. With all the outrage against Russian interference, why not point more of it at right wingnut

media that has free rein of the public airwaves, the press, TV 24/7?

While Bernie had probably less than 5 minutes to squeeze in some kind of message of gravity to the public, wingnut media was grinding on with its unlimited access.

I saw the interview. The headline is completely misleading; and the long thread criticizing Bernie is so disproportionate compared to criticism of wingnut media.

Seems to me that those who are angry at Bernie have completely forgotten about or perhaps normalized wingnut media.

[lapucelle]

183. Well, one could concisely say

Because foreign interference in our ability to hold free and fair elections threatens our democracy, it must be vigorously investigated and those found to be responsible for any attempt to subvert the process must be prosecuted to the fullest. But we mustn't lose sight of problems and inequities that must also be addressed...

And proceed from there.

Why trivialize the fact that many Americans are worried about a genuine threat to and subversion of the system that ensures our democracy?

[diva77]

191. There are at least 52 Senators who should be a higher priority for receiving

the kind of criticism found in this thread, but instead, a senator working hard for the common good is being sharply criticized, and his words taken out of context.

I am done with this discussion.

[lapucelle]

196. I wasn't aware that we're required to prioritize our critiques.

[JHan]

144. sigh.

[JHan]

145. Bernie don't fall for this fallacy please.. people can care about different things simultaneously.

And the "bread and butter issues" vis a vis those faced by minorities? They're all intertwined, they don't exist in separate silos, there are economic and opportunity costs linked to rights and lack thereof.

Come on man.

[Demsrule86]

148. I have to wonder sometimes if he wants Democrats to lose. Anyone who has been observant

must know how you win...bu he offers up advice guaranteed to cost us elections. He is not a Democrat, not sure he even likes Democrats and should be ignored politely.

[Mediumsizedhand]

156. He is posturing for 2020. It behooves us to listen to what he is saying. He has been consistent.

Last edited Tue Oct 31, 2017, 10:49 PM - Edit history (1)

[Demsrule86]

259. Consistently wrong...he has a particular view point...I agree with much of it... but it simply won't

help us win elections...and if he runs, he divides progressives. He won't win a 2020 primary...his running is a gift for the GOP. And clearly since he said he would run as a Dem forever ,but then went back to being independent, he would run as an independent and that would help the GOP...I don't support Sen. Sanders in the primary 2020...I want new younger candidates. I am not a fan. And after yesterday when he criticized Democrats, I simply am indifferent to his view point.

[guillaumeb]

152. Perhaps he was expressing the idea that the literal first priority is to eat

to sustain life. All else is literally secondary to that.

[Mediumsizedhand]

157. He is talking middle class, that is not what he was talking or it would be the poor and homeless.

[guillaumeb]

176. We all have the same needs.

Middle class does not guarantee freedom from want. Many who describe themselves as middle class lost much in the market crash.

[Mediumsizedhand]

177. Are you sugggesting the middle class has the same needs as the homeless? No, stating.

That the homeless have the same needs as homeless? Really? Wow. So, I get where Sanders gets his supporters. With the homeless we are not talking merely "want" or "desire".

[guillaumeb]

178. Are you suggesting that we all do not need to eat?

The point that I first made.

[Mediumsizedhand]

180. Two different worlds. I am willing to admit that sitting in my privilege and what makes me a proud

Liberal.

[TheDebbieDee]

153. It's funny how Sen Sanders and his supporters often say things

that Russian trolls would say... I wonder - hmmmmm.

[Mediumsizedhand]

158. I am seeing some confused thing Sarah Sanders said this. Telling.

[coolsandy]

159. You will NEVER create an economy that works for all of us as long as the GOP is in power PERIOD!

That is why it is important to keep focus on the Russian interference in our elections, our economy, and our social issues.

Did Bernie and the "Revolution" learn nothing from the 2016 primary and election? They were targeted and many of them fell for what Russia put out their in from of them.

[Mediumsizedhand]

161. I do not think they care; with posturing for 2020, that matters.

[Adrahil]

160. Fuck him. Russian interference is an existential threat to the Republic.

What the fuck? I am beginning to despise him.

[krispos42]

163. Impeached Trump can't attack the environment, women, or minorities.

At least, not with the federal government's bureaucracy and power.

Nor can impeached Trump block movement on bread-and-butter issues.


And, here's a thought... the reason minorities and working people are worrying about being attacked is DIRECTLY FROM THE RESULTS OF RUSSIA'S ELECTION INTERFERENCE AND HAVING TO POTENTIALLY LIVE THROUGH 7 MORE YEARS OF THIS SHIT.

[Mediumsizedhand]

166. +1.

[aikoaiko]

164. He is reminding us that even if the Trump and his administration lands in prison.

When the next GE election comes around the people will be asking who made their lives betters.

Putting Trump and his sycophants in jail doesn't help people pay for healthcare, higher education, and other human services and social programs.

[Mediumsizedhand]

167. And the priority is not women, gays, Latinos and blacks.

[aikoaiko]

172. That's not what he said, but get your smear on if you wish.

[Mediumsizedhand]

175. "MORE important." Bread and butter is MORE important than women, blacks, Latinos, Gays losing life.

Yes. That is what he said as he postures for 2020. What he has said in the past. And what I expect from the future. More important, means something. I listen.

[aikoaiko]

190. In the paragraph you provided, he said social justice and economic justice are more important...

...than the Russia scandal.

And the phrase he used was "equally or more important".

Welcome to DU. Enjoy your stay.

[Mediumsizedhand]

192. Bread and butter is more important than women, blacks, Latino and gays. I disagree.

[aikoaiko]

193. Do you not think women, blacks, Latinos, and gays are also concerned with economics?

[Mediumsizedhand]

194. Right now, I am pretty damn sure they are concerned about their lives.

[aikoaiko]

195. I think the issues of POC and other minorities are more complex than that.

And I'll leave it at that.

You seem familiar to me.

[Mediumsizedhand]

199. I think the Dreamers might see it as that simple, their lives.

[ChubbyStar]

204. Good thing YOU are here to explain all of this

What the hell would we have done without you? Two weeks in and you are just a champ.

[Mediumsizedhand]

205. You make no sense. Being informed, being a Liberal Democrat is not contingent on time spent on

this site.

[ChubbyStar]

206. Of course

I am amazed at your power.

[R B Garr]

212. Lying about Democrats does not help people with

any of that, either. It’s totally self-serving and uncalled for and just irresponsible at this point to continue insinuating Democrats aren’t serious people who fight for Americans.

[aikoaiko]

245. I don't think Bernie is lying. As a Democrat I can't say we're perfect? I welcome his criticism.

Some Democrats want to hear Bernie's criticisms and others need to hear it.

[R B Garr]

246. You are just proving again why they targeted him. Wanting

Democrats to be maligned was their goal and it didn’t matter what was true. Anyone who can continue to irresponsibly “criticize” Democrats seems to be okay with these results — hardly progressive.

[aikoaiko]

257. RBGarr, Democrats and allies have been criticizing Democrats for a long time prior to 2016

Pretending like we're perfect, not welcoming criticism, and trying to suppress expressions of discontent is the truly anti-progressive position.

[R B Garr]

258. Thats just an excuse, and the GOP thanks you.

This is about a cult of personality and a “set of ideas”, which is in quotes because it’s part of a “critique” of Bernie that was part of an article about him in another thread. Certainly Bernie should be criticized as well.

Reality is that he was targeted by the Russians because of the divisiveness and how it served their purpose. Those are proven facts now. What he said about Democrats in this thread is just irresponsible at this point.

[aikoaiko]

260. What exactly did he say that was so irresponsible?

Or it is just anything he says?

[R B Garr]

261. Loyalty to his world view is no excuse to malign Democrats. Reality is that he

was targeted by the Russians for this divisiveness. This is all over the news. Mueller's indictments and Russian interference are all over the news -- who they targeted is all over the news. It's proven fact now.

[aikoaiko]

263. So you have nothing when you said his comments in this thread were irresponsible.

Bernie's advice is good. When the Trump scandals go away, voters will evaluate each party on what they do for them.

Even if Trump and his cronies all go to prison, it's not like the people who voted for him are going to thank us for pushing the Russian investigation.

[R B Garr]

268. His comments are in this thread, lol! Thats what this

thread is about. Reread the thread if you don’t know what you are posting in. These absurd circular denials of reality are simply not sustainable. Smearing Democrats is not sustainable. That is why we have Trump. Reality is a thing. Reread the thread and quit denying what you read to fit one man’s world view.

[aikoaiko]

270. Its not a denial of reality. We have legitimate disagreements about the value of criticism.

One man's view? Wow. Just wow.

Bernie Sanders is voicing the concerns that many have. I suppose you deny that, too.

[R B Garr]

271. Now all of a sudden you can remember that Bernie criticizes Democrats.

Just a couple posts ago, you asked me to post what he says. Now you are back to remembering very well what he says because now all of a sudden you say it's all "legitimate" and that is your excuse. This is the kind of circular denial of reality that is the hallmark of the "movement",

And, yes, the GOP has many "concerns" about Democrats, so it's just irresponsible to feed into those with irresponsible statements about Democrats that are never proven. How absurd to insinuate that Democrats are not working for the American people. Not fooling anyone with that emptiness.

[aikoaiko]

273. So you now you admit they're criticisms and not smears. Thank goodness you've come to your senses.

You're so bad at this. I know what Bernie has said. I asked you what YOU think he said that was irresponsible. And you couldn't respond.

Thank you RBGarr. You've got nothing.

[R B Garr]

274. You are so bad at this, yourself. Especially the part where you don't read the thread

and then said I made no comments, lol, aikoaiko.

It's pretty obvious where I pointed out what he was saying was irresponsible, but that doesn't fit the tactics of trying to discredit posters for interpreteing what the man himself says. You can read Bernie's comments and then read the remarks right here in this thread.

Now you are trying to say that criticisms are not smears, LOL. More of the circular denial of reality we've seen. So glad to see it getting the scrutiny it finally deserves.

Bye poster aikoaiko. Feel free to actually read the thread.

[TDale313]

165. Hes wrong on this.

I say that as someone who strongly supported him in the primaries and still has a lot of respect for him. Election integrity is critical. If people can’t vote or trust that their votes matter, you no longer have a functioning democracy. Same reason campaign Finance reform is so important. The public interest is intentionally silenced. Nothing else gets fixed if voters don’t have a say.

[lunamagica]

169. Is he really this dense?

It's precisely because the bread and butter issues that mean so much to ordinary Americans that we MUST examine Russia’s interference in our election with a fine-tooth comb, find out what happened and FIX it. Until this is done, no amount of speeches will change anything.

I find quite disturbing that Sanders can be so dismissive regarding the integrity of our electoral process.

[nini]

173. I haven't had a decent nights sleep since last November.

We won't win another election if we don't solve the Russian issue so yes.. it's a big fucking deal to dwell on.

None of the bread and butter issues will even be discussed if we don't have fair elections.

[Bleacher Creature]

179. He never passes up an opportunity to take pot shots at the Democratic Party. NT

[Mediumsizedhand]

182. "He never passes up an opportunity to take pot shots at the Democratic Party"

Yes, yet he thinks with conversation like this he will get the base vote in 2020.

[VOX]

185. Sorry, Bernie, but the slide into fascism does keep me up at night.

And all the wonderful things you champion won’t even exist if the daily slippage into cold authoritarianism and oligarchy is allowed to continue.

And Russia isn’t done yet. Not by a long shot. It’s becoming clearer why you and Rand Paul were the ONLY two senators who voted against the recent Russia sanctions.

[Hornedfrog1985]

188. I didnt have any grey hairs until this year.

Yes, im serious. Ive never felt like stress has hit me so hard in my life. When you are considering freedom around the world could die with america it will keep you up.

[Arazi]

197. Polling backs this unfortunately. Most Americans are dumbshits

[betsuni]

198. Who is losing sight of creating a more equal economy?

At least he didn't say "establishment" and "identity politics."

[herding cats]

200. I thought this was Huckabee-Sanders.

Now I understand why this thread had so many replies, which is what lead me to finally read it.

Bernie is wrong here. He's also tone deaf, and he needs to stop trashing the Democratic Party for attention. He's not helping anymore, actually that ship sailed some time ago. This is detrimental to all of us beating the extremists in power. They and their beliefs are gaining traction daily in rural USA while we're still pretending a large portion of our country isn't gerrymandered to give these lunatics way more power than they deserve. Then add in Russian interference and we're facing yet another perfect storm. Feed their hate and fears and it's 2016 all over again in 2018. Those Republicans stepping down aren't doing so because they're scared of Democrats due to Trump, they're scared of Bannon and the extremist in their own party. Look it up. Those seats are more likely to go even more extreme right than moderate. It's almost like a remake of 2010, except it's Republicans stepping down due to the extremist RW now not Democrats.

Our ability to vote and trust that our votes, our voices, matter is paramount to our democracy surviving. There's nothing more "bread and butter" than voting integrity in the US. Don't even get me started on what's bread and butter in the Democratic Party, because I'm not clear he's actually truly focused on that here either. There's an ideological forest/trees thing going on in his messaging that astounds me in this current climate.

My impression is he's not in touch with where we actually are, let alone how dire our situation is at this moment. He's idealizing and missing the reality taking place out there. Oh, and 2020 is a census year. Which should be an earth shaking event if you're into politics and actually care about how they play out long term.

[betsuni]

211. +1

[JHan]

216. +++++++++++++++++++++

[ehrnst]

249. Yep. (nt)

[drray23]

202. well senator sanders has always been stuck on one speed.

Which is, the economy, the fight for the middle class. etc... He is totally unable to consider anything else that he can not reframe within this context.

[Sunlei]

207. Bernies right. Open enrollment for insurance is 11/1/17 to 12/15/17- we can multitask, & see it all.

Congress has to raise the Federal minimum wage. $7.25 an hour is to fucking low and DNC can focus on that issue for midterm elections.

[TomCADem]

208. You Forgot to Add "Sarah" Before the Sanders

More deflection by the Russian Republicans trying to ignore Russian efforts to sow dissent within the U.S. and undermine our democracy.

[ecstatic]

209. "Your issues aren't important"

Can't he promote his priorities without tearing down someone else's?

[WinkyDink]

221. Wow. Sanders (done with the sappy "Bernie") thinks the bedrock of our DEMOCRACY should be second

fiddle to "bread and butter" issues?

He should ask the RUSSIAN PEOPLE how "bread and butter" issues are dealt with in an OLIGARCHY led by thieves and thugs!

Wow.

[melman]

229. realclearpolitics via Breitbart

Wow. As always anything goes when the aim is bashing the Hated One.

[pnwmom]

237. That is a video of Bernie's interview with Seth Meyers on Late Night.

The fact that Breitbart is helping to spread it doesn't take away from the fact that Bernie said those words. Interesting that Breitbart wants to spread them.

[melman]

240. "Interesting that Breitbart wants to spread them."

No, what's interesting is how many people find common cause with Breitbart when it suits them. And by interesting I mean pathetic.

[pnwmom]

241. Yeah, that's interesting. Breitbart aims at "ordinary Americans," too --

as opposed to women, minorities, LGBT, etc., who apparently aren't ordinary Americans.

So I guess that's why some people find common cause with Breitbart, even though they shouldn't.

[ehrnst]

248. I feel that way about The Intercept and Greenwald. (nt)

[catbyte]

230. Sorry, Bernie, but I DO. Because of this interference, the rightful POTUS is in New York

while a traitorous, corrupt, incompetent, vile, evil dictator wannabe has infested the White House & is trying to dismantle everything that has made this country special. I DO lie awake thinking about it & have ever since 11/8/16.

[Azathoth]

242. Oh fuck off, Bernie. Americans vote for personalities

They voted for you because you sound like a cross between Larry David and Doc Brown.

Every Democrat runs on "bread and butter" issues. And every time a candidate wins, whether it be Obama or Trump, everyone immediately tries to claim it was because of their personal favorite issues. But it's not. It's because most people voted accorded to their tribe, and the few in the middle personally liked one candidate and/or didn't like the other. Simple as that.

[ehrnst]

244. "More important..."

That says it all right there.

[Tom Rinaldo]

252. Sanders gets standard adversary op research treatment by some at DU

We all know how it is done. Every political operation uses it. Keep the tape running at all times in all places that a political opponent appears, follow them around if necessary, scan every interview they give 24 hours a day, whether planned or off the cuff. The intent? Find something they say, anything really, that can be used in or out of context to spin them in an unfavorable light. Republicans do that against Democrats. Democrats do that against Republicans. The goal is always to damage the standing of your adversary, it is not really to advance real debate. We know the drill, we use it all the time against our enemies. And some treat Sanders that way here.

[DLevine]

253. Yup. nt

[Tom Rinaldo]

264. True enough. During primaries Democrats ARE adversaries to each other

I've been on DU since 2003, and have been through a lot of DU primary wars as a supporter of one candidate or another. Both Sanders and Clinton had full scale political operations during the primaries that looked to exploit weaknesses in their opponents. Clinton and Obama did the same in 2008. So did a lot of other candidates in both years who were eliminated earlier. Those operations get shut down as candidates are eliminated until we only have one candidate for the office in question. On DU we have an official primary season with a dedicated forum where supporters of one Democratic aligned candidate can freely make the case against a different Democratic aligned candidate. At a certain prescribed point in the election calendar that forum is shut down. For good reason.

[Tom Rinaldo]

275. Mr. Sanders is on the Senate Democratic Leadership Team. By definition, not an adversary n/t

[dalton99a]

254. 2 am tweet: "Bernie agrees with me 100% that the Russia investigation is fake news.

There was no collusion. Let's focus on tax cuts for Americans!"

[Bradical79]

255. Disagree

First, the party has been taking on those attacks head on, though some fights just can't be won with Republicans controling all three branches and most state governments.

Secondly, given the above, making the Trump administration pay for its crimes is a neccesary step in attempting to right the ship (along with winning 2018). It also helps maintain rule of law which is one of the most important aspects of keeping any large society together.

[Johnny2X2X]

266. Bernie benefited

Here's what's absolutely insane, people are talking about this like it's past tense, it's happening right now.

And what's difficult for me as someone who voted for Bernie in the Primaries, but fully supported Hillary when she won is this, if we can't convince Bernie voters they were misled by Russian propaganda about Hillary, how the hell are we going to convince Trump supporters?

The Bernie voters who spread stories about how Hillary somehow rigged the primaries or that there were voting irregularities in Nevada need to come to terms with the fact that they bought and spread fake Russian generated stories against Hillary. These stories took root in the primaries and were total malarkey. And for his part, Bernie didn't do nearly enough to thwart what he knew were bogus claims.

[ucrdem]

267. So the system really IS rigged, but now it doesn't matter?

hokayyy . . .

[AntiFascist]

276. Bernie should be looking to the near future: 2018 to be exact...

and help ensure that something like this doesn't happen again, otherwise it will! Dems have a very real opportunity to take back Congress and then we have a much better chance of working toward these bread-and-butter issues.

[BainsBane]

277. This American cares a lot

In fact, I care a great deal about the Russian threat to electoral democracy and its facilitation of the rise of fascism. The fact is that even the few issues Bernie does care about are effected by Russian interference. We have a president who is trying to engineer the greatest transfer of wealth to the rich in American history and is exploiting racial, ethnic, and political divisions to do so. The Russians not only helped but him take office but are continuing to use those same measures to keep him there. That includes using their web presence to ignite racial and political tensions that distract from policy. I don't know why Bernie can't understand that issues are interrelated. Economic survival of even the "more important" "ordinary Americans" are impacted by electoral politics, just as the economic survival of women and children are effected by restrictions on women's access to reproductive healthcare.