- 6 weeks ago
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) holds a "Fight Oligarchy" rally in Lenore, West Virginia, and takes questions from voters.
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00:00Thank you. Whoa. Thank you all. Thank you very much. I am excited to be here in Mingo County.
00:23So, you are asking why does the United States Senator from Vermont come to Mingo County, right?
00:33And I'll tell you why. There's a lot of mythology that goes on in this country about red states.
00:40West Virginia is a red state. And blue states. Vermont is a very blue state.
00:46But you know what? I don't believe that for one second.
00:49I think that whether you're in rural West Virginia or in Burlington, Vermont, you've got the same exact issues.
00:59And I think we don't let people divide us up. We've got to come together to fight for all of us.
01:05So, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I was born a few years ago in Brooklyn, New York.
01:24My dad came from Poland without a nickel in his pocket. And he worked hard his whole life. Never made any money.
01:34We weren't poor. We just never had any money.
01:37We lived in New York City in what was called a rent controlled apartment, which made life bearable for our family.
01:46We didn't have to pay a lot in rent.
01:49My mother's dream was that one day she would own her own home.
01:54She died young and that dream was never fulfilled.
01:58And what I learned growing up in a working class family, I learned, and again, we were not terribly poor.
02:05We always ate and everything.
02:07But I learned about the stress that exists in a home where every day people are worried about money.
02:14And my mom and my dad would argue about this and that. And often it had to do with money.
02:19And that was a lesson that I grew up with and something that I have never forgotten.
02:25So that's kind of who I am.
02:28I moved to Vermont when I was early 20s. Been there ever since.
02:34And I love my state, which in many ways is a state like yours.
02:38It's a very, very rural state. Most of the people live in towns smaller than a thousand people.
02:43We have a strong sense of community.
02:46And I go around the state and I do meetings exactly like this, often smaller,
02:51just to hear what's on people's minds and we talk about how we go forward.
02:55Alright, here's what my politics is about.
03:00We live ostensibly in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world.
03:07But nobody knows that because we have more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had in the history of our country.
03:17Alright?
03:18So what I'm going to talk about, and then I want to open it up, I'm going to ask you questions and you ask me questions.
03:28But what I want to just talk about is something that you don't see much in the media and you don't hear much in Congress.
03:37And that is you are living in a country today where one person, Mr. Musk, owns more wealth than the bottom 52% of American households.
03:50In America today, the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 93%.
04:06CEOs of large companies make 350 times what their workers make.
04:13That is America today.
04:16People on top, top 1%, have never in the history of the United States of America, our great country, never had it so good.
04:27They're making more money than they can count.
04:30But what is going on in rural West Virginia, rural Vermont, all over America?
04:3860% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck.
04:45You all know what living paycheck to paycheck is about?
04:52You got 800,000 people who are homeless in America.
04:58You got 85 million Americans who have no health insurance or who are underinsured.
05:05And as a result of Trump's bill, that situation is going to become even worse.
05:12So in America, in a sense, you got two countries.
05:15People on top doing phenomenally well.
05:18Working class people struggling.
05:20Here's another fact you don't hear much about.
05:23In the last 50 years, all of you know, we've seen an explosion in technology.
05:30Every worker in this room is producing significantly more than a similar type worker did 50 years ago.
05:39Have wages kept up with worker productivity increases?
05:43No.
05:44You got the right answer.
05:45It's a sad answer, but you're right.
05:47And here's an amazing fact.
05:49That over the last 50 years, real inflation accounted for weekly wages are lower today than they were 50 years ago.
06:00All right?
06:02During that period, there was a massive transfer of wealth.
06:08According to the Rand Corporation, not a particularly progressive group, $75 trillion in wealth was transferred from the bottom 90% to the top 1%.
06:23So what you have seen over the last many, many decades, way before Trump, people working longer and longer hours, struggling to put food on the table.
06:36In many cases, seeing a decline in their standard of living today, worried that their kids, in many ways, are going to be worse off than they are.
06:45And almost all new income and wealth goes to the people on top.
06:49And then on top of all of that, it's not only income and wealth inequality.
06:54Anybody here think that the American healthcare system is working well?
06:59No.
07:02How many major countries on earth do not guarantee healthcare to all of their people as a human right?
07:09Anybody know?
07:10No.
07:11You're living in it.
07:13I live in northern Vermont, 50 miles away from the Canadian border.
07:18You get sick in Canada, you need a heart transplant, whatever it is, you end up in the hospital.
07:23You know what the bill is when you come out?
07:25Zero.
07:26And they end up spending much less per person than we do on healthcare.
07:31And I want to speak about this issue.
07:35I was chairman of the committee.
07:36It's an issue that I've dealt with for years.
07:39The system we have today is not only dysfunctional and broken.
07:44It is unbelievably cruel.
07:47You've got about a half a million Americans every year who go bankrupt because of medically related illnesses.
07:56They can't pay their bills, they go bankrupt.
07:59Does it make sense to anybody that because you come out diagnosed with cancer or some other terrible disease that you should go bankrupt?
08:11That is crazy.
08:13We have 60,000 people a year who die unnecessarily because they don't go to a doctor when they should.
08:22I've talked to doctors all over this country.
08:25And they say, you know, people are coming into my office and they're really sick.
08:28And the doctor says, why didn't you come in here when you first got your symptoms?
08:31Well, I don't have any insurance.
08:33I couldn't pay the deductible.
08:35And people die unnecessarily as a result of that.
08:38In America today, we pay by far, not even close, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.
08:47Now, the good news for all of you who are major investors in the pharmaceutical industry is you made $100 billion in profit last year.
08:58The bad news is if you get sick and you go to the drug store, you're paying by far the highest prices in the world.
09:04In some cases, 10 times more than people in other countries.
09:12So what we're looking at in America today, in my view, is a nation, people on top, got it all.
09:19They're doing really well.
09:21Working class people struggling.
09:23Healthcare system broken.
09:25A lot of kids cannot afford to go to college.
09:28That's why the time they leave school, they're going to be $50,000, $100,000 in debt.
09:33You got a housing crisis that exists in many, many parts of this country.
09:39Hundreds of thousands of people homeless.
09:41Other people paying 40, 50% of their limited incomes for housing.
09:46So the challenge that we face, and I want your questions on this, and it's not easy stuff, is essentially how do we create an economy in the richest country on earth that works for working people and not just billionaires.
10:04And one of the impediments that we have as we go forward, it's not just the economy which is broken.
10:10We have a political system which is broken.
10:14All right.
10:15So what is that about?
10:21This is what it's about.
10:23And that's the world that I live in.
10:25You know, I'm a United States senator.
10:26I'm in Washington all the time.
10:28What it is about is you today have a campaign finance system as a result of a Supreme Court decision called Citizens United, which means that billionaires can spend as much money as they want on an election.
10:44Legal.
10:45Legal.
10:46That's right.
10:47That's right.
10:48Which undermines democracy.
10:50So what happened is, and it's true in both political parties.
10:55All right.
10:56Musk spent $270 million to help elect Trump.
11:01He then became the most powerful person in government for a number of months.
11:05The Democratic side, you've got billionaires spending a whole lot of money on Kamala Harris's campaign and in other areas.
11:12To a very significant degree, you have a government now which pays attention to the needs of the wealthy and the powerful and does not have time or interest in worrying about the vast majority of the people.
11:26Sad state of affairs, but that is where we are today.
11:29All right.
11:30I've spoken long enough.
11:31What I want to do now, let me ask you a question and you ask me a question.
11:36Sound good?
11:37All right.
11:40Is, should in your view, healthcare be a human right?
11:48Who wants to raise your hand?
11:49Tell me yes or no.
11:50Yes.
11:51All right.
11:52I'm seeing almost everybody here saying yes.
11:53All right.
11:54I am.
11:55What?
11:56Okay.
11:57Good.
11:58And Faswell mics.
11:59All right.
12:00Talk about healthcare here in Mingo County.
12:02What's the story?
12:03Great.
12:04No problem.
12:05It's affordable.
12:06You go to the doctor and the next day you get an appointment.
12:08You have to go to the hospital, not a problem.
12:10What's the story?
12:11Who wants to?
12:12All right.
12:13I see a hand, young man right here.
12:14Stand up, please.
12:15Your name is?
12:16My name is Joshua Copley and I just graduated from a local high school, Tug Valley High School.
12:21In Mingo County, we don't even have a hospital.
12:26Our hospital was shut down years ago.
12:29The only hospital we have is Tug Valley ARH, which is in Kentucky.
12:34We don't have nowhere to go.
12:37You have people all the way in the head of Marboner Dingus, which is in rural, rural Mingo County, that will take 55 minutes for a paramedic to get to them.
12:49And that should not be a problem.
12:52We shouldn't have someone on the floor on the verge of dying and the hospital not even being able to reach them.
12:59Josh, thank you very much.
13:01Okay, who else wants to comment on health care in Mingo?
13:13I see a hand right woman right here.
13:17Please stand up.
13:18Hi, my name is Sheila Rose and I ended up back in Mingo County where I grew up after a chronic illness paralyzed me about four years ago.
13:28I've come a long way since then, but anytime I need to see a specialist, it's a two-hour trip.
13:35Anytime I need a referral to a new specialist, it's a six-month wait.
13:40There is no way to stay healthy in Mingo County.
13:45Okay.
13:54Other thoughts on health care?
13:57Yes, sir.
14:02Hello, Senator Sanders.
14:04My name is London Donahoe and healthcare, it's all across West Virginia is an issue.
14:11I'm from Cabell County and it's two counties over and we are a large city for West Virginia.
14:16And still, it is a struggle to find health care that you are insured with and find a place that you can actually go.
14:24I had a situation this week and I tried to go to the dentist and my dentist doesn't take my insurance.
14:29So, we had to find a whole new dentist, which I was unfamiliar with.
14:33And then, when I attempted to go there, we still had a struggle even them finding our insurance because there, even though they said the insurance would work, it did not work there as well.
14:43So, no matter where you are in the state, it seems like it's a struggle and I'm sure that's across the country, but it's just, you know, as a young person, I want to live in a country and a world where you can have healthcare for free or wherever.
14:57All right, let me ask another question.
14:58I want you to think about this.
15:03Why don't we do what Canada or European countries do?
15:08And every country has a different system.
15:10Some of them work better than others.
15:12But the basic premise of all of them is healthcare is a human right.
15:16And that people, regardless of the income, should be able to get care.
15:19Why don't we have that in America, do you think?
15:22All right.
15:24All right.
15:26Money.
15:27All right.
15:28All right.
15:29All right.
15:30I've asked you a question.
15:31Who's got a question for me?
15:33All right.
15:34I see a hand.
15:35Green t-shirt in the back there.
15:37Mr. Twain explained to us that carbon credits was destroyed.
15:46Carbon?
15:47Destroying them?
15:48They're doing flaring.
15:49I can't hear you.
15:50Okay.
15:51They're doing flaring for methane.
15:53And they're selling on the market out in California for carbon credits.
15:57That's why our waters went bad down here in Wyoming County, McDowell County.
16:01They're going to put five flaring pads here in this county.
16:04And the DEP lawyers own the company that's doing it.
16:07The what lawyers?
16:08The DEP lawyers.
16:09DEP.
16:10Spell out D.
16:11This state owns it.
16:13And now they're going to come in here after the rare earth minerals.
16:17And they are destroying our counties.
16:19They're destroying our water.
16:21I have been investigating this for two years.
16:25And I've been giving out water in Wyoming County for two years.
16:28The methane is supposed to belong to us.
16:31But they're stealing it.
16:33They're pulling it onto their land.
16:35And they're flooding these mines.
16:36And they're taking it and they're selling it.
16:38And they're burning it in flaring pads.
16:40And they're selling it out in the market in California for carbon credits.
16:44And we need Gavin Newsom to do something about it.
16:47Because he's the only person in the United States that can stop them from killing us.
16:52Okay.
16:53I've got to tell you that I'm not familiar with that particular issue.
16:56But I will, when I talk to Newsom, raise it for you.
16:59All right?
17:00All right.
17:01Other questions?
17:02I see a woman right here.
17:03Yes, ma'am.
17:04Here's the mic coming.
17:09Well.
17:11West Virginia currently has four members of Congress.
17:14We're down from five recently.
17:17Not one of them is willing to come here and do what you're doing.
17:21So I want to say thank you.
17:28I know that they're not willing to come here and meet with us.
17:31Because I have called every single office.
17:34Their state offices, the D.C. offices.
17:37And they're not willing to come here.
17:39That's not on their agenda.
17:40It's not on their plan.
17:42And so my question is, as a member of Congress, what can we do?
17:46Aside from calling and writing letters and begging to be scheduled for meetings,
17:52I've never felt more powerless in my entire life.
17:56And that's saying something because I'm a native of southern West Virginia
18:00and we're historically just a forgotten people.
18:13The answer is not an easy answer.
18:15But the answer, and by the way, one of the reasons I'm here in Mingo County is I have,
18:21I remember a little bit of my American history and the struggles that your miners fought here.
18:28So they were fighting oligarchy way back when.
18:36Some of them lost their lives in that struggle.
18:41Look, to answer your question, in my view, is you need a political revolution in this country.
18:48And what does that mean?
18:50It means that we need to start electing people who are accountable and from the working class
19:00rather than people who are busy raising money from billionaires.
19:04So, you know, you can do things like, this is a great meeting, it's a great turnout.
19:13So you can have another one of these meetings, invite your congressperson,
19:18and say, by the way, if you don't show up, we're going to be nominating somebody to run against you.
19:23And I know that when you are taking a position on politics that represents working people,
19:35it's hard to raise money and all that stuff.
19:37I know that.
19:38But on the other hand, if you have a strong grassroots movement,
19:43this is a lot of people from Mingo County coming together, right?
19:47I will bet you there are great people in this room who can run for congress or run for other positions.
19:59And I know it seems like intimidating.
20:01Oh, I'm running for congress.
20:02What do I know about this?
20:03What do I know about that?
20:04But if you have the desire, you can learn.
20:09You don't have to have a PhD in economics to become a U.S. congressman.
20:14You've got to have a heart and a soul that speaks to the needs of the people back home.
20:23So it ain't easy.
20:26But when you develop a grassroots movement and you've got good local leadership,
20:30these guys can be beaten.
20:33All right.
20:34I'm going to ask you a question, and then you'll come back to me.
20:37In America, we have, some of you may know, a life expectancy on average, how long we live,
20:48which is lower than many other countries.
20:50Okay?
20:51About four years lower than other wealthy countries.
20:54What you don't know is that if you're working class in America,
20:58you will live seven years shorter life than if you are wealthy.
21:04Why is that?
21:06Why do working class people die at an earlier age than people who have money?
21:11What's the word?
21:13All right.
21:14You got it.
21:15Talk to me about what stress means for an average person in America or in Mingo County.
21:24What does that mean?
21:25What does life mean when you're dealing with stress every day?
21:29Who wants to answer that?
21:30All right.
21:31I see a woman with a kid back way in the back.
21:34All right.
21:35Oh, look.
21:36You're going to get a mic.
21:43For a lot of people in Appalachia with children who work full time,
21:49it's crying at the grocery store, having to worry about being able to make enough money
21:56and afford things, pay our bills.
21:58A lot of times it's choosing between paying a bill or having food in the cabinet or the refrigerator.
22:04So that's really stressful.
22:06And stuff like that, stress, it affects your health.
22:09And then you don't have health care.
22:11And then you have nobody to fall back on because your parents are probably still working if you're from here,
22:17even your grandparents.
22:19So there's not a lot.
22:20And then childcare is ridiculously expensive, even with help and assistance.
22:26So it's very stressful.
22:28Okay.
22:29Thank you very much.
22:34All right.
22:35Who else wants to, that was, that was fantastic.
22:39Who else wants to look?
22:40I see a gentleman right here.
22:42Yep.
22:43Senator, my name is Ned Pillarsdorf.
22:45I'm actually a candidate for Congress across the border in East Kentucky.
22:49All right.
22:52Regrettably, when the big ugly bill passed, Kentucky Congressman Brett Guthrie and Hal Rogers
22:58said the following, they said Medicaid will be strengthened and preserved by that bill.
23:04Is that true, Congress, Senator Sanders?
23:06No.
23:07That is, that particular, thanks for asking.
23:09And in my view, and I've been in Congress for a while, this bill is the worst and most dangerous
23:22piece of legislation passed in the modern history of America.
23:26What it does is it makes massive cuts to Medicaid.
23:37So if you think you've got a healthcare crisis now, it will make it worse.
23:42There are estimates out there, credible estimates from organizations that study this thing, that
23:47some 15 million Americans are going to lose their health insurance.
23:53And that's just not Medicaid.
23:54That's doing away with the credits for the Affordable Care Act as well.
23:58Okay.
23:59It's going to cut back on nutrition programs for working class and low income families.
24:04Literally taking food out of the mouths of hungry kids.
24:09Cut back on education and other programs.
24:13And you know why they are cutting all of these programs?
24:17In order to give $1 trillion in tax breaks to the top 1%.
24:28It is absolutely disgraceful.
24:31It is.
24:32Shame is the right word.
24:35I mean, at a time, as you just heard from that woman, when working class people are struggling,
24:41you don't take away their lifelines, healthcare, nutrition, in order to give tax breaks to billionaires who have never had it so good.
24:50And that's just part of what was in the bill.
24:53That is the worst bill.
24:55And in my opinion, any member of Congress who voted for that legislation should be defeated.
25:03And by the way, I mean, as bad as that bill is for working class states like West Virginia, it is going to be a real disaster.
25:19We worry not only about people losing their health insurance.
25:23It's a question of whether rural hospitals, community health centers will be able to stay open.
25:30So it is a disastrous piece of legislation.
25:34All right.
25:35Who's got a question for me?
25:36Somebody let's go all over the place.
25:38I see a gentleman back there.
25:40Is that a?
25:41Yeah.
25:42Howdy, Senator Sanders.
25:47I'd just like to ask, I know we've got our representatives, Capito and Justice, that we all know they don't talk to us.
25:57It takes a gentleman from Vermont to actually be heard around here.
26:00And they have constantly sent out political ads saying that they're doing Trump's agenda without speaking to any of us.
26:11And I'd like to ask you, Senator, do they even speak to you, one of their fellow congressmen, or do they just keep together, go to Mar-a-Lago, listen to what the boss says, and then just go do it?
26:23Well, I know both of them.
26:26I've known Senator Capito for a number of years.
26:29We're on the same committee together.
26:30She's chair of a committee that I'm on.
26:32So yes, we have a, you know, we chat every now and then.
26:35But we are not bosom buddies and we do not have serious discussions.
26:40We live in somewhat different worlds.
26:43Other questions?
26:45All right, there's a gentleman right here for the mine workers, sir.
27:08There you go.
27:10Thank you, guys.
27:12Let's talk about stress.
27:15Now, I'm a mine worker, generational mine worker.
27:21We built these towns.
27:24We did.
27:26All of us.
27:31And I'm here not so much, well, for the mine workers, but for my dad, my generational family that's endured.
27:41Hardships.
27:42And I know something a little bit about organizing.
27:53Yeah.
27:54Yeah.
27:55Makes me kind of proud to look around the neighbors here.
28:00And several counties come here to visit, to see you.
28:05I've followed you, Senator Sanders, from Tom Hartman's show way back when.
28:14And I followed you when you were also back in the primaries.
28:19And I supported you way back when.
28:23This is West, by God, Virginia.
28:27And I have to say that I love what you're doing.
28:37I love how you present your presentations, you know, from town to town.
28:44We've got 55 counties.
28:45I would love for you to visit all of them, which I know that's impossible.
28:50But I want you to know that I get a good feeling about the crowd here.
28:57That you're certainly in good hands here.
29:10I don't think you have to worry about somebody banging your head.
29:15Well, just in case we have a few police officers around that hour.
29:22But we do, and I know something about stress and healthcare.
29:30My buddy here can testify to that.
29:33We've had to literally go up and fight and present ourselves in a civil manner.
29:41Way back when, in the 1920s, it wasn't quite so civil.
29:46But we've got to respect those people, our ancestors, from back then.
29:56Because whether you're union or non-union or anticipating on joining a union,
30:03if you get a paid holiday or paid vacations, thank a union person.
30:14Let me just jump in and say this.
30:18I know a little bit about the history of Mingo County.
30:22And the people who stood up and fought against the greed of the coal owners
30:31and the horrible working conditions that people had to work under.
30:36That impacted not just West Virginia.
30:40The whole country saw that.
30:43And out of what the United Mine Workers did came the CIO of workers all over this country standing together.
30:56And that resulted in higher wages, better benefits, better working conditions.
31:02So what the coal miners did here was not just a local issue.
31:08It was a national issue.
31:10And we thank them very much.
31:13Okay, I see a hand over there, gentlemen.
31:25Before that, let me get to the young lady.
31:27I want some younger people here.
31:29All right.
31:30Young lady with USA on her shirt here.
31:31Right here.
31:33Okay.
31:34Paz is coming.
31:36Good afternoon, Senator of Congress.
31:38I'm going to keep my question.
31:40Senator of Congress.
31:42Not been called that before.
31:44All right.
31:46Senator Sanders.
31:47Anyways, I'm going to keep my question short.
31:49But as you know, West Virginia is one of the top-ranking and lowest of education.
31:53And as we know, the big, beautiful bill has unfortunately passed cuts in the Department of Education.
32:00And myself, I'm a student at Marshall.
32:03And I want to know your opinion on how you think this is going to affect poverty rates and education in West Virginia as a whole.
32:10What's your name?
32:11Haley Harvey.
32:12Haley, come on up here.
32:14All right.
32:15I'm going to ask Haley a question.
32:22I'm going to ask it to you.
32:24Now, sometimes I am attacked by my opponents for being, quote unquote, far left, fringe, out of touch with where America is.
32:36Actually, much of what I talk about is exactly where America is.
32:42All right.
32:45So, Haley, I'm going to ask you.
32:46All right.
32:47Here we go.
32:51We are living, as you know, in a competitive global economy.
32:55Correct?
32:56We're competing against countries all over the world.
32:58And in order to compete effectively, we need, in Vermont and West Virginia, a well-educated population.
33:06Right?
33:07You are the future.
33:08Congratulations.
33:09You're the future of America.
33:10All right.
33:11We want you to do well.
33:16Is it a radical idea, do you all think, and Haley, you respond first, that we make, in the United States of America, public colleges, universities,
33:27and trade schools tuition free?
33:30Yes.
33:31Yes.
33:32Yes.
33:33Yes.
33:34I believe that education is the key to getting out of poverty.
33:39I feel like education is what makes us strong.
33:43And I feel like education should be just as accessible as healthcare.
33:49I mean, whether you're from West Virginia, where education is low, I feel like that's where it's needed most.
33:55We need access to scholarships and resources that allow people to go to college and make better for themselves.
34:04And maybe one day, if we get the education up higher in West Virginia, that we could actually make a change.
34:12Now, my second question is, are you a communist?
34:21No.
34:22All right.
34:23That's why I clear that up.
34:25See, I've been called a communist because I say what Haley said.
34:29Look, again, this is, you don't hear this on the TV and you don't hear this in Congress, but once again, you are living in the wealthiest country in the history of the world.
34:47And if we had good policy and the courage to take on the billionaire class, there is no reason that every kid in this country could not get an excellent higher education, regardless of his or her income.
35:04That is not a radical idea.
35:11And I want to just, I want you to think about, you know, we've talked a little bit about education.
35:16We've talked a little bit about healthcare.
35:18Think in your own minds, what it would mean to the people in this state, in my state, all over this country, if you did not have to worry about whether you could afford to go to a doctor or not.
35:29What are you, and if you had enough doctors and hospitals in your community, think about how that would alleviate stress.
35:37Think about what it means, parents, if you knew your kids were getting the best education in the world and not having to worry about whether you could afford it or not.
35:49And I want to tell you something.
35:50Not only is this not some kind of utopian, idealistic vision, it makes sense.
35:56Haley hit the point on the head.
35:58You want to have a prosperous country, you need a well-educated country.
36:02I want her to get the best education.
36:05We want to invest in our kids.
36:09And it's not just college kids.
36:12I want the best and the brightest to become teachers in America.
36:18And they deserve to be paid decently.
36:22And every psychologist, child psychologist, will tell you that zero through four are the most significant years of a human being's life in terms of intellectual and emotional development.
36:39I want the best childcare system in the world.
36:46These are not radical ideas.
36:52Many of them already exist in other countries around the world.
36:57We are way behind despite being richer.
37:00The problem is that these people on top are incredibly greedy.
37:12I'll tell you a story.
37:13I used to be the chairman of the Veterans Committee.
37:15I worked really hard on that.
37:17And I believe, as I think somebody here said, that people who put their lives on the line deserve the quality of health care and other benefits that they earn.
37:31I go around the state of Vermont and I talk to veterans.
37:38And I bet it's not any different here.
37:40And they tell me, I say, you know, do you know there's a benefit out there?
37:44And how often I hear people say, well, Bernie, yeah, I know, but somebody else needs it more than me.
37:50I hear that often.
37:52In other words, they're looking out for other people, which I think is a common factor here in West Virginia and rural Vermont as well.
38:00Okay.
38:01Not these guys on top.
38:02Hey, I'm only worth $30 billion.
38:05How can I get by?
38:07I need a tax break.
38:08Oh, it's going to cut Medicaid.
38:10What's the problem?
38:11Cut nutrition.
38:12So what?
38:13I need a tax break so I can make another few billion dollars.
38:17All right.
38:18That is what we are up against.
38:21We're up against an extraordinary greed and people who could care less about their fellow Americans.
38:28That's the struggle that we face.
38:30All right.
38:31Questions?
38:32Yeah.
38:33Thank you so much, Senator.
38:35I'm from Parkersburg, West Virginia.
38:37I'm a federal employee.
38:38I'm a chief steward for the National Treasury Employees Union.
38:41You were.
38:42I was.
38:43We have lost our collective bargaining rights because of a bogus executive order from March that violates statutes.
38:50statutory law.
38:51The courts are failing us.
38:53The courts will probably continue to fail us with the Roberts court.
38:57So we need Congress to act to restore our collective bargaining rights and our union contracts.
39:03And federal employees have been through hell for seven months.
39:06We need Congress to care about that.
39:08Our representatives don't.
39:09And so we need folks like you to care about that.
39:12And while I'm here, as a union steward, I want to thank all of you from the UMWA, who.
39:24I'll just say the labor history down here shows how you deal with the billionaire class.
39:29All right.
39:30What the gentleman is talking about, and he's raised a whole broad question.
39:41Musk contributes 270 million to Trump's campaign.
39:45Trump wins.
39:46Musk becomes the most important person in government.
39:49It goes all over the place.
39:51Cutting back.
39:52They threatened to cut back 80,000 employees at the Veterans Administration.
39:59Well, pressure.
40:01We put pressure on them.
40:02Now I think they're down to 30,000, which is also a disaster.
40:06All right.
40:07They went after federal employees.
40:08Workers in America, the last that I heard, have the constitutional right to form a union.
40:16Including federal employees.
40:21But this president who tells people in West Virginia, always for working people, they just did a couple of things.
40:30Not only did they lay off tens of thousands of federal employees, they destroyed, arbitrarily and illegally,
40:37the right of federal employees to have union representation.
40:41And the other thing they did, and again, I'm speaking to people who voted for Trump, working class people.
40:47Union members.
40:48They have now neutered the National Labor Relations Board.
40:52And you know what that means?
40:54It means that if workers today are forming a union, and millions of workers want to do that,
40:59they really, if the employer objects to the vote, it'll be tied up forever because there's nobody at the NLRB who can make a decision.
41:09They did that on behalf of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
41:13So thank you for your point, and yes, we're going to fight for federal employees, and thank you for what you're doing.
41:18Young lady right there.
41:23Yep.
41:30Good afternoon, Senator Sanders.
41:32My name is Danielle Kirk.
41:33I'm from Mingo County, but I currently live in Kentucky, which obviously is a very majority white demographic of people.
41:40And we've recently seen attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
41:45How do we, as people in this room, communicate effectively with our neighbors that diversity, equity, and inclusion means us Appalachians too?
41:56Equity?
42:02And as they've all mentioned here, our senators obviously don't really care.
42:06But these are conversations that's important for us to have.
42:09And I think that a lot of times we forget that equity and scholarships and grants and things like that,
42:16that help us get to where the rest of the country is, is being lost in all of this Trump agenda that we're seeing right now.
42:25Okay.
42:27All right.
42:28You raise an issue.
42:31Okay.
42:32Your name, I'm sorry.
42:33Yes.
42:34Danielle.
42:35Danielle raises a very, very important issue.
42:37All the questions are great questions.
42:41You're not going to hear my Republican colleagues coming to West Virginia or anyplace house and say,
42:48vote for me because I gave a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the rich 1%.
42:54I really would appreciate your support.
42:56That's not what they're going to talk about.
42:58What demagogues do, and Donald Trump is a demagogue,
43:03how do they gain power?
43:06Do they talk about throwing federal employees or breaking unions?
43:11That's not what they talk about.
43:13What they do is they try to divide us up.
43:18You see?
43:19So we don't talk about the healthcare crisis that exists not just in Mingo County, but in every state in the country.
43:28We don't talk about that.
43:29We make it worse.
43:30We don't talk about the housing crisis exists in West Virginia, Vermont, all over America.
43:36We don't talk about income and wealth inequality.
43:38We don't talk about education.
43:40What do we talk about?
43:41Our job is to hate people who are different than us.
43:46You got it?
43:47Let's spend all of our time hating people who are different than us.
43:53Nothing new.
43:55Sometimes in Europe, during the Hitler era, it was Jews, it's gays, it's gypsies.
44:03In this country, historically, it was blacks, Latinos, you name it.
44:08And now we're supposed to hate.
44:10Let's all get together and hate undocumented people who, by the way, are doing some of the most difficult, underpaid work in America.
44:18All right?
44:20But let's hate them.
44:22Let's all come together and hate them so that we don't have to focus on the bloody billionaires whose greed is destroying America.
44:33So that's what that whole business is about.
44:36It's an effort to split us up, to tell white working class people that blacks get more than they do.
44:44Really?
44:46Well, what about making higher education available to all black and white and Latino, all Americans?
44:59So that is what that's about.
45:01And it's exactly what demagogues do, not only in the United States.
45:05Trump didn't invent this.
45:07This is what they do all over the world and have historically done it.
45:10That's why the rich get richer.
45:12To have us fighting with each other.
45:15Black people are struggling.
45:16Latino people are struggling.
45:17We bring our people together, not allow them to divide us up.
45:26All right.
45:27I see a gentleman back there.
45:30Yeah.
45:35I want to thank you for letting me speak.
45:37I appreciate it.
45:38I'm a commander of the disabled American veterans here in West Virginia.
45:43One chapter.
45:44And I want to ask this question for all the veterans in our state.
45:50What is the bill that just got passed?
45:53What's it going to do to our medical in this state?
45:57How is it going to affect the VA medical system?
46:03The bill will, we estimate, I've heard, take 50,000 West Virginians off of Medicaid.
46:11In terms of the VA stuff was not dealt with in the big, beautiful bill.
46:16That's something separate.
46:17What that is about, let me thank you for asking.
46:20What's your first name?
46:21Wayne?
46:22Okay.
46:23Wayne asked a very good question.
46:28What Musk and his friends originally wanted to do was to lay off 80,000 workers at the Veterans Administration.
46:40Can you guess, Wayne, what that will mean for health care for veterans in this country?
46:45It'll be a disaster.
46:47Okay.
46:48We push back.
46:49I was on the phone with the heads of every, the Legion, the DAV, the VFW.
46:55I, you know, talked to them all.
46:56I think they pushed back.
46:57So instead of 80,000, they're now talking about laying off 30,000, which will be a bad situation.
47:04In my view, now why are they, why does Musk and others talk about privatization and going after the VA?
47:13Who has an idea as to why?
47:15Wayne, what do you think?
47:17Money.
47:18What do they want eventually?
47:19Do you think they like the VA?
47:21You got it.
47:23Wayne hit the nail on the head.
47:25These guys want to make money off the air you breathe, the water you drink, everything.
47:31Right now we have a VA system.
47:33Is it perfect?
47:34No.
47:35Do we need more doctors and nurses?
47:37Yes.
47:38Do we need to expedite getting benefits out?
47:40But we made some progress.
47:41PAC Act helped a lot of people.
47:43Those are workers who were exposed to toxic waste pits in the Middle East and elsewhere got sick.
47:50We finally got them the benefits that they deserve, right?
47:53Health care and other benefits.
47:55What the Musks of the world want to do is privatize Social Security, privatize the VA, the Postal Service, you name it, because there's money that can be made.
48:07So keep an eye on that one.
48:09Our job is to strengthen the VA, not to privatize it.
48:14All right.
48:15Maybe one or two more questions here.
48:16Young man right here.
48:17Here you go.
48:18Hello, Senator Sanders.
48:24First of all, I want to thank you for showing West Virginia some love.
48:29And my belief, and I think the belief of everybody here, is that West Virginia is not going to succeed until the American working class succeeds as a whole.
48:39So, having said that, my question is this.
48:44How do we get the corporate wing of the Democratic Party, who is just as guilty of taking money from billionaire causes to embrace a progressive working class agenda, because it's about time?
48:59What's your name?
49:00Max.
49:01You're going to lead it, Max.
49:03Max is absolutely right.
49:10I am here in Mingo County and proud to tell you I'm the longest serving independent in the history of the United States Congress.
49:17All right?
49:18All right?
49:19I caucus with the Democrats, because they're better than the Republicans.
49:23But you're absolutely right.
49:24Anyone here thinks that the Democratic Party has not been significantly captured, and there are a lot of good people.
49:31I don't want to say this is true of everybody, because it's not.
49:34But if the leadership has not been captured by that same bloody billionaire class, you'd be wrong.
49:39They have.
49:40And what we've got to do, you can do one of two things.
49:44Number one, you can simply move to take over the Democratic Party.
49:48All right?
49:49It ain't as hard as it looks like.
49:51That means coming to meetings.
49:53Take it over.
49:54Run your own candidates.
49:56Okay?
49:57You know, somehow you think, I've got to impress upon people.
50:01You know, I was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont, largest city in Vermont in the early 80s.
50:07I didn't know a bloody thing about how to run a municipality.
50:11But I wanted to learn.
50:12And I'm not dumb.
50:13You can get run for office.
50:16Learn.
50:17You can do it.
50:18You can do it.
50:19So that is the main thing.
50:21This state was once the stronger, one of the strongest Democratic states in the country.
50:26And I think people gave up on the Democratic Party because the Democratic Party gave up on them.
50:38So take it back.
50:40Don't ask.
50:41Take it.
50:42I mean, this is an unprecedented moment in American history.
50:45We've got to be bold.
50:46You want the Democratic Party to change, you guys change it.
50:49And by the way, if you could do it here in West Virginia, you will have a profound impact on politics all over America.
50:58People will look to this state.
51:05All right.
51:06I'm going to get going.
51:07I've got to get going.
51:08But this has been a great meeting.
51:10And I really, I do feel very comfortable here in West Virginia.
51:14And it's very much like Vermont.
51:16We want you to come up and visit us.
51:18So let me end the way I began.
51:20There are people who want to divide us up, maybe racially.
51:23There are people who want to divide us up, blue state, red state.
51:27Let's not accept that for a moment.
51:29Every one of us is an American.
51:32We are proud of this country.
51:34We want to do everything we can to address its serious crises.
51:39Thank you all very much.
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