‘I’m forcing you to talk about it!’ Bernie Sanders yells at Anderson Cooper and slams CNN
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders took a shot at CNN during a Wednesday night televised town hall on the same network, blasting news networks for failing to cover what he called “critical issues” and leading to people “losing faith in the American system.”
During the hour-long town hall, Sanders was asked by a civil rights attorney about why people are turning away from the Democratic party.
The senator replied that the “failure of the Democratic Party, in my view, is that they have not been aggressive in standing up to powerful corporate interests in laying out and implementing an agenda that speaks to the needs of the working class.”
The one-time presidential hopeful then posed a question to the audience.
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“Raise your hand if you think the American health care system is working,” he said. Several hands raised.
“Raise your hand if you think the American health care system is not working,” the senator said, and more hands raised.
“All right, let me rephrase the question — raise your hand if you think the American health care system is working well,” he said.
“Anderson, how many people are raising hands?” he asked of moderator Anderson Cooper.
“None,” Cooper replied.
“Now, raise your hand if you think the American health care system is broken,” the senator said.
“The majority. Everyone,” Cooper began to say, as Sanders interjected. “Not a majority. Virtually everyone in the room,” he added, to laughter.
Sanders said the United States is the only wealthy nation in the world that doesn’t guarantee health care to all people as a human right.
And the senator slammed journalists for failing to cover that simple fact.
“You’re not going to hear much about that on corporate television. You’re not going to hear much about that in the United States Congress,” he railed.
As Cooper tried to get more audience questions in, Sanders refused to move on.
“I know you do, but I want to talk about —” said Sanders, as Cooper quipped, “I know you do!”
Sanders then laid into what he called “corporate media” as well as his colleagues.
“Sometimes these issues about health care, about income and wealth inequality are not get talked about in the corporate media. And it’s time we did talk about them. That’s why — the question a moment ago — ‘Why are people losing faith in the American system?’ We don’t talk about it on CNN. We don’t talk about it in Congress.”
Sanders raged that a handful of billionaires exert “enormous influence” over America’s system.
“And that has got to change,” he said.
Sanders then took a shot at CNN.
“We need CNN to talk about these issues. We need members of Congress to talk about these issues,” he railed.
“We’re literally talking about it right now,” Anderson retorted with a smile, defending his network.
“Yeah — but I’m forcing you to talk about it, Anderson!” Sanders shouted, pointing a finger at the CNN host.
“We invited you!” Cooper insisted.
Watch the exchange below or at this link.