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Bernie Sanders offers pro-active steps against Trump on Colbert, crowd chants his name

'What you do now is get heavily involved in the political process'

Christopher Hooton
Tuesday 15 November 2016 16:55 GMT
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“Keep it light, it’s late night TV,” Stephen Colbert suggested when Bernie Sanders stopped into The Late Show this week.

“I wish I could,” the Democratic candidate replied, before launching into a passionate but collected speech about what America will look like under President Donald Trump and what citizens can do to make their voices heard.

“Above and beyond incredible bigotry of the Trump campaign, what he did is he tapped into a lot of pain and anxiety and angst the American people are feeling, which is rarely reported in the media, or understood by the punditry,” Sanders mused.

Second part of the interview:

“The fact is there are millions of people in this country whose life expectancy is lower than their parents, they are living in despair. They are turning to alcohol, drugs and suicide because they see no future for themselves. You’ve got 60 year-old workers today who are facing retirement” with zero savings, Sanders said, reiterating his campaign talk.

“At the end of the campaign, Trump was posing as a hero of the working class of America. I happen not to believe him. I hope I’m wrong, and he does follow through on some of his ideas about creating jobs sand raising wages.”

Sanders, who sat down on the sofa to chants of “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!” from the audience, couldn’t believe that the Democratic party has gotten itself to a place where it doesn’t speak for working class people, but he doesn’t think the situation is beyond hope.

“The vast majority of the American people are on our side,” he added, “[they] do not think we should give tax breaks to billionaires.

“They do believe we should raise the minimum wage and have pay equity for women. They do believe we should make public colleges and universities tuition free.

“So our job, right now, and this is terribly important at this moment….What you do now is get heavily involved in the political process. When millions of people stand up and fight back we will not be denied.”

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