Bernie Sanders: ‘I‘m Going To Do Everything I Can to See that Zohran Becomes the Next Mayor of New York’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
Amanpour: “So the question is, what is the big strategy? You have been very solid in your political, you know, mission and your career. You‘re a progressive. Once you called yourself a socialist when you were a mayor in Vermont, and now you‘ve endorsed the campaign of Zohran Mamdani for New York mayor. He, of course, has taken not just the U.S., but the world by storm. You posted at this dangerous moment in history, status quo politics isn‘t good enough. We need new leadership that‘s prepared to stand up to powerful corporate interests and fight for the working class. Zohran Mamdani is providing that vision. He‘s the best choice for New York City mayor. So what would you say to the number of New Yorkers who say, oh, my god, he‘s never run anything? And he says, free busses. And he‘s, you know, is he anti-Semitic or not? What would you say to people?”

Sanders: “All right, let me — look, first of all. Understand he‘s going to have the entire establishment, the oligarchy, the billionaires coming down on his head, not only because he‘s demanding that the wealthy and large corporations in New York City start paying their fair share of taxes. They are worried that his campaign is an example of what can happen all over the country. When you bring people together to demand a government that works for all of us and not just the few. So they really want to crush this guy, and you have billionaires saying quite openly, we are going to spend as much as it takes to defeat this guy. You have democratic, democratic leadership, not refusing to jump on board a campaign with this guy as the democratic nominee. So most importantly, I‘m going to do everything I can to see that Zohran becomes the next mayor of New York in terms of his policies. Look, it is very, very hard to govern a major American city. A lot of problems out there. But I think he is a very smart guy. I do know that he is prepared to reach out to his get as many advisers in New York City and around the country. How do you deal with the crisis of affordable housing? How do you make health care more accessible and affordable in New York City? How do you deal with transportation? You know, the idea of having municipally funded grocery stores, not a radical idea. Working class families want to have healthy food for their kids. They can‘t afford it right now. Not a radical idea, but it is no easy—“