Bernie Sanders joined “Late Night with Seth Meyers” Monday, making the Vermont Democrat the first-ever guest on the at-home version of Meyers’ show.
The presidential candidate discussed COVID-19, the failings of the American healthcare system and his Medicare For All plan — as well as why he made some sarcastic remarks toward Republicans last week on the Senate floor.
“You still use your time on the Senate floor to be a bit sarcastic to your Republican colleagues. We do enjoy your sarcasm, we feel like it’s when your Brooklyn comes out,” Meyers said last night in their via-webcam conversation. “You were referring to the fact that some across the aisle felt the [stimulus] bill was being too generous to the less fortunate, to poorer Americans. In those moments of sarcasm, is that just masking a simmering rage you feel when your colleagues react like that?”
Sanders immediately agreed with the “simmering rage” analysis.
“Absolutely. You have folks in the Senate, my Republican colleagues, who voted for a trillion dollars in tax breaks for the 1% and large corporations. And yet, in this stimulus package — where we fought to make sure we expand unemployment, by the way, to a lot more people than previously were eligible for it, and then we said over a four-month period, in this terrible time when people are so worried how they’re gonna feed their families — that for four months, we’re going to add $600 to what they would normally get in an unemployment check,” Sanders said.
The presidential candidate, who is still in the running against former Vice President Joe Biden, said his colleagues across the aisle were being “grotesque” and “immoral.”
“We had some of my Republican colleagues that say, ‘Imagine there would be some low-income workers who would actually earn more from their unemployment check than they previously did when they were making $10, $12 bucks an hour. We can’t allow that to happen,’” Sanders said. “And to me, that is so ugly, so grotesque, so immoral, that I felt compelled to speak out about it.”
The sarcastic remark Meyers was referring to occurred last week on the Senate floor when Sanders raised concerns about the coronavirus stimulus bill that has since been signed into effect.
“They’re very upset that somebody making $10, $12 bucks an hour might end up with a paycheck for four months more than they received last week. Oh, my God, the universe is collapsing! Imagine that,” Sanders said. “Oh my word, will the universe survive?”
Watch one “Late Night” clip with Sanders above and another below.