Oh man did the press
#FeelTheBern this morning during a breakfast give and take interview:
What does Bernie Sanders think of the media’s performance so far this campaign? Barely adequate. The huge speaking fees Bill and Hillary Clinton have accepted? Wrong question, he says; you should be asking why anyone pays them. How about primary debates? Sanders says the entire system should be redesigned to bring Republicans on stage with Democrats.
http://www.latimes.com/...
Clinton has yet to put herself in the situation that Sanders eagerly embraced Thursday morning, as he engaged in a frank give-and-take with reporters over breakfast. He delivered some lines it would be hard to imagine Clinton ever uttering — not because they reflected his socialist outlook, but because they were so blunt.
“Campaigns are not baseball games,” Sanders scolded. “What did I read in the paper today? Gov. Bush is getting a new campaign manager. You know who cares about that? About eight people in the world. Nobody cares about that.”
“I think the Republicans, frankly, have gotten away with murder. I think people really do not know what their agenda is.”
Sanders went on to express irritation with the way journalists slap the "socialist" label on him, as if his embrace of policies common in the democracies of western Europe makes him a radical outlier.
“It is not a radical agenda,” he said. “In virtually every instance, what I am saying is supported by a significant majority of the American people. Yes, it is not supported by the Business Roundtable or the Chamber of Commerce or Wall Street. I maybe old-fashioned enough to believe that Congress might want to be representing a vast majority of our people … and not just the Koch brothers and other campaign contributors.”
He suggested that if the media are going to refer to him as a socialist, journalists also should affix the label of “capitalist” with every mention of his rivals.
Sanders avoided much of the bait reporters threw his way Thursday morning. He did not attack Clinton’s character or her finances. Asked about the huge speaking fees she and her husband accepted over the past year and a half, Sanders said he was more troubled that any organizations were paying those kinds of fees. He then pivoted to a polemic on the billionaire Koch brothers, who back conservative causes.
UPDATED: Updated to blockquote first paragraph as I originally meant to as it was a quote but accidentally double bolded it.