Yesterday, the New York Daily News published an interview with Senator Sanders that seemed to show he was out of his depth on a range of domestic and foreign policy topics. The interview is being almost universally criticized (I couldn’t find any positive reviews). I strongly encourage everyone to read the transcript in its entirety and make up your own mind.
The Atlantic:
How Much Does Bernie Sanders Know About Policy?
[T]he Vermont senator’s interview with the editorial board of the New York Daily News raises some questions about his policy chops.
Throughout his interview, Sanders seemed taken aback when he was pressed on policy—and not just on the matters that are peripheral to his approach, like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or interrogation of detainees, but even on bread-and-butter matters like breaking up the big banks, the Democratic presidential hopeful came across as tentative, unprepared, or unaware.
CNN:
Sanders feeling media heat after new interview
The Vermont senator's April 1 sit down with the paper's editorial board, a transcript of which was published Monday, showed him having difficulty clearly answering some questions about both foreign and domestic policy, including the implementation of his much-touted plan to reform Wall Street.
Several times during the interview, Sanders expressed uncertainty over facts, said he couldn't give a proper answer to a question because he didn't have all the relevant information, or simply stated, "I don't know."
In one exchange, Sanders acknowledged that he wasn't sure exactly how he intended to break up the big banks, a proposal that has been a centerpiece of his Wall Street reform agenda.
For some political observers, the senator's difficulty in providing direct answers to some questions reinforced their belief that he lacks a concrete plan to implement his domestic agenda and is ill-prepared to handle the global challenges he would face as president.
It wasn’t like Sanders was in enemy territory. The Daily News has been quite favorable to Sanders in the run up to the Empire State’s primary on April 19.
This New York Daily News interview was pretty close to a disaster for Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders sat down with the New York Daily News editorial board on Monday, seeking its endorsement in the upcoming April 19 Empire State primary. It did not go well for the senator from Vermont.
Time and again, when pressed to get beyond his rhetoric on the evils of corporate America and Wall Street, Sanders struggled. Often mightily...what the interview exposes is that once the revolution happens there will be lots of loose ends to tie up. Loose ends that Sanders either hasn’t grappled with — or doesn’t want to...The Daily News interview amounts to a moment of reckoning for Sanders.
Vanity Fair:
Bernie Sanders Admits He Isn’t Sure How to Break Up Big Banks
In the wide-ranging interview, which took place last week but was published Monday night, on the eve of the Wisconsin Democratic primary, Sanders appeared to reveal a damning lack of understanding of the exact regulatory statutes, laws, and powers he and a cooperative Congress could use to break up “too big to fail” banks during the first year of his administration, an oft-repeated promise in his stump speeches...
Sanders displayed a lack of familiarity with economic principles when he insisted the U.S. abide by "fair trade policies" wherein companies could not outsource to countries without comparatively high wages or labor protections.
Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post:
9 things Bernie Sanders should’ve known about but didn’t in that Daily News interview
The more I read the transcript, the more it became clear that the candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination doesn’t know much beyond his standard stump speech about breaking up the banks and how he had the good judgment to vote against the Iraq War in 2002.
Nine moments in the Sanders conversation left me agape. From his own plans for breaking up too-big-to-fail banks to how he would handle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to dealing with the Islamic State, the man giving homegirl Hillary Clinton a run for her money seemed surprisingly out of his depth.
Capehart on Sanders’ banking knowledge:
Considering this is the core of his campaign message, Sanders should know all of the points covered in 1, 2 and 3 inside and out. He should have been able to lecture his interrogators into a stupor with his detailed knowledge. Instead, Sanders sounded slightly better than a college student caught off-guard by a surprise test in his best class just before finals.
Business Insider:
Bernie Sanders Struggled to explain his Wall Street plans in an uncomfortable new interview
The Democratic presidential candidate told the New York tabloid that he didn't know whether the Federal Reserve has the authority to break up the big Wall Street banks he decries along the campaign trail.
He also said that he hadn't studied the legal implications of doing so, and couldn't explain how he would have actually gone about prosecuting major Wall Street executives following the 2008 financial crisis.
Slate:
That NYDN Bernie Interview Was Really Tough. Hillary Should Face One Too.
Bernie Sanders was taking a bit of heat from pundits on Tuesday after being grilled by the New York Daily News editorial board on specific policy positions and coming up short on some key answers.
Sanders is perhaps taking the most criticism for his struggle to clearly articulate how he would break up the big banks, one of his central campaign themes...Not being able to explain how a key proposal on a signature issue would actually work in practice is not a great look, Bob—er, I mean Bern.
Sanders has also been criticized for his ill-defined position on drones, which seemed to amount to “use them, but don’t have any collateral damage,” as if collateral damage was an intentional thing that could be easily avoided rather than a “collateral” thing.
And Social Media has also taken notice (NOTE: I have not vetted all the Twitter users):
Constructive criticism for Senator Sanders: Before your next interview with an editorial board of a major newspaper, formulate a plan for how to break up the banks, bone up on banking laws and criminal vs civil law, learn more about the Israel-Palestine conflict so you can provide an informed opinion when asked, decide how you feel about President Obama’s strategy for ISIS, stop veering to your stump speech when questions get hard, and ride the NY subway so you will know what it is like.