The Tim Dillon Show - 467 - Bernie Sanders

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

Tim Dillon sits down with Senator Bernie Sanders to discuss his new book “Fight Oligarchy”, immigration, American funding of the wars in Ukraine & Gaza, the Democratic Party, transgender issues, and affordability of healthcare. Bernie’s new book “Fight Oligarchy” is available now online and in most book stores. American Royalty Tour 🎟  https://punchup.live/TimDillon SPONSORS:  Morgan & Morgan  Got to https://forthepeople.com/TIM Their Fee is FREE Unless they Win!  Stash Go To https://get.stash.com/TIM To Get $25 OFF Your First Stock Purchase!  Cozy Earth  Go to https://cozyearth.com & Use Code “TIM” for up to 20% OFF!  Neuro Gum Go To https://neurogum.com & Use Code “TIM” To Get 20% OFF Your First Order  Nutrafol Find Out Why Nutrafol Is The Best-Selling Hair Growth Supplement Brand At https://nutrafol.com & Enter The Code “TIMDILLON” to get $10 OFF your first month’s subscription and FREE shipping!  ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Subscribe to the channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TimDillonShow?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram: https://instagram.com/timjdillon/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TimJDillon Listen on Spotify! https://open.spotify.com/show/2gRd1woKiAazAKPWPkHjds?si=e8000ed157e441c8 Merch:  https://store.timdilloncomedy.com/ For every $400,000 we gross in revenue, we are donating five dollars to end homelessness in Los Angeles. We are challenging other creators to do the same. #TimGivesBack

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Tim Dillon Show. The book is Fight Oligarchy, Bernie Sanders. It is out everywhere. You can get it on Amazon.com. You can go to a local bookstore, which is always a good idea. Support a local bookstore, and I'm sure the author of this book, will appreciate that. Bernie Sanders, Senator, thank you for coming. My pleasure.

Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. This book, when you walked in, we talked about it is not big, but it is, it is, something that you've been talking about for many, many years. What is the importance of writing this now? Because you just got off a tour with the same name about fighting oligarchy. I think, Tim, this is kind of an unprecedented moment in American history. And I think what the book touches on are issues that the media in general,

my colleagues in Congress are not very comfortable dealing with. and that is power and wealth. Who owns the country? How's that? Pretty simple question. Who really has the power? And what we are looking at right now is a moment in history where we have more income and wealth inequality than we've ever had.

And I think what the American people have got to decide is whether they are comfortable with a situation in which one person, Mr. Musk, owns more wealth than the bottom 52% of American households. Is that really what? America is supposed to be about top 1%, owns more wealth in the bottom, 93%, and while the very richest people in America are becoming phenomenally richer, 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck.

It's a huge problem, and I think that most Americans would hear those numbers and think that there's a big problem, where you have one person controlling more wealth than 52%. percent of the country, which is probably around 150 million people, uh, maybe more. And that also is a huge problem for democracy. There's a huge problem for democracy. Um, Trump, uh, Kamala Harris, anybody in my lifetime that has been outside of yourself, that has been a contender for the presidency from a major political party is backed, usually. by the same groups of people.

They're very wealthy lobbyists, donors, the donor class is incredibly powerful. You know, the landmark Supreme Court decision to regard political donations

as speech. Right. Right? Citizens United. Citizens United. Thank you. The name escaped me. I can donate as much money as I want to a candidate, and it's considered speech. That's right. Where did we go wrong? Was it always as bad as it is now?

Look, money, people with money always had power. But Citizens United Supreme Court decision opened the door in creating a very corrupt, corrupt campaign finance system. And you said it all. Right now, in the Republican Party, Mr. Musk himself contributed $270 million to help elect Trump. And then he was given the opportunity to be the most powerful person in government for many, many months. Democratic billionaires play a very important role in selecting who the Democratic candidates are. And in a sense, through their money, kind of controlling what those candidates will stand for and what they will fight.

for. So the power of money right now today is extraordinary in both political parties. And if we're going to save American democracy, we've got to get rid of this, in my view, we've got to get rid of this campaign, this Citizens United Supreme Court decision. And you've got to move to public funding of elections. So in other words, if you want to run against me, I shouldn't be able to outraise you 10 to 1 or 50 to 1. I do that. I'm going to beat you every time. All right. you show that you have support you deserve a certain amount of public funding i will get the same amount of funding go for it your ideas better than not mine than you win the election let's have campaigns based on ideas not billion ass but a huge amounts of money at the ugly 30 second ads

for the supreme court to reverse the citizens united decision in your estimation what would have to happen well this supreme court ain't going to do it right we're going to have that the congressional action we can do it through congress and how would you do it through congress Well, you do it through legislation, basically, which says that you outlaw super PACs, among those things. That's the first thing. Who are the main opponents of this in Congress? If this were to come on the floor, I'm not asking you to call out names. Well, I'll call out names.

Mitch McConnell was one of the leaders in the effort as a republic. But the big money interests love this. Why wouldn't they? If you're a billionaire, you want to pick your candidate for president, hey, what's a few hundred million dollars to you? It's a great, they love it. Money talks, and they like that process. Is the Democratic Party, in your view, a bigger obstacle to your ideas becoming mainstream than the Republican Party?

No. Look, the Republican Party in the last 15 years under Trump has undergone a major transformation. It used to be kind of a conventional, George W. Bush, a center right party, right? That's what it was. it represented the wealthy corporate interest banks etc what trump has done is really transformed that party he won more working class votes than did common harris and he has created in the republican party a right-wing extremist party and also what worries me it's not only their ideology is this cult of the individual you know what i'm talking about my match that tim explain it but what i mean

I think I do. Look, it's one thing. You're a Republican. I'm a Republican. You're Democrat. We argue amongst ourselves. Your job is to represent your congressional district, your state, if you're in the Senate. Right now in the Republican Party, with very few exceptions, and there are some. They follow what Trump says, and they are afraid to move in any different direction. I'll give you one example, a very clear example. A guy named Tom Tillis. That name mean anything to you? Yeah. Tom is a conservative, you know, senator from North Carolina. So the guy read, made the mistake of actually reading this big, beautiful bill that Trump brought forth. He concluded, he says, this is going to be a disaster for North Carolina. Hundreds of thousands of people are going to lose their health care. Health care premiums are going to soar. I can't vote for this. The next day, Trump was all over social media attacking this guy,

and the billionaires were saying, we are going to spend unlimited amounts of money to defeat you in your primary. A day later, Mr. Tuller said, bye-bye, I'm out of here. I don't need this crap. And he retired. He retired. Yeah. Because he was going to face a very, very difficult primary.

And that's what it is right now. You are a congressman. You kind of disagree with Trump on this? Are you really going to open your mouth and have Elon Musk saying, okay, we're going to primary you. My guy's going to get $50 million to do you. Right. My wonder is because I look at, and I agree with you, and everything you just said, 100%,

the Republican Party has become a cult of, personality when somebody goes, we're going to release the Epstein files, and then they don't, and then everybody moves on, and then they go, what about Jimmy Kimmel? Yeah, 100%. My question, though, is the climate in which, because there's no doubt, the Republican Party's undergone a transformation, but also the Democratic Party seems to have overgone, you know, undergone a similar transformation away from working people and towards college educated, you know, credentialed, you know, managerial types that, you know, have four-year

degrees, have graduate degrees, live in urban centers, are more concerned with social politics than they are economic politics. And the Democratic Party seems to have diverted a lot of energy from the economic message that you championed into kind of the social justice sphere, which has proven pretty unpopular with a lot of those working class voters that went to Trump. All right. Let me answer you by saying yes and no. Okay.

How's that? It's a great answer. Yeah, after all, I am a United States. What do you expect for me? Yes and no is a good answer. All right, let's start it off. 50 years ago when Harry Truman was president

certainly when FDR was president you walk out on the street you said to somebody which political party in America represents the American working class answer Democratic Party right everybody knew that yes that was the answer in the 1970s

some democratic leaders became very very smart you see and they said hey Republicans are getting all of this money from corporations and the rich what are we knocking our brains out? Why don't we do the same, right?

Right. Let's start hustling some money from big money interest. And that began the process of moving the Democratic Party away from the working class of this country. Now, when we talk about social issues, I think the Democrats deserve credit for fighting for women's rights, which I happen to believe is extremely important, the right of women to be able to control their own bodies. and through a lot of reasons, grassroots activism, the women's movement, and the Democratic Party, we have made some real progress. You know, like 40 or 50 years ago, you looked at Congress, there were almost no women there at all.

Yeah. Right now, you've got women who are cops, their sheet metal workers, their United States, Center. We have made progress. Democrats deserve credit. We're helping to do that. In terms of ending bigotry, look, I'm a little bit older than you, but I can remember when I was a kid. No great secret. If you're black in the south, massive amounts of segregation, you couldn't drink at a bloody water fountain. Your kids couldn't go to an integrated school. You know, the civil

rights movement, Dr. King and others, along with Democrats, Lyndon Johnson, et cetera, help end bigotry in this country. At least took us a long way ending bigotry. I think that's important. Gay rights. Hey, how many years ago? 30 years ago, were you ever believe that we have gay marriage in America. No, I mean, and those things are all 100 percent very good things that happened. But I do look at the last election, and I think there seems to be, and you may agree, an outsized focus on cultural and social issues that to many people are a luxury, and not to everyone, but to a lot of people, they are a luxury. Fair point. Fair point. Yeah. Okay. So the point is not that fighting for women's rights or ending racism in this country or homophobia, those are good

things. But if your point is that in that whole process, the Democrats more or less turn their backs on the working class of this country and the enormous crises facing working people. I would agree with you. If that's your point. Chris Hedges, who's a writer, has described it as you have the Republican Party, which is a party about oligarchy, where you have very powerful individuals, some of them own companies, some of them run hedge funds or private equity or whatever it is,

and they have tons of power. And the Republican Party seems to have embraced that. You see all of the tech people lining up with President Trump. But Chris Hedges has described the Democratic Party as more of a corporation, where you have a lot of wealthy, interest that have gotten together. And while it's not as unpredictable and chaotic as a bunch of different oligarchs, it also emiserates the lives of people because the core economic concerns

of the population on issues like health care housing aren't being addressed. Absolutely. So my question to you is, you know, for example, there are a lot of ideas that a lot of people can get behind. One of the things I think that hurts the Democratic Party is the perception of that party as not being fully competent when it comes to public safety. There's a lot of cities in America that are primarily run by Democrats that are cities that you would, large swaths of those cities you wouldn't want to live in. There are tent cities. There are people out and using drugs and overdosing and there is crime

and there are home invasions. Businesses are fleeing those cities and once vibrant city centers of places like Portland or San Francisco, although San Francisco is getting a little better now because of AI companies moving in, but once vibrant American cities have become, you know, places that people wouldn't want to live. And a lot of people associate that with Democrats, you know, experimenting with programs that get rid of bail,

or prioritizing someone's right to not feel like their rights are being infringed on with the greater good of keeping the street safe. And the worry with Mamdani, who I think says a lot of good things, the worry with him from a lot of people that I talk to is that he doesn't, that his policies are going to increase crime in New York City. Because what he's going to do is instead of he's going to take money from the police and he's going to fund these people that are, you know, he wants people to go out that are not

police that are not trained in the use of deadly force, and maybe they're trained in mental health, you know, or other schools of thought, and they're going to confront people. All right. I'm done he can speak a lot better for himself than I can. I'm supporting them. In fact, I'll be back in New York City Sunday to do a rally with him. I hope very much he wins. I think he has the chance.

Look, between you and me, governing any major city today is an enormously difficult job. You've got to be a little bit crazy to even want to take that job. Agreed. All right. But I think this is, I've gotten to know him the last few months. He is a really smart guy. He is very serious. The first time I talked to him. You know, we talked about when I was mayor of Burlington, Vermont, and he talked about governing. How do we bring together the kind of organization, the kind of people that we need to be, to have an effective governance? So I think some of what some of those folks are saying, I think he is very cognizant of the crime issue, very cognizant for the homeless issue. But we are dealing not only in New York City, but all over this country with very serious problems. You got 800,000 people who are homeless, right? So what do you do? You got a serious drug problem all over this, you know, terrible drug problem. What do you do? Your point, I think, is a very valid point. Is the answer to allow people to be yelling and

screaming and shooting up in downtowns all over America? Is that the answer? I don't think so. Well, let's talk about what the answer is. In terms of the police, I think what some people are saying when we talk about police reform, police have an enormously important role. And when I was mayor of Burlington, Vermont, I got endorsed for the first time by the Patrolman's Association of the Police Union, got endorsed again and again and again. I work with the police. They are a very important part of any good city. But there are things, for example, do you need to have a cop? If somebody overdoses, what's the proper response? Is it necessarily a police order?

If somebody is having a mental breakdown out on the street, you need necessarily a police officer. A lot of people would say yes because that person poses a public safety threat. It depends on the situation. It depends on the situation. But what you want to do is make sure you're utilizing your police in the most effective way that they are trained to react to. That's what the issue. And people can disagree on that. But I don't think anybody that I know who is serious about governance does not understand that we have a serious crime problem and that we've got to deal with it.

But let me switch gear if I might for a moment. Tim, you know, what I want to do, and the reason I wrote that book is to ask questions that are not asked terribly often in our country, among the ruling class of America. And that is, we are today the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, right? Yes. Okay. if we are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, one might assume that we have the best health care system in the world. Our kids are getting the best education in the world, that our people are living in great affordable housing, that our children are eating nutritious

food, etc. But nobody believes that is the case because it's not. And the question we have to ask ourselves is why is that happening and what do we have to do in order to make it happening, make it happen? And to my mind, what you are dealing with right now in an unprecedented way is a relatively small number of extraordinarily wealthy, mostly big tech type guys who not only have an unbelievable amount of wealth, they have extraordinary power and also they kind of believe that they have the right to rule that have some kind of divine right

and that there should be very little accountability toward them and in their powers we discussed the moment ago they and other billionaires have a huge impact on the political process so the interesting thing to me is people say well Bernie don't we have a divided country and the answer is yeah we do on many issues

but you know what on many other issues, Tim, we do not. You go out on the street and you ask people, is the American health care system working? And people look at you, say, you're crazy. Of course it's not working. Right. All right.

Should health care be a human right? Should all people have health care? Yeah. Yes. Okay. That's what most Americans say. Example. My brother is seven years older than I.

We grew up here in New York City, Brooklyn. Back then, so we're talking. 70 years ago, he went to college, Brooklyn College, a very good college. You know how much you paid? How much our family paid for tuition at Brooklyn College? $1,800? No, zero. Really?

Yeah. Wow. And if you go to the, during that time, you go to the University of California and the great public universities in the world. You know what tuition was? Zero. State colleges, tuition was zero. Today, people cannot afford to send their kids to college.

Every psychologist in the world tells you that zero through four are the most important. years of development, intellectual and emotional for children, right? Yeah. How's our child care system doing? Terrible. That's right. Yeah. It's terrible.

We're paying, you want to be a child care worker good? We'll pay a 15 bucks an hour with terrible benefits. You're doing some of the most important work in the world. So the issue that we have, you know, education was a study came out a few months ago. Our kids in America today rank something like 37th in the world in science and reading and writing and all that stuff. I'm shocked. It's that high. I've spoken to some of them. I, you know, it's pretty impressive. I can't say enough good things about Morgan and Morgan law firm. I try, but I can't. I'm telling you right now, Morgan and Morgan is America's largest personal injury

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Go to get.stash.com slash T-I.m. to see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase and to view important disclosures. That's get. Dotstash.com slash Tim. Payed on client endorsement, not representative of all clients and not a guarantee. Investment advisory services offered by Stash Investments LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor. Investing involves risk. Offer subject to terms and conditions. Steve Bannon, who you and him do not share many views, but you do share a few.

Steve Bannon has suggested seizing SpaceX, deporting Elon Musk. Like, here's my question. A lot of these oligarchs are very powerful. Unless we're willing to use some type of force and some type of legal means, how in God's name. Good question. Right? Good. All right. Let's be on. I mean, let's...

I'm not going to seize them. You know, unlike the president of the United States, I kind of believe in the Constitution and the rule of law. Agreed. All right. But. But there's always a but. Here's the but.

Yeah. The but is, and let me be as clear as I can be. Let's get him. Musk has, I don't know, $400 plus billion. He's on his way to become a trillion now. Yeah. Do I think that is acceptable?

No, I don't. Right. So I think we should have at a certain point, the tax on wealth. My own guess is most people can, making out a billion dollars. Yeah. So I think you need, right now, you have billionaires paying an effective tax rate that is lower than a truck driver or a nurse.

Does that make sense? Not to me. It doesn't. And I think what we have got to do, which is, is not only have progressive taxation that say to these billionaires, they can't have this extraordinary amount of wealth, what we have got to do, which is a little bit harder, is to change the culture. And that is, I respect people who are innovative, create new businesses. I really do.

They make money. God bless them. Who cares? Right. Make money. Get rich. But there is a limit. I think most of these guys get their satisfaction.

Have creation. They create all this kind of thing. They want money, yeah. But money as an end, really, what does the next $100 billion? If you're worth $200 billion out, do you really need another $100 billion? Do the work that you've got to do. You know, great people like Jonas Salk. You remember, developed a polio vaccine.

He gave it away. Right. The world remembers him as a great hero. Right. But Jonah Salk was not built. an autonomous drone army. And a lot of these guys are. A lot of them have given up on America.

They don't care about the nation state. They want to raise tremendous amounts of capital from the government. They want to raid the treasury so they can build a arsenal of weapons for the defense department, maybe also for themselves. They're all building these bunkers all over the world. What do they know that we don't know? or, you know, not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but it's creepy.

You're getting, look, you're getting into some kind of creepy areas. And I don't, I don't think you're crazy. I mean, who the hell knows, but maybe you're crazy. I don't know. But I don't think so. But here's, look, let's go there for a second. All right. Right now, you know, I know, presumably everybody knows, no great secret.

You have Musk and Bezos and Ellison and Altman and others are putting hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of billions. dollars into AI and robotics, correct? Correct. Okay. Now, does anybody really believe that these guys are doing it in order to improve life for the average American? Zero people believe that. Statistically. It's funny that you say that. Yeah. I was at Davenport Island. Those four guys don't even believe it. I was in Davenport, Iowa, a couple of months ago. And we had a few thousand people out of the rally. So I said, you know, I said what I just said now. They're putting all those money. Raise your hand. Thousands of people there. Raise your hand if you think AI and robotics

is going to help the working class of this country. In a room of several thousand people, two hands went up. So people understand, you know, and now what are their goals? What are they trying to do? And this is where it really becomes kind of creepy. In my view, and I'm not, I don't claim to be the world's greatest expert. But what you're going to see, with AI and robotics is the displacement of millions and millions of people from the jobs that they have. You know, I want to see manufacturing rebuilt in America, but for a worker, it's not going to mean anything if robots are doing the work. And we want to see young people start their own small businesses, et cetera. But it's going to be incredibly hard when we see more concentration of

ownership and when entry-level jobs are going to be done by AI. So you're looking at a revolution, huge economic, economic transformation, cultural transformation of our society. Who is determining what's happening? You have much say in it? No. No. I've got a handful of people who are really determining the future of the world. That's scary stuff.

Well, I want to talk about for a minute because Trump's main issue, it was immigration. The migration seems to be the biggest issue in the UK election. it was the biggest issue in the U.S. election. It seems to be a massive issue all over the world. And I wanted to talk. I don't like the ice rates. They're barbaric. I think showing up to a college graduation

and deporting somebody who's there to watch his daughter graduate from college or high school, whatever it is, is inhumane. But I will point to an article from 2007 in the Wall Street Journal about the Kryger Poultry Processing Plant in Georgia. And what it was, was after a raid,

you had the owners of that company were forced to hire American workers, a lot of them were African American workers, and then raise wages to around $7 to $9 per hour. And this was the direct result of not having a pool of undocumented labor.

I think a lot of people don't like to see people zip tied in the middle of the street, but they do look at the Biden administration letting in 10 million people and they're suffering and their health care

doesn't exist or is too expensive and they're looking at all the people coming in and the justifications for that that these are all jobs Americans won't do. The service industry

you know, whether it's manufacturing or landscaping or whatever it is. These jobs, because this is what I, every ever since I've grown up, we've always heard that. These are jobs Americans won't do. Mark Andreessen said recently that the only jobs it won't be replaced by AI or venture capital, which is his job. So my question is, is there a position that the Democratic Party can take that is obviously anti people getting dragged out of their houses, but recognizes that citizens, should mean something, that we should have a border, and that, you know, having laws that

protect workers is important, and that people employing undocumented workers or illegal labor is driving down wages for Americans. You've asked a lot of very important questions, good questions. Let's start off with the basic. so long as we have nation states, right, which we have, you got to have borders, right? Right. If you don't have any borders, then you don't have a nation, right? In a sense.

So has historically the United States done well under Democrats and Republicans and protecting the border? The answer is no. Trump did a better job. I don't like Trump, you know, but we should have a secure border. And it ain't that hard to do. Biden didn't do it. Those before him did not do it.

We should have a secure border. I think most people in the Congress agree with that. Why don't you think he did it, just out of curiosity? Pardon me? Why don't you think Biden was more proactive with securing the border? He did. He did some things. He was not, I think by the end of his term, my memory is correct, the number of illegal folks coming in had gone down.

But I'm not going to sit here and tell you that overall it was a good job. It was not. all right so that's point number one you need a border let's have a border and we have certainly the technology and the manpower to make that happen number two what happens what is the appropriate response to we think there are about 10 million undocumented people in the country today less than 3% of our population okay probably there are estimates that are higher but let's say it's 10 that's those the best estimates I've seen okay why did those let's be clear

those people my father came to this country from Poland came in legally they came in illegally period okay it was illegal what are most of those people

doing right now are they oh working hard good none of those people should be faulted for coming here okay it should be we should start faulting

people like Steve Wynn who run a billion dollar hotel on and exploit them right on illegal labor and why aren't we enforcing e-verify yeah good all right yeah all right anyway so you got these folks who came to this country the same reason my dad came to this country he was grew up poor in poland came for a better life and that's why they dragged their kids you know from mexico

guatemala thousands of miles you know they have a better life they escape the violence and the poverty that they're in they're here now the truth of the matters and one of the things that i really, really dislike about Trump and what demagogues always do is this country, as we've discussed, has enormous problems. And what demagogues always do, instead of trying to deal with why we have those problems, what are the causes of the problem, what are the solutions? You blame a powerless minority. In Europe in the 30s, it was the Jews, it was gypsies, in this country, it was gays, it was blacks forever, you know, and Latinos, always somebody to blame, rather than dealing with the real issue. So in any of here, you've got roughly 10 million people in this country,

most of whom, by the way, work very hard. And according to a number of studies, the crime rate, you know, Trump goes around, you know, talking about, you know, commits a terrible, terrible murder. Trump is talking about all their lawless, you know, disgusting subhuman human beings. Look at this crime. The truth is that the crime rate in communities of undocumented people is lower than the general average. Do you know that? Well, the crime rate should almost be none, right? If we're bringing, if people are coming into America and they are, you know, coming here for a better life and they're properly screened, the crime rate should almost be nothing.

Well, literally, it's, all I'm saying is this is not like, it's not like that criminals, everyone's a drug out. I don't think anyone thinks everyone is a criminal, and I don't think that anyone, but we do have a ton of income inequality, as you've talked about. So, assimilating people into this economic structure, it's difficult. it is inevitable that some people that cannot find work will turn to crime. And I mean, that's just inevitable. But my only point is this, you know, this is not a community that is, you know, prone to large amounts of crime. All right. So what do we do?

You've got 10 million people here. Most of them are working on. Your point, I think, is well taken. Yeah. A lot of employers exploit them. Yeah. And by the way, often these people are paying Social Security payroll tax, paying Medicare payroll tax, paying Medicare payroll tax, paying other taxes, and they don't get the benefits for what they pay, by the way.

Right. All right. But this has always been a Republican issue. Like, this is why I don't understand why the Democratic Party allowed the issue to be kind of, to demagogued. Because even, you know, yourself, you were out, they're advocating always for workers' rights. Right. And, you know, when somebody talked about open borders, you rightly said that, you know, this is something that Koch brothers would love.

That's right. They were huge proponents of immigration, the Chamber of Commerce, huge proponents of immigration. a lot of, you know, radical libertarians like the Cokes and others, huge proponents of immigration. So when they're bringing all these people in, and whether it's 10 million or more, I mean, there's probably, I mean, I think they're credible estimates there are a bit more. But I don't think it's necessarily about the exact number. But why were Americans told at a certain point that they should not consider, consider certain blue-collar jobs worthy of their time.

They should take out student loans and, you know, go to a four-year university. And then a lot of those jobs that were, you know, ended up going to people that came into the country legally and the employers are paying a lot less money. I think there's a lot of people that feel that these pro-business interests brought in a lot of people's to to increase the profits of their own companies at the expense of people that saw a lot of their jobs shipped overseas. There's a lot of stuff that's going on. One of the things, you know, in my view, I mean, for people like the Koch brothers, that was

their goal. It was cheap labor. But I think where we are right now, I mean, is you have X number, whatever. I think my own understanding is about $10 million. What do we do? And the answer is, I think right now, and where Congress has failed, although there have been bipartisan efforts, is obviously comprehensive immigration reform.

Right. And in my view, a path towards citizenship. And we have failed in that regard. So, you know, I think that right now that is the goal that Congress should set upon itself. I think that, you know, that is a terribly important issue that has to be done with. I love cozy earth, temperature regulating, clothing, and bedding,

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That's neurogum.com slash tim. You can also find Neuro at CVS and Amazon. You know, listen, I think that most. Americans, not not everyone, obviously, but most Americans feel that people should live the lives they want to live, as long as they're not infringing upon other people, where people do get understandably concerned as children. And I think with the trans issue, you only seem to hear from the loudest voices on both sides, by the way, people on the right that believe that there's, that trans people shouldn't

exist and then people on the radical end of the trans movement that believe any questioning of when younger people should be introduced to an idea or when medical intervention is necessary a lot of people they regard any question about those things as a transphobia or an attack most people in America don't want prepubescent children on puberty blocking hormones. And this is by the polls, right? Because they feel that kids are kids. They're young.

They don't quite know what's going on yet. And to make an irreversible medical decision at that age, if you're encouraged to do so, that to a lot of people feels like an infringement on their rights as parents. And to me, I feel like it's one of the issues that the Democratic Party has seemed to have lost their way on. because it has sucked the oxygen out of a lot of the conversations that you want to have,

which are good conversations about a women's right to choose and gay rights and trans rights and all of these good things that should exist. But when you have this issue about puberty blocking hormones for children, it's such a controversial issue for so many people. The answer is, yes, you're right. But the answer is, and it is important, and I think Democrats and perhaps myself have,

I've not done as good a job as we're kind of dealing with it. What percentage of the population is trans, do you think? Probably 1%. Maybe at most. Yeah. All right. Today, 60,000 people every single year die because they can't get medical care. 60,000?

Yeah. All right. Today we've got 800,000 people who are homeless. Right. Right. We're dealing with a climate crisis that could wreck havoc over the years on our crisis. So I think you're right. in saying, I think you're right, that the Democrats have allowed the Republicans to exploit those

issues by not dealing with them affected. Well, they've also just refused to compromise. I mean, these are unpopular issues. Fair enough. Biological men and women's sports, it's just an unpopular issue. You know, child sex changes, no one wants this. Very few people, very radical people. And I understand that people have trans children, and I get it.

But, you know, this has tremendously hurt the electability. But I think the answer is, yes, but the answer also is, why are we talking, are we not talking about some of the issues that I raised earlier? Why are we not talking about the fact that we are the only major country or not to guarantee health care to all people? Because the Republicans are demagoguing this one issue because it was handed to them on a silver platter by Democrats. Well, all right, all right. All that I'm saying is if this country can do whatever, I live 50 miles, I live in Burlington, 50 miles away from the Canadian border, you end up in a hospital in a month in Canada. You know what the bill is when you come out? A lot of money. In Canada, a lot of money? No, zero. Oh, oh, in Canada. It's right. Three a minute in Burlington. Burlington is a lot of money. Or does this a lot of money. All right. They spend half as much per capita on health care. Stop for a moment and think what it would mean to this country. I'm talking. to the people out there.

If you get ill, you end up in a hospital and you don't have to pay anything out of your own pocket. And as a nation, we end up in spending half as much as we're spending now per capita because the function of our health care system is not just to make the insurance companies and the drug companies search. Do you know what that would do to America? Do you know how many people, half a million people a year go bankrupt because of medically related debt?

People don't go into the doctor. They can't afford to pay their copayment. Right. All right. It would be transformed. What would it mean to America if we raise the minimum wage to a living wage? We got millions of people, minimum wage from Washington now, federal minimum wage, seven and a quarter an hour, all right?

You got millions of people working for starvation wages. All right? What would it mean if we raise the minimum wage to a living wage? What would it mean in this country if you didn't have to pay 40 or 50% of your limited incomes on housing because we built millions of units of low-income and affordable housing. Yeah. Well, what I'm saying is the Republicans, and I really do dislike this. If people disagree with me on health care, fine.

Let's debate the issue. Disagree with me on economics. Debate the issue. But I really do hate demagoguery where you deflect attention away from the major crises facing large numbers of people right now, as you know, where I think in the 20th day of a shutdown. You know what the issue is? The issue is a very simple one.

If Trump and his friends get their way, 15 million people will lose the health care they have today. And according to studies, 50,000 of them will die unnecessarily every year. And if you're on the Affordable Care Act, on average, your premiums will double. Which is why I think a lot of people, because I agree, but a lot of people with an election was so much at stake, were shocked that President Biden was, you know, put out as the candidate with clear cognitive issues. And then without a primary, Kamala Harris, who was relatively unpopular in the Democratic primaries,

was then the candidate. And she only had 90 days to sell herself to the American people. And by the way, she did a decent job for having. 90 days. But the machinery of the Democratic Party allowed that to happen, and this has nothing to do with you, by the way. You're kind of, even though you're a Democrat,

you're outside of that. I'm an independent. You're an independent. You know, a caucus with the Democrats. No, for sure. And nobody would hold you responsible for that at all. But the machinery of the modern Democratic Party allows that to happen when an elect, and they tell us this election as the stakes have never been higher. Democracy is on

the ballot. And then they allow this to happen. How does that happen? Why is there such a cover-up with Biden's mental decline? Why is there no primary, a quick one even, after he is judged unfit to run? Why is there no transparency there? That's a huge problem. And it, I think it delivered the, I mean, I know people blame five podcasters, but I think that process helped deliver the country. Again, we, let me just say this. You know, I ran against the complex. back in 2020. And I know her is not close, but I know her well,

and she's an incredibly intelligent, focused person. And I worked as hard as I could. I ran all over the country to try to get her elected. I think the reason that she lost that election gets back to the point we discussed at the beginning of this podcast, and that is money in politics. Kamla did not run a campaign focused on the needs of the working class didn't run a campaign focused on health care

on economics and raising the minimum wage on paid family and medical leave on housing on all of the issues that working people are struggling with right now and I think her not focusing on those issues allow Trump to win in my view right what do you think about this ceasefire or this peace deal is this gonna this seems like maybe it's unraveling we don't know well i hope it works you're right let's hope to god yeah i pray let me say a word on this

because i've been involved in this a little bit as you may know uh humas is a terrorist organization that committed an atrocity when it attacked Israel and killed 1,200 innocent men women and a lot of young people took hundreds of hostages. Israel had a right to defend itself as any country on earth does when you're attacked by anybody, especially a terrorist organization. But what happened for a variety of reasons in Israel, having to do with Israeli politics and Netanyahu, is they didn't just go to war against Hamas, which was appropriate. They went to war against the entire Palestinian people. And two years after that attack, You have some 65, in a population, Tim, of 2.2 million, pretty small population.

65,000 people are dead, 140,000, 160,000 have been injured. That's 10% of the entire population, mostly women, children, and the elderly. 10%. That equivalent in America would be 33 million people killed or wounded. all right and behind all of that was American money all right

so to my mind the first lesson to be learned is never again and this is true under Biden we begged Biden did everything I could to say Mr. President stop giving detainahu

more and more military aid to destroy the Palestinian people and Trump came in he continued the same process now thank God we think a few days ago they've reached the ceasefire hostages were released.

That's fantastic. Prisoners were released. Let's hope to God it holds. And let's hope that the United States and the international community rebuild Gaza. It's not just the dead and the wounded. That whole area is flattened. You have Miriam Madison who gave Trump a lot of money.

You have a lot of mega donors that have given Trump a lot of money. Apex is a very powerful lobbying organization that doesn't have to register as a foreign lobby. Should America fundamentally re-evaluate its relationship with Israel? I think the lesson here is that never again, well, never again should the United States be pouring in huge amounts of money to a country which is not only acting in violation of international law, but in violation of American law. It is in violation of American law to give money to a country which is restricting immigration law. humanitarian aid, for example. So we have given money to Netanyahu in violation of both international

law and American law. In my view, Netanyahu is a war criminal. The people at the head of Hamas are war criminals as well. I hope that is a lesson that we learn as a country. Well, I mean, you can see right now that this is the biggest tension point in both the Republican and Democratic Party when it pertains to young voters. Young people who can't afford a house are living in a country where they are graduating college and the job market is tough. Don't understand why billions and billions of dollars

are going to Israel. And by the way, they're also understanding we're now year three or four of this Ukraine conflict with Putin. and I think a lot of them are struggling to understand why billions and billions of dollars are going to the Ukraine and why Trump is now telling Zelensky

go win all your territory back instead of trying to force some type of peace. I don't see the two issues as comparable. I think, as I said, Israel had a right to... I mean, they're both foreign conflicts. Yeah, they are. That younger people are wondering why their money is going to negotiate a land dispute in northern Ukraine?

I don't call it a land dispute. Well, it's eventually we'll end up being some type of exchange of territory or it's a border dispute. I think Putin is a disgusting human being. And by the way, what is not widely perceived when known, you know, to the best of my knowledge, unbelievably hundreds of thousands of young Russians have died in that war well everyone so many people have died and that's why a lot of Americans don't want to be part of it you know I mean we don't want our money going to increase the likelihood that more people are going to die I think a lot of people are making money you know Putin's been

able to reorganize the economy of his country as a wartime economy he's been able to evade American sanctions. He's deepened his relationship with China, India, Brazil, the Bricks nations. He's been able to do a lot of things that have probably increased his power base for now, maybe not long term. But is it smart to keep pouring money and military aid into this conflict with America in the state that it's in? I have talked to ambassadors from a number of countries in Europe. And their fear is that Putin has this idea that he's going to rebuild the Russian Empire and continue to advance. And if he has not stopped at the Ukraine of the Eastern Europe countries will be next. I think that data will be involved in maybe the United States

and our troops as well. The rebuttal to that would be he can barely win in the Ukraine. So the idea that he's going to go march through Europe now, I mean, he can't even finish the job there. All right, anyhow, I think this is a terrible guy who invaded a country that should not have been invaded, and I think it has to be resisted. That's my view. At what point would you decide that it might be time to pull the plug on American funding for that war? Would you go, would you commit American troops to fight Russia over the Ukraine? No, no, no, no, no, no. Okay. Absolutely not. And I think- Would you give, would you give Zelensky long-range missiles capable of hitting Moscow?

No, I don't think you want to do that either. Okay. But I think, you know, you don't want to see this terrible war with so many casualties even explode even further. But I think, you know, the United States has got to use all of its influence to tell Putin to end this bloody war. You've probably seen a million ads for hair growth products and thought, sure, like that actually works.

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And he's always like, you can't make fun of me anymore, but he's still a commercial. failure in his chosen profession. So that's what we have to do. We have to make fun of him for his lack of success. See thick or stronger, fast-growing hair with less shedding in three to six months with Nutraful. For limited time, Neutrofo is offering our list. There's $10 off.

$10. What are they nuts? They're giving away the store. $10 off your first month subscription and free shipping when you go to Neutraful.com. Enter the promo code Tim Dillon. That's N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L-L-O-N. T-D-I-L-L-N. How do you think America's relationship with Israel is going to change? I think it is changing.

Yeah. I think as you've indicated, you got certainly in the progressive left community in America, which started off being sympathetic to Israel after they were attacked. That has been completely changed. And I think the point you made, maybe not widely known, it's a lot of young Republicans now, younger people, under 40, under 50, no longer want to continue to support government like Netanyahu.

Should APEC register as a foreign lobby? APEC has played a terrible role. That's a good question. I don't know the answer to it, honestly. But APEC has spread money around all over the place to right-wing Republicans, the liberal Democrats. And they have played a terrible, terrible role

in trying to win support for Netanyahu. I think the very good news is, their influences beginning to wane. I don't know if you've noticed it. I've seen it. Establish the Democrats are saying, well, thank you. Not only don't I want you,

I'm going to return your donation. Sure. I don't want any part of it. And that is because I think the American people are disgusted with what has gone on in Gaza. I think I want a few more questions. I think it's so interesting. Again, I think, you know,

you're, a lot of what you said, is so mainstream, and yet you are portrayed in the media as someone who's on the fringe of American politics. And that's, that, this interview doesn't seem to be the case. You're not saying tax people at 90%. Maybe you believe that, but you didn't say it. Well, I am saying that we shouldn't have people that have over than a billion dollars. I guess within the context of American politics. A lot of people, I think a lot of people would say a billion dollars is fine.

Yep. I think a lot of people would say a billion dollars is fine. And what I'm saying, by the way, Tim, is, you know, I talk to my European friends and they say, hey, Bernie, I don't want to hurt your feelings. But in Europe, you would not be considered all that radical. Right, right. No, and in America, maybe even not, you know, with, but so when you look at the U.K., for example, and you look at the issues that they're having around migration, some of these issues are financial, some of them are cultural. Some of these are cultural issues. Different groups of people learning how to live with each other.

That's right. And, you know, there is this knee-jerk reaction to call everybody a racist that has concerns about culture. And I don't mean, you know, people going like, I don't want to live with Muslims or I don't want to live with that. Obviously, there is elements of racism to that. But the United States, you know, when you have large groups of people, whether they're, it's guitar giving the president a plane. or it's Israel going, we need more money. Or it's the, you know, the government of Minnesota, Jacob Fry telling a Somali delegation, like, I'd love to go to Somalia.

One of the reasons I think Zoran's doing so well is he goes, I'm not visiting Israel. I'm going to stay in New York. And he's focusing on the issues facing the people in Europe. There are people that believe, and not in a paranoid racist crazy way, but that groups of people are using and exploiting not only America, but other successful countries, Western countries, and that they're going in there and they don't care about the laws, rules, customs, culture of the country. They're going in there to suck money out or they're going in there to establish a power base

and dictate, you know, a lot of people are worried about free speech. A lot of people are worried about laws that, you know, are supposed to be protecting Jewish people, but they really are protecting criticism of Israel. There's people that worry about, you know, Islamic. groups that are demanding that certain laws be passed that restrict any criticism of uh islam how can we have these conversations where they're not where people aren't having these knee-jerk reactions about racism how can we say that we do have a civilization that believes in certain things and then if you come to it or you come to the UK come to any country you have to respect the laws customs and

culture of that country you cannot turn um that country into something that it fundamentally isn't right you can't demand look if i come into your house right you invite me to dinner yes you are my host right right and i respect that yeah yeah i think that's fair yeah no one forces somebody to come to another country uh so i mean i think that basic principle is correct how do we figure out how, you know, because there's a lot of it, you know, when Zoran says, I want $100 million to deal with legal disputes for undocumented people in New York. There are a lot of Americans and New Yorkers that go, why aren't we spending $100 million and investing it in the Bronx or Brooklyn or areas of, like, it does seem to be, some

of the empathy that the Democratic Party used to have for citizens not having health care, it does seem to be always directed in the direction of immigration. Ron is a, I'm sure, a Medicare for All advocate as well. And, you know, we've talked about health care in New York City, et cetera. And I think he's going to do a great job in trying to deal with the affordability issue we're here in the city. But I think we're as a nation at a very, very unprecedented moment in that you have a president who wants more and more power unto himself.

And I think it's important that we stop him. and ice from these terrible raids of throwing people into vans. And I think that's what, uh, is, is trying to protect people who have lived in New York City for all over the country. I've not seen people all over the country. For decades, they're working hard. Yeah. It does not want to see, you know, somebody in a mask, pick them up, throw them into a race.

And I disagree with those ice rates. But if, if, if, if we're encouraging people to attack ice or block ice vehicles, if we're, well, well, for sure. But if, if that happens, that is, being. used as the pre-tax for these troop deployments in the cities. What Trump is doing is, it's totally crazy. I mean, he's trying to say that in Portland, Oregon, they are trying to overthrow the United States government. No, no, no, I understand. Really? I understand that that's insane. But I do think that Zoran, if he goes to war with Trump on enforcing federal immigration law, will make New York a pretty crazy place to live. Look, I think his focus and the reason, I think,

honestly, he's run a brilliant campaign. Yeah. He's a very, very interesting. intelligent guy. I think he's focusing on how you can govern in a very difficult circumstance. I think the focus on affordability, how you control housing places in the city. Are you make childcare available to more and more people? Do you worry that he'll move to the center? There was a, you know, there's reported that he had a meeting with David Oxirot and the Obama people and stuff like that. He talks to a lot of people and I think that's a good thing. No, I got to tell you, I'm a fan of his. I've been really impressed. You know, this is a guy.

What if he's toasting Jamie Diamond in two years? What if he's in a ballroom? I don't think that's going to happen. Well, this is what happens sometimes. And then somebody's in a ballroom with Jamie Diamond and Zoran's going, Jamie, you know, when I got here, I was just skeptic, but you're my best friend. And then they're on a yacht, and it's going all over New York. Between you and me, I do not think that that's going to happen.

I don't think Alexandria and I will be in New York City next week. Is she running for president? How about a unity ticket? Marjorie and Cortez. What about that? Marjorie Taylor Green and AOC. You came up with that idea. It's actually my idea. It's not a bad idea.

Fighting oligarchy is the book. Fight oligarchy. Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont. A consistent voice in American politics. There's no one that doesn't respect you, by the way, which is rare to say to a politician, go out, read this book, including me, and I appreciate you coming on and talking to us.

read this book and I hope Peter Thiel puts us in prison in similar parts of the prison so that we can socialize. Then we can discuss the book.

Bernie Sanders. Thank you so much. Jim, thanks for having me. Of course.