NPR NEWS INTERVIEW WITH SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS

PREVIEW AVAILABLE NOW AT NPR.ORG

June 24, 2015; Washington, D.C. – In an interview with Morning Edition host David Greene, the Senator from Vermont and 2016 presidential candidate weighs in on major political issues currently at play, such as gun control and foreign policy, and the problems he sees in Washington.

The conversation airs in full on Thursday, June 25, on Morning Edition (find local stations and broadcast times at npr.org/stations). A full transcript of the interview will be available on Thursday at approximately 10:00 AM (ET) at NPR.org.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, on the value he sees in grassroots political movements: "The reality of Washington, D.C., today is that we have one party, the Republican Party, completely dominated by big money and right wing folks. And you have another party, the Democratic Party, too much controlled by corporate money. What I have said over and over again is that no president, no matter how extraordinary, can deal with the problems facing the middle class, the disappearing middle class, the growth and grotesque level of income and wealth inequality; the high unemployment rate. We have no president that can deal with that. Unless we mobilize the American people and create a strong grassroots movement that says, enough is enough."

On gun control, Sanders says: "I can understand that if some Democrats or Republicans represent an urban area where people don't hunt, don't do target practice; they're not into guns. But, in my state, people go hunting and people do target practice. Talking about cultural divides in this country, you know, it is important for people in urban America to understand that families go out together and kids go out with their parents and they hunt and they enjoy the outdoors and that is a lifestyle that should not be condemned."

He continues: "If anyone thinks that gun control itself is going to solve the problem of violence in this country, you're terribly mistaken. So, obviously, we need strong, sensible gun control and I will support it. But some people think it's going to solve all of our problems. It is not."

On mental illness in America, Sanders says: "You know what? We have a crisis in the capability of addressing mental health illness in this country. When people are hurting and are prepared to do something terrible, they need to have help immediately. We don't have that and we should have that."

On foreign policy, Sanders says: "I will never forget those people who told us how easy it was to go into Iraq and how quickly our troops would come home. So I think what we need, in a very dangerous and difficult world, is to understand the United States cannot do it alone."

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