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Transcript: Sen. Bernie Sanders on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Aug. 9, 2026

2026-08-09T12:37:00-0400 / CBS News

The following is the transcript of an interview with Sen. Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Aug. 9, 2026.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And we turn now to Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who joins us from Burlington. Good morning to you, Senator Sanders.

SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: Good morning.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We are 86 days away from the midterms. Tuesday in Minnesota, progressive candidate Peggy Flanagan, the current lieutenant governor, who you have endorsed, is taking on a more moderate candidate, Angie Craig. Do you think this is going to be a similar dynamic to Michigan, where this was a tight race?

SEN. SANDERS: I think it’s going to be a tight race. I hope very much that Peggy wins. I think what we’re seeing in Minnesota, Margaret, in Michigan, and all across this country, is that people understand that we’re living with an economy that is rigged. You have working families. 60% of our people living paycheck-to-paycheck. People can’t afford groceries, housing, healthcare, basic necessities of life. And at the same time, they’re seeing the richest people in this country become even richer. People are tired of the status quo politics and establishment policies-they want real change. And Peggy Flanagan is about bringing about real change, standing up to the big money interests. There is a reason why the super PACs and the billionaires are flooding Minnesota with all kinds of money. Same thing as Michigan. They don’t want somebody to stand up for the working class in Minnesota.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But you still are confident Flanagan is going to pull this off.

SEN. SANDERS: I’m sorry?

MARGARET BRENNAN: You are confident Flanagan will win?

SEN. SANDERS: No, I’m not confident. I think it’s going to be a very, very close race. I think she is being outspent seven to one, and under those circumstances, it’s tough for anybody to win. But she has a good ground game. I know she has a lot of grassroots support, and I’ll do everything that I can to see that she does win.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, I know that you haven’t gotten involved in many governors’ races, with the exception of Maine. But Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong in Wisconsin is expected to win her Democratic primary. There’s been some attention to some of her social media posts recently, but she has this platform of free childcare, state-run grocery stores, more healthcare subsidies. She wants to raise income taxes on millionaires. Some of this does seem to align with your platform, so I’m wondering, you know, why don’t you support her? Is some of what she supports too extreme for you?

SEN. SANDERS: No, raising taxes on the rich, making sure that everybody in Wisconsin or America has health care as a right, sounds quite reasonable to me. I just look-we have a limited number of races that we can be involved in. Most of my focus on is getting people elected to the United States Senate, getting people elected to the House of Representatives. So, with one exception, we have not been involved in a governor’s race. So that’s somebody who I’ve known in Maine for many, many years.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Who, who is now running for the Senate in Maine?

SEN. SANDERS: That’s right. That’s right.

MARGARET BRENNAN: There was in Michigan this historic turnout, but the race was closer than many had expected. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, former public health official, he did win by just one point. Since that time, President Trump has said he’s happy that he won because he’s going to be an easier candidate to defeat, basically, is what he’s implying. And The Economist has polling showing the party’s victory probability has fallen to 48% putting Democrats’ chances of controlling the Senate at 49%. Obviously, you want to resist that, that if that projection, what’s your strategy on a coalition here?

SEN. SANDERS: Well, I look at that analysis a little bit differently, Margaret. In Michigan, in my view, Abdul’s victory was one of the most extraordinary victories in modern political history. You tell me, have you ever heard of a candidate winning who was outspent nine to one, $60 million in billionaire-funded super PAC money came into that race, half from AIPAC, and yet he managed to win. Now I think what we are seeing all over this country, from coast to coast, is that working people are sick and tired of being the only major country on earth that does not guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right? They’re sick and tired of massive income and wealth inequality. Who believes- now I know we don’t discuss this much in Congress or in the media, but nobody that I know thinks it makes sense that one man in America today. Mr. Musk owns more wealth than the bottom half of American society. Who believes that we should sustain and maintain a corrupt campaign finance system where billionaires are undermining American democracy? The reason that we’re going to win is people, whether you’re conservative or Democrat, tired of the status quo and of the massive levels of inequality that exist right now.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You have written a letter that was shared with us to Democratic leaders in Congress and the DNC, calling for public funding of elections and for the party to prohibit political action committees from participating in primary races. I understand your principled argument here. However, Democrats have a financial resource problem that is very real as compared to Republicans and their war chest. Why would the party disarm?

SEN. SANDERS: We’re not talking about disarmament. We’re talking about within the Democratic primary, not in the general election. The campaign finance system today is corrupt. In Michigan, what you had is AIPAC spending 30 million dollars in the Democratic primary trying to defeat Abdul. They lost, and now they’re saying we’re going to support this guy Rogers, who is a Republican. So what you are seeing is it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Democrat, Republican. The special interests, not just AIPAC, it’s the AI people, it’s crypto. They will take over the primaries and try to get their point of view through, get their special interests accomplished, regardless of which party is. So to me, it is insane that the Democrats would allow somebody to come in, an entity to come in, that will then, if they lose, go into the other party.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, we need to talk more about this, but I have to pay our bills here and take a break. So please stay with us, Senator Sanders. We’ll be right back.

[COMMERCIAL BREAK]

MARGARET BRENNAN : We’ll be right back with more from Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders and the head of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, plus a lot more Face the Nation. So stay with us.

[COMMERCIAL BREAK]

MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face the Nation. We return now to our conversation with Senator Bernie Sanders. Senator, before the break, we were talking about your concern about super PACs and their involvement in primaries. You said you don’t want Democrats to unilaterally disarm. Just to clarify, you highlighted 60 million dollars poured into Michigan to defeat Dr. El-Sayed. Half of it came from AIPAC. They are now saying they’re going to support the Republican in the general, which you also pointed out. Are you okay with Democrats accepting PAC money in the general, but not in the primary?

SEN. SANDERS: Look, in the world that we live in, until we get rid of Citizens United and get rid of super PACs and move to public funding of elections, that is the reality. You can’t allow Democratic candidates to be outspent 50 to one, but it is a corrupt campaign finance system, and Democrats can take charge of what takes place within their own primaries right now. General election can’t, but within primaries, Democrats can get super PACs out. That’s what they should do.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to focus in on AIPAC in particular because Dr. El-Sayed campaigned on this platform of cutting unconditional aid to countries, not just Israel. He said Egypt, the country his parents immigrated from, cut it to Jordan, cut it to Pakistan, cut it to Saudi Arabia. He listed a number of countries and Israel. His mention of Israel and the war in Gaza has drawn a lot of criticism. President Trump said it’s hate of Jewish people. When you speak, I know you are very specific in referring to the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister. Would you advise Dr. El-Sayed and other progressive candidates to, to speak in a way that doesn’t invite as much criticism?

SEN. SANDERS: Look, I think Abdul has run a brilliant campaign, and he’s more than capable of making his own political judgments. But I think Margaret, all over the country, people are deeply concerned that when- we have so many problems at home. We have people sleeping out in the streets. People can’t afford health care. We are spending billions and billions of dollars on the right-wing extremist Netanyahu government, which has done horrific things to the Palestinian people. People, many people, experts, including myself, consider what’s going on there as a genocide. And I think whether a Democrat, Republican, conservative, progressive, we don’t think that we should be continuing to fund an extremist government like that.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Some MAGA candidates also make that argument, but this is a real attack line being focused on Dr. El-Sayed in particular.

SEN. SANDERS: Well, let’s be clear. I mean, from Trump on down, you know, you have Trump, who is in many ways an authoritarian type, and he is going to go after El-Sayed because, you know, for racist reasons. I think their first announcement after Abdul won is, he is a Muslim, and we’re all supposed to hate Muslims. You know these guys have nothing to say about the major crises facing our country. All they could do is appeal to racism. We’re communists. You know all kinds of nonsense like that. But I think that at the end of the day, the people of Michigan understand that the status quo is not working. We need a candidate like Abdul who has the guts to stand up for working class families. This guy wrote a book, he’s a doctor, on Medicare For All. The current healthcare system is broken. We got to guarantee healthcare to all people. Abdul understands that and will help us move in that direction.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator Sanders, we’ll leave it there. We’re going to talk about healthcare next with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, so we’ll continue that part of the conversation. We’ll be right back.