Top 833 Quotes & Sayings by Bernie Sanders - Page 11

One of the issues I'm really happy about is that recently, Secretary Clinton and I worked out an agreement on higher education, making public colleges and universities tuition free for every family in America earning less than 125,000 bucks. Didn't go as far as I wanted. But that's 83 percent of the population in this country.

I would say that, you know, being Jewish, what has been most significant in my life is understanding what a Hitler - what horrible politics can mean to people and I think that's been one of the motivating factors in my life in fighting against racism and bigotry of all kinds because when it gets out of hand, as we have seen and we are, you know - it's obviously has unbelievable repercussions.

If we greatly expanded primary health care, lower the cost of prescription drugs, we take a giant step forward in lowering health care costs in America.

To my mind, what is most important now is the defeating of the worst candidate for president that I have seen in my lifetime, Donald Trump, who is not qualified to be president by temperament, not qualified to be president by the ideas that he has brought forth.

We need to take a hard look at the war on drugs and the number of non-violent offenders who end up getting their lives destroyed by going to prison. We need to look at mandatory minimum sentencing and give judges more flexibility when there are issues of drug abuse or addiction.

I think - you know, I can't speak for 13 million people, but I think most of my supporters understand Trump has got to be defeated. We need to elect as many progressives as possible. And we need to continue the fight to create an agenda which works for working families and not just for wealthy campaign contributors.

In America, we have lost millions of decent-paying jobs. That has got to end.

I think people have a right to speak. And you have a right if you're on a college campus not to attend. You have a right to ask hard questions about the speaker if you disagree with him or her.

We need a Democratic Party open, that is bringing working people into the party, that is bringing young people, that bringing all of the people of this country who are sick and tired of an economy that works well for the 1 percent while the middle class struggles.

We know the legislation that passed the House. It was the worst piece of legislation frankly against working class people that I can remember in my political life in the Congress.

Israel has an absolute right to exist - not only to exist - but to exist in a way that they're not under threat of terrorism.

Democrats need to become a 50-state party. You can't have a great party on the West Coast and the East Coast. You need to have a party in all 50 states.

People have a right to give a speech. And people have a right to protest. But I'm not a great fan of disrupting people's speeches.

We live in a country where a small number of people have incredible wealth and power. America has more income and wealth inequality than any other major country.

I would have put more emphasis on bringing working class people together to fight for a government that works for all of us.

But because media is what media is today, any stupid, absurd remark made by Donald Trump becomes the story of the week. Maybe, just maybe, we might want to have a serious discussion about the serious issues facing America. Donald Trump will not look quite so interesting in that context.

I think we should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway, and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people.

The cost of prescription drugs in this country is far, far higher than in any other country. You may recall that Donald Trump as a candidate for president talked about how he was going to take on the pharmaceutical industry and it was going to lower prescription drug costs.

I think, you know, that Trump has been incredibly divisive. I think he's insulted almost every group in America. I think his policies are outrageous. But in America, people have a right to hold rallies. So I think my own feeling is it is absolutely appropriate for thousands of people to protest at a Trump rally, but I am not great fan of disrupting rallies.

Not just for the U.S. Senate but it also means for school board and city council. We need to revitalize American democracy. We need to have people at all - all over this country, having the courage to take on big money and demand a set of policies that work for all of us and not just for the few.

It's not in the interest of the corporations who own the networks to actually be educating the American people so that are debating the real issues. It's much better to deflect attention away from issues and get into the story of the day.

I think, the most progress I have agenda, the progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party. So we have got to continue bringing people in, fighting for an agenda that works for working families and having the courage to take on the big money people who today control our economic and political life.

We have to fundamentally rethink our trade policy and make it work not for the CEOs of large corporations, but for working people. So, if Trump wants to develop a rational trade policy which demands corporations start investing in this country, rather than China, that's something that we can work on.

If you want to talk about somebody who's actually been tough on Russia, look at President Trump. He wants more fracking, more coal, more energy, a stronger military, a stronger defense. Those things aren't good for Russia.

I would love it if everybody in America agreed with me on every issue. I can't get my wife to agree with me on every issue, let alone the American people. It's called democracy. That's what it's about.

When you look at somebody like a Netanyahu, to simply not understand that this is a right-wing politician, a guy who kind of crashed the United States Congress to give his speech there, ignoring President Obama, not even consulting with him, using it for political purposes back home, a guy who has supported the youth - the growth of settlement, I think the - the overreaction and the destruction of Gaza went too, too far. Israel should not be bombing schools or homes, just terrible damage there.

I think the people want to attack Israel for their policies, I think that is fair game. But not to appreciate that there is some level of anti-Semitism around the world involved in that, I think, would be a mistake.

I voted against the war in Iraq. I voted against the first Gulf War. I think war is the last resort - the last option of a great military power like us. I think that we need to focus on building coalitions. Yes, ISIS must be destroyed. But it should be destroyed by a coalition of Muslim nations on the ground with the support of the United States and the other major powers in the air and in training the troops there.

You need a Democratic Party which is a grassroots party, which makes decisions from the bottom on up, not just from the top on down.

The case to be made is that we have got to get people involved - continue to get people involved in the political process at every level.

Now, why would my supporters be supporting somebody who doesn't want to raise the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, a starvation wage, doesn't want to do that. Why would anybody that supports me support a candidate like Trump who wants to throw millions and millions of people off of health insurance? We need to guarantee health care to all people as a right, not throw millions of people off health insurance as Trump wants to do.

This is America, and we are not going to throw out 11 million people in this country who are undocumented. We`re not going to turn against one of the largest religions in the world, people who are Muslim. I do not want to see Muslim kids, who feel intimidated in the country and frightened, living in the country where they grew up. That is not America. We do not want to continue the attacks against the women.

We don't need a president like a Trump who doesn't actually, George, doesn't even believe in climate change, let alone wants to do anything about it, rejecting science.

You have a right to protest. But I don't quite understand why anybody thinks it's a good idea to deny somebody else the right to express his or her point of view.

The American people in Congress have got to ask themselves a very simple question. Why are we the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people as a right?

What I believe is that the United States is going to be playing on a level playing field in dealing with Israel and the Palestinian people. I am 100 percent pro Israel in the sense of Israel's right to exist, I lived in Israel, I have family in Israel, Israel has the right to live not only in peace and security, but to know that their very existence will be protected by the United States government.

I think, in my own state, I can tell you that people do want to hear a serious discussion on serious issues.

As a United States senator, I've got to do everything that I can to make sure that Trump does not become president.

The only way change happens is when people become more significantly involved in the political process. We have to increase voter turnout and citizen participation so that people know what's going on and demand a government that works for everybody and not just the one percent.

The first thing that I've got to think about is: What does a Donald Trump presidency mean for the people of my state and for the people of this country? And for the people of the world? I think it would be an absolute disaster. It would be beyond a disaster.

I'm a United States senator, and I have a responsibility to the people of my state - also to the people of this country.

I'm not going to tell you I know George W. Bush intimately. I'm not going to tell you we're best friends. I'll tell you I met him on a number of occasions. You know what? George W. Bush is a very nice guy. Very funny guy. His wife is a very nice woman; I thought she was a great first lady. George [W.] Bush was the worst president in the history of the United States of America... The issue is not Bernie Sanders. The issue is the Koch brothers. The issue is who owns America.

On many, many issues, Hillary Clinton's views are progressive. In many areas, they are awesome. Where they're not progressive, we've got to push her, and the day after the election, I will mobilize millions of people to make sure that we make her the most progressive president that she can be.

If you look at virtually all of the issues of importance to the people of America - issues like making public colleges and universities tuition-free - Hillary Clinton is now on record for doing that for people making $125,000 a year or less. You know what? That is pretty revolutionary. That will transform the lives of millions of families in this country. That's what Clinton stands for.

If we can create a climate among people that says that any serious candidate for president, Senate, governor, [the] House is going to have to talk about income inequality, raising wages in America, trade policy - that's a huge success. It's not putting pressure on a candidate. It's mobilizing people.

Believe me, every American, every person in this country, if I have anything to say about it, will know precisely what is going on with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, because they are beginning to appoint people who are typical right-wing Republicans who want to privatize and cut Social Security.

One of the ongoing crises in America is institutional racism. We have a very broken criminal justice system. We live in a country where there are more people in jail than any other country on Earth. There are some 2.2 million people currently incarcerated and they are disproportionally African American and Hispanic. Unarmed African Americans have been abused and sometimes killed while in police custody. Clearly these are issues that must be dealt with and changed.

I think that the media spends far too much time [on personalities].

I have one of the strongest records in fighting for senior citizens. I led the effort to prevent cuts to Social Security. But I think for some seniors, they remember the "evil empire" of the Soviet Union. They conflated the term "democratic socialism" with communism.

What I would say to the establishment is that there is far more discontent among the American people than they believe.

Every decision that Donald Trump makes is going to impact his bottom line of some business that he owns all over the world. So it remains a huge issue.

I think the Democratic Party has got to make fundamental choices.

We are looking at a lot of dishonest news that comes across where people are lying outrageously about other people. And I hope that folks on all sides could say, "Look, I disagree with him or her, but that is an outrageous lie."

If Trump is elected president... I just don't know what America looks like four years after his election, in terms of the kind of bigotry that will be erupting, in terms of the kind of divisiveness that we will see, the kind of demagoguery that we will see.

Hillary Clinton is on record supporting a doubling of community health centers in this country, which will mean that tens of millions of people - poor people - will have access to health care that do not have it today. Is that significant? It is very significant.

I want to break up the Wall Street banks. Hillary Clinton doesn't. I want to raise the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour. She wants $12 an hour. I voted against the War in Iraq. She voted for the War in Iraq. I believe we should ban fracking. She does not. I believe we should have tax on carbon and deal aggressively with climate change. That is not her position.

It is a dictatorship. They did have a good health - do have a decent health care system and a decent educational system. A lot of people have left Cuba for better dreams, to fulfill their aspirations.

We need to demilitarize local police departments so that they do not look like occupying armies. We want police departments that look like the communities they are serving.

Donald Trump is toast.

I talked to a lot of Black Lives activists in various states. What I learned is that the relationship of police departments around the country with the black community is far, far more severe and awful than I had originally known.