They played every single address of the winners and the losers, except Bernie Sanders’, inexplicably. They instead, while he was starting to speak, kept talking about who they were going to be going to soon, who was, yes, the winner of the night of the Republicans in a broad sweep, Donald Trump. Talk about what happened last night, how significant is the sole victory of John Kasich in Ohio, but Donald Trump, looks like, sweeping the rest. At the time of this broadcast, Missouri is a little too close to call, though he is ahead.
John Nichols talking:
Bernie Sanders, who remains a viable contender, is not paid attention to, because they were waiting to make sure they didn’t miss a second of Donald Trump.
It’s a speech by an actual candidate who, by the way, is winning more primaries than all these Republicans who are trying to take down Trump, is not going to get anywhere near airtime, because we have a fully Trump-obsessed media. And they live for it. And if Trump might come on any time in the next 10 minutes, nobody else get near that camera time. And this is the explanation for why Trump is doing so very, very well. He is surfing a wave of media attention. Even when he does something wrong, he still is wall-to-wall. And he knows that most of our media is a dumb beast. He just feeds it. And the fact of the matter is, if he says something that’s obnoxious, if his supporters do something that’s obnoxious, if something horrible happens, he’ll just feed them something new the next day and be right in the middle of it.
We see the playout, literally, on Tuesday, because here he had easily the most controversial weekend of his campaign, I would argue—he’s certainly had many of them, but over the weekend you saw literal, you know, deep concern among all sorts of people about how his rallies have gotten so out of control, violence, cancellation of a rally in Illinois—all this discussion about where Trump is taking all of this stuff, and yet, does he get knocked down? Does he fail? No, he sweeps across major states—Florida, North Carolina, which is, by the way, a very important state as we head toward the fall race, and an easy win in, you know, these key states. But also, then, Ohio, he does lose to John Kasich, but would note he did really well. He was very competitive there. He’s probably going to win Missouri.
one of the challenges with Donald Trump is that everybody does talk about him. And I’m as guilty as anybody. And there is a reality that this guy is so overcovered that he sucks the air out of the Democratic race. You just had one of the best discussions between two very thoughtful, engaged people about this race. That rarely happens. What we end up with—do you know that, Amy, what happens now is? Democrats come on television, or Democratic candidates even, you know what the first thing they ask them about? Donald Trump.
[As Senator Bernie Sanders began his address on Tuesday night, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC all declined to cut away, instead just continuing with their pundits’ commentary and graphics promising they would soon go to Donald Trump’s speech.]
Nina Turner talking:
we were certainly hoping for that Michigan miracle. I think one of the biggest differences between Michigan and Ohio is that in Michigan independents could vote. And we know that Senator Bernie Sanders wins independents overwhelmingly across this country. We have what you call in Ohio a semi-open primary process, so independents are locked out. They cannot vote unless they declare—you know, declare themselves to be a Democrat or a Republican. So that certainly has a lot of impact.
But I will tell you this: Senator Sanders was 30 points behind in Ohio months ago, so he has certainly come a mighty long way. In the campaign, we are so proud of all of his accomplishments, in states like Missouri, which we know that it is still a toss-up; you know, in Illinois, I mean, a virtual tie. So, it’s kind of curious to me that even when Republicans, who are in the second, third tier of the race, are almost in a virtual tie, they declare victory, but Senator Sanders does not get that same benefit.
I’m supporting Senator Sanders because he has that heart-soul agreement. He doesn’t say one thing in front of one audience and another thing in front of another audience. He doesn’t politic tragedies. Senator Sanders has been a champion all of his conscious life, from his work, as we all know, in the 1960s as a young college student. He didn’t have to step into that divide, but he did, chained to an African-American woman, arrested for fighting for civil rights. As a mayor of Burlington, we all know that he stood up for Reverend Jesse Jackson, when the Democratic Party itself, the status quo, turned their back on him. And he was only one of three white folks, white elected officials, who would dare stand up for Reverend Jesse Jackson in the—in 1988, to say that he should and could be the president of the United States of America.
And whether people know it or not, Amy, this senator from Vermont has continued to stand up for the working poor in this country. He is not afraid to say the word “poor.” And he stands up for the middle class in this country. He filibustered, as we all remember—and I know John remembers this, too—for eight hours on the Senate floor against the extension of the Bush tax cuts. He doesn’t lead by polls. He stands up for folks, whether he gets—whether it will harm his political career or not. And that is the kind of leader that we need. He’s speaking out firmly about an increase in the minimum wage of $15 an hour, that folks will have a living wage in this country.
He talks about the five violences against black and brown folks in this country. And as a former mayor, he certainly understands what the relationship with police needs to be. He talks about the accountability that a police officer, like any other public servant, if they have committed a crime, they need to be prosecuted, they need to answer that. So he totally understands that. So, his honesty and integrity, and that is why, overwhelmingly, over 80 percent, almost 90 percent, of millennials, ages 17 to 29, they believe in Senator Sanders. They believe that he is the leader to lead us into the future.
And my final point on that is that, to me, he has the foundation of Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, when she said, “What the people want is simple: They want an America as good as its promise.” That is what he is running for. And he’s asking the working poor and middle class in this country, don’t accept shorts, that if we can bail out Wall Street, certainly we can make the requisite investments in everybody in this country, that universal healthcare is a moral imperative in this country, and that we should indeed make the same investments in our young people in terms of tuition-free colleges and universities. He is a man of honesty and integrity, not just when the cameras are on.
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John Nichols
Political writer for The Nation and co-author with Robert McChesney of the new book, People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy.
Nina Turner
former Ohio state senator and national surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders.
— source democracynow.org