AUSTIN -- Kicking off the first day of the South by Southwest Festival, one of the first featured sessions was a conversation with Sen. Bernie Sanders and CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Sanders is an independent senator from Vermont who ran a vigorous but ultimately unsuccessful campaign against Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.
Speaking to a packed ballroom at the Austin Convention Center Friday afternoon, Sanders touched on a variety of hot-button topics such as gun violence, DACA and even the possibility of a 2020 Sanders campaign.
Here’s a rundown of what he had to say:
Gun Control
Senator Sanders said that after recent events like the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, people all over America are upset and asking him why the Senate is not dealing with the issue of gun safety.
“What we want to do is greatly expand background checks to make sure that people with serious mental illnesses … people who have been involved in domestic violence, people who might be using those weapons to kill fellow Americans -- they do not get those guns,” said Sanders.
He also brought attention to the idea that many Americans can walk into a gun show and purchase a weapon without question. Sanders said those weapons could then be sold to drug dealers or gang members.
“I happen to believe that assault weapons, military weapons designed to kill human beings, I think they should be banned for sale,” he added as the crowd erupted in cheers.
DACA
When asked by Tapper about President Donald Trump’s report that there was a deal on the table for Democrats that could provide a legal path to citizenship for 1.8 million people, Sen. Sanders said what President Trump says isn’t always the truth.
“We had legislation a month ago on the floor of the Senate that I reluctantly voted for, and what that legislation said is that there will be legal status, as you indicated, for the 1.8 million -- or 800,000 people in DACA and the other million eligible -- legal status for those people and a path toward citizenship in exchange for money to build a wall, which I happen to say is one of the stupidest ideas in the history of America,” said Sanders. “But I voted for that, very reluctantly, because I am deeply concerned about what will happen to these young people who will now be in the process of beginning to face deportation, which will be a moral outrage.”
He said on the day that bill was coming to a vote, President Trump and the Department of Homeland Security lobbied heavily against it and the president has used undocumented people living in the U.S. as a tool to fan his “xenophobic base.”
“We are going to work as hard as we can to fight for comprehensive immigration reform, for a path towards citizenship for the undocumented, and certainly as quickly as we can, hopefully soon provide legal protection for these young people who desperately need it,” Sanders said.
What can the average person do to make a difference?
Toward the end of the session, Sen. Sanders took a few questions from the crowd, one of which was if calling your local representatives and senators can really make a difference.
“It’s not just calling, it’s emailing, it’s coming out to town meetings,” he added. “Our job is to call members of the Congress and give them your view, our job is to come out to town meetings and to rallies and to marches.”
He called attention to the events that happened with the victorious West Virginia teacher strikes, as well as the students of Parkland who stood up against gun safety, after which urged Florida lawmakers to move toward stricter gun control.
“When people become involved in the process, whether it is phone calls, whether it is standing up and fighting back in any way that you can think of, you’re damn right it makes a difference, and that is exactly what we have to do,” he said.
Sanders 2020
Another question from the crowd was whether the American people could expect another campaign from Sen. Sanders in 2020.
Sanders replied by saying that he will be leaving Austin to head for places like San Antonio and Lubbock, Texas.
“The reason why we are going to conservative areas is to really try to rally working people around the progressive agenda, try to expand voter turnout so that Democrats can win hopefully the House and the Senate in 2018, and that’s where my focus is right now,” he said.
In other words, he didn’t say whether he would or wouldn’t run for president in 2020.
Could Texas turn blue?
Next, a crowd member asked if Sen. Sanders thought the state of Texas could turn blue in the not-so-distant future.
“That’s the answer for the people of this room,” he replied. “Do I think Texas has the capability of turning blue? Absolutely and positively. Republicans win where voter turnout is low and big-money buys elections.”
He said that he believes if one of every two people turned out to vote, Democrats could win Texas -- and every state in the U.S.
“The Republican agenda of tax breaks for billionaires, throwing millions of people off of health care, cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, not even recognizing the reality of climate change -- let alone doing something about it … that is an agenda supported by relatively few people,” said Sanders. “So if you in Texas are prepared to work hard, stand up, fight back, go out to your neighbors, talk to those people who voted for Trump, make sure that every friend you have or family member that you have comes out and votes, yeah, I believe that Texas can go blue.”