Bernie Sanders tries to explain why low-income Americans vote Republican

Bernie Sanders tries to explain why poor Americans vote Republican fails

(Image credit: Jimmy Kimmel Live)

published 23 March 2016

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has never actually met Donald Trump, he told Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday's Kimmel Live. "And I didn't go to his wedding, either," he added, in a jab at Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton. Clinton attending Trump's third wedding "makes it feel like the whole thing is professional wrestling," Kimmel said. "It makes it feel like you've got the bad guy and the good guy, the good guy and the bad guy, whatever, and then behind the scenes everybody's watching each other shower." Sanders jumped in, getting a laugh: "Well, I don't know that I have been in that shower room myself."

Kimmel noted Sanders' support for state legalization of marijuana, then asked that if smoking pot isn't Sanders' "thing," what is? "My thing is my grandchildren," Sanders said.

The next topic was wealth inequality. "Do you think there should be a limit on how much an American can make?" Kimmel asked. Sanders said he would frame that in a different way, and launched into a list of economic injustices in the U.S., concluding: "I do believe we should raise taxes on upper-income people and large, profitable corporations. That is my view." Kimmel made the obvious point that Sanders is "not a Republican, I guess," then asked a good question: "Most Republicans are not wealthy people, but they also kind of go along with that principle" of low taxes and little regulation. Sanders' answer will sound familiar to anyone who has heard his stump speech, but it's not clear how it answered Kimmel's question: "That's the corruption of the campaign-finance system." Also, climate change is real. Watch Sanders prove he's pretty good at this politics thing in the video below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.