Bernie Sanders lectures Ted Cruz and Donald Trump on 'New York values,' drops the mic

Bernie Sanders drops the mic on The Nightly Show

(Image credit: The Nightly Show)

published 14 April 2016

Nobody has been hitting Ted Cruz harder on his disparagement of "New York values" than Donald Trump, who is aiming to crush Cruz in next week's New York Republican primary. But Bernie Sanders took a pretty good whack at Cruz — and Trump — on Wednesday night's Nightly Show. "That's right, it's me, Bernie Brooklyn-Born Sanders, and guess what, Ted Cruz? I have New York values," he began, laying out a vision of New York values that stops roughly at Canal Street, the northern border of the Financial District, and perhaps cuts out neighborhoods close to Central Park.

But this hit on the values of his birth state (Sanders left New York in 1960 and settled in Vermont in '68) isn't just politics, it's personal, Sanders said. "When you say having New York values is a bad thing, you insult my city, my state, my culture, and my heritage." Then he lit into the Republican who decamped from Queens to Manhattan: "Mr. Trump, you wouldn't know New York values if they were written in 50-foot gold letters on the side of the Empire State Building." Equality, a land for everyone not just the 1 percent, and embracing people wherever they were born, those are New York values, Sanders said. "And the truth is, New York values are American values — there is no difference." Then he dropped the mic — which host Larry Wilmore found hilarious. Watch 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.