Bernie Sanders still doesn't care about Hillary's damn emails, and says the media shouldn't have, either

On Tuesday's Conan, Conan O'Brien reminded his guest, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), that in one of his first Democratic primary debates against Hillary Clinton, he said he and the American public didn't care about Clinton's damn emails. "What happened is you did not bring it up, [Donald] Trump did bring it up — brought it up a lot, hammered her about it relentlessly — and it turned out there were a lot of people, voters in the country who did care about those emails," Conan said. "Do you wish now that you had made that more of an issue in your campaign?"

Sanders said no, that "it is imperative that we focus on the real issues facing the American people," and Clinton's emails don't make that list. Conan pressed on, asking if it wasn't "somewhat bitter" to watch Trump ignore all the issues Sanders cares about and "get a lot of traction" on Clinton's emails. "Well, Conan, I think that has more to do with the media, frankly, than it does with Donald Trump," Sanders said. Democracy is about discussing the important issues, but what the "media loved was the fact that Trump would say one absurd thing after another, ugly things we have never heard before from a presidential candidate. You know what? That was great TV. That was great TV — CNN's ratings went way up."

"I think the American people have to demand more out of media," Sanders said, "demand that media talk about the issues that impact our lives." He singled out network news, and Conan coughed and joked that this is why he moved to cable — though his network, TBS, is owned by the same division of Time Warner that owns CNN, which Sanders name-checked in his media critique. TV networks and newspapers aren't "dummies," Sanders said. "There are real conflicts of interest in terms of who owns — I mean, we don't talk about it — who owns the media? Well, half a dozen major conglomerates. Do they have vested interests that are in conflict with the public? Yeah, you're damn right they do." Watch below, courtesy of YouTube, owned by the major conglomerate formerly known as Google. Peter Weber

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up