Before there was Bernie 2020 and CNN town halls, there was Burlington, Vermont Mayor Bernie Sanders and Bernie Speaks to the Community.
Sanders, now Vermont's Independent senator and a presidential frontrunner, spent his mid-1980's mayorship hosting on his own public access TV show. These remarkable episodes used to only be available on VHS at a local library, but thanks to Politico, they're now on YouTube for your enjoyment.
Bernie Speaks is comically low budget, with earlier episodes opening on a shot of the show's name written in marker. Some episodes feature Sanders at city meetings or meeting with prominent Burlingtonites. But other gems feature Sanders, with the same wild white hair and hunched shoulders he still sports today, channeling "Dan Rather" — his words — and shoving a wired microphone at mall punks and Boy Scouts.
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In one winning episode, Sanders meets with a group of kids who live in housing projects and asks them about drugs. "I like coke!" one kid shouts, but when Sanders probes further, he says "I like Coca-Cola." "Oh, Coca-Cola," Sanders continues, obviously disinterested, then asks "anyone ever seen cocaine?" They say no, but Sanders goes on to insist that "I bet you do" know people who "use drugs." He then asks "who here smokes?," to which one kid says "I don't smoke because I'm a little kid. I'm only 5 years old."
Politico's Holly Otterbein is sure to point out that Sanders' show wasn't all fun and pony rides. It's "part of Sanders' four-decade end run around the media," in which he "figured he should bypass reporters and simply star in his own show," Otterbein writes. And it's the same strategy every candidate uses today when they trade scrutinizing interviews for freewheeling on Facebook Live and Twitter. Read more at Politico.
