Sen. Bernie Sanders threw cold water on Chuck Todd's false equivalency between himself and Donald Trump, but that didn't stop Todd from spending the next few segments doing exactly that. As Sanders pointed out, his voters are the type that would like to get the one percent like Donald Trump out of our political process, and not the other way around:
Thanks in large part to timing, Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been paired with celebrity plutocrat Donald Trump in political analyses, as both are surging candidates representing fringe slices of their respective bases. [...]
On Meet the Press Sunday morning, Sanders dismissed the comparison.
“The chord we are touching all over this country is that people are profoundly disgusted with the economics that make the richest people richer and everybody else poorer,” he told host Chuck Todd. “They are profoundly angered and disturbed by a political campaign system that allows billionaires to buy elections because of this disastrous campaign finance system called Citizens United.”
Which was followed by Todd bringing in his panel, where Bushie Sara Fagen attacked Sanders for supposedly pulling Hillary Clinton too far to the left and pretending that the our modern day Republican party hasn't moved so far to the right that they've fallen off of a cliff.
Next up the viewers were treated to a segment where racist nativist Pat Buchanan did his best to try to compare Trump's "populist" appeal to that of Bernie Sanders, with a dose of reality brought into the conversation, thankfully, from The Nation's John Nichols.
Moonshinepatriot did a really fine job of breaking this whole mess down in their Bobblespeak Translations post this weekend, so I'll just let them take it from here (Just a reminder, these are snark and not the actual transcripts. I know it's hard to tell the difference sometimes.):
Todd: every lazy pundit says
you and Trump are the sameSanders: billionaires can buy elections
Todd: yeah yeah
Sanders: shut up Todd
Todd: so you still claim
you're not Donald TrumpSanders: no that's bullshit
Todd: strong language
Sanders: we need a campaign
finance system so people can
run for office without being
beholden to the Koch brothersTodd: thanks for coming Bernie
[ break ]
Todd: panelists Bernie is pretty
defensive on guns and raceWalter: Sanders is blunt and
fun and that's different from
Clinton but Democrats still like herTodd: people really like
Bernie Sanders – why?Fournier: because no one knows who he is
Todd: ha ha
Fournier: Donald Trump and
Bernie Sanders are the same personTodd: right
Fournier: also Hillary is dishonest
and everyone hates herTodd: Bernie is weak on immigration
Diaz-Balart: Sanders is not
focus-group driven – he's honest
which is just like Donald TrumpTodd: Hillary is being driven to the left
Fagen: Clinton is an extreme
leftist and is doomed!Fournier: I disagree – she's doomed
because no one trusts her!Walter: that's right – she's
untrustworthy and Sanders is authenticFournier: Clinton should just
drop out and be evil full-time[ break ]
Todd: Donald Trump and Bernie
Sanders are both populistsTodd: they are both fed up with
political correctness and are angryTodd: both have supporters
who are white and pissed offTodd: Remember Pat Buchanan
was an elitist who ran as an
angry racist outsiderTodd: and Ross Perot was a
rich guy railing against blue
collar jobs lost to NAFTATodd: Sanders is a modern day
Gene McCarthy and is drawing big crowdsTodd: he's turning Clinton is a liberal
[ break ]
Todd: welcome to my show Pat Buchanan
Buchanan: nice to be here Todd
Todd: does Trump remind you of
your own campaign in 1992?Buchanan: you betcha – he's the only
one with the guts to point out the
conquest of America by MexicoTodd: aren't Trump and Sanders the same?
Nichols: no
Todd: oh no?
Nichols: Bernie is tapping into
mass movements – minimum wage,
black lives matter, occupyBuchanan: that's leftist populism
– where people want food to eatTodd: right
Buchanan: Trump is tapping into
a very well-founded terror of
brown-skinned peopleTodd: that sounds right
Buchanan: you had that lady in
Texas who was killed and then
later killed herselfNichols: President Obama won
the 2008 primary and two general
elections running on liberal populist issuesBuchanan: bald appeals to racism
can get you the nominationNichols: a billionaire beating
up on immigrants is not populismBuchanan: he's going to
make America great againNichols: the greatest populist ever
was FDR and he didn't attack
immigrants or poor peopleBuchanan: but he was a liberal!
Nichols: and he won four times!
Todd: we'll have to continue
this fight in the green room
