[ applause ] they said he didn't have a chance. >> remember, when we began this campaign, we were 60 points behind. >> until his message started a movement. >> we're doing something radical telling the truth. >> have the courage to take on the special interests preventing us from going forward. >> how does bernie sanders bounce back this time? >>ly i will stand up and fight for you all the way into the white house. >> if you believe that issues can be addressed by the establishment politics, you've got a very good candidate to vote for but it's not bernie sanders. >> on tuesday, he'll have to prove he has a path to victory.

>> when we stand together, there is nothing that we cannot accomplish. >> this is an msnbc exclusive town hall with senator bernie sanders. here now is chris hayes. >> welcome to the philadelphia, pennsylvania. one of five states that will be voting tomorrow when this whole campaign began, there were more than 20 candidates in the race and if you took when it began on who the last five would be, a lot of people would have lost money and one of the reasons is the manic introduce, it's my great pleasure to welcome senator of vermont bernie sanders. how are you, senator? [ applause ] >> bernie! bernie! bernie! bernie!

>> does this happen everywhere, like when you go to get coffee? >> occasionally. yes. >> we're here in pennsylvania. five states tomorrow. those five states are northeastern, eastern states. not the deep south where you had a hard time. they are not the plain states where you had real good wins. how do you feel about tomorrow? >> i feel pretty good. i think if the turnout is high, if working people come out in large numbers, if young people come out, i think the message, chris, that we are bringing forth that it's too late for establishment politics that it is insane that today almost all new income and wealth is gone to the top 1%, the only major country on earth not to guarantee pay and family medical leave and health care to all people, that's a message resinating in pennsylvania, connecticut, resinating all over this country. [ applause ] >> the primary calendar june 7th is a big date. the 14th is d.c. as of the 14th everyone will have voted.

all states and territories. right now you're 45% delegates, secretary clinton 55%. >> by the way, that's not quite accurate because i think a lot of votes cast in the caucus states have not been counted and we won some states by 70%. >> but you would agree she's won more? >> yeah. >> on the 14th, do you agree that the person that's won the most pledged delegates will be the nominee of the democratic party? >> look, this is what i believe. i know media gets into the process issues. what this campaign is about is transforming the united states of america. what this campaign is about is bringing millions of people into the political process and i'm very proud of the success we've had to do that. now, at the end of the process, you know, frankly if we are behind in the pledge delegates, i think it's very hard for us to win, but i think we are going to make the case also that if you look at the polling and if you look at reality, i believe and

i'm not the only one who believes this that we are the stronger campaign in taking on donald trump or any other republican candidate and i think that most democrats out there more than anything, correctly so, want to make sure there some right wing republican doesn't become president of the united states. >> let me ask you about that because, and i sort of share your feeling about process, frankly. i mean, i know -- >> then let's not talk about process all afternoon. >> right. i agree. there is principle. democratic control of the democratic party in the sense of you want the person that got the most votes to be the nominee. >> you also -- let's talk about principle. hundreds and hundreds of superdelegates, parts of the democratic establishment voted for hillary clinton or chose to come on board, her campaign before i even announced my candidacy and those people have a right to rethink the decision that they made and if they conclude for a dozen different reasons that we are a stronger

campaign and by the way, this is not just talk off the top of my head. every poll out there, as you know, shows that bernie sanders does bet against donald trump. should that be taken into consideration? yeah, i do. i think so. >> how hard do you see yourself pressing that case? >> look, again, the issue to me right now is we got five states tomorrow. >> yeah. >> ten remaining states including the largest state in this country and when what i'm going to focus on is the burning issues facing the american people we got to talk about. why is the middle class declining for the last 35 years? are we happy? 58% of all new income is going to the top 1%. are we doing enough to address the crisis of climate change and make sure the planet we leave our children and grandchildren is a planet. are we happy with a corrupt campaign finance system with super pacs and billionaires buying elections? those are the issues we have got to focus on. [ applause ]

>> one of the sort of sources of yours critique, right, when you talk about why the system is broken has to do with an answer you gave to my colleague about turnout in states and you said something about lower voting turnout of poor people, right? >> yes. >> you got heat for that. it is -- >> why did i get heat? more people voted, lower numbers. what's the heat? let's be clear -- >> that explains a lot. >> the clinton campaign is a super pac. 30 people on the internet that pick up on everything and create this kind of narrative. here is the fact. all right? dispute it if you want with me. in the last election in 2014, 63% of the american people didn't vote. not a very vibrant democracy to my mind. 80% of young people, as i understand, 80% of low income did not vote. that's a fact.

>> right. >> all right. so what was my point? low income people are not voting in large numbers. that's a tragedy. i want to see if we can change that. >> that brings me to what ultimately you've set up. you set up this campaign that tests its own thesis, right? the campaign is about this political revolution and breaking down barriers who does and doesn't participate -- >> this campaign is about taking on the entire establishment, the democratic establishment, the financial establishment and in clinton's campaign, the most powerful political organization in the united states of america. this campaign is about starting off 60 points behind secretary clinton and by the way, in the last couple weeks a few polls had us ahead of her nationally. that's what this campaign is about. >> what have you learned then about what you've succeeded and failed at when you think about turning out precisely the kinds of people that don't -- that under vote in american politics? >> i think it's very difficult. i think there are and this is a

real american tragedy there are millions of people working class people and low income people who turn on the television and you know what they see? nothing being talked about the reality of their lives, they listen to what goes on in congress. they can't afford to feed their kids. they can't pay for their electric bills because we have 47 million people living in poverty. and they see congress debating tax breaks for billionaires and candidates taking huge sums of money for the wealthy and powerful and they conclude and it's kind of hard to argue with them that the system is the political system is corrupt and they are saying to themselves, why do i want to participate in this charade? we are trying and have had good success with young people. we're bringing out a lot of young people to some degree with working close people and low income people but it is very,

very hard to tell people who are struggling now and seeing almost all new income and wealth going to the top 1% that they should get involved in the political process that their voices actually matter. >> there is other folks who have been running talking about some of those same things. you've endorsed a few of them. raised money for a few of them. there is a guy here in pennsylvania named john fedderman. had him on the show. interesting guy. town had a hard time because of trade and steel industry dying. he endorsed you and says he feels like he's sitting there with a corsage waiting for the sanders mutual endorsement. >> i don't know john and heard a little bit about him. what we are trying to do now, we have endorsed and gotten some money to some candidates and i hope they went. i don't know enough about john to be honest with you. >> there's -- this connects to another question people have which is about this movement that you've built. >> i haven't built it. this is a movement of millions of people beginning to stand up --

>> that you facilitated. >> i'm the candidate for president, yes. >> then the question becomes to a lot of people, you know, look, a year ago you were not a democrat, right? now you are one of the most powerful democrats in america. whatever happens after this, whatever happens, you've raised more money than anyone ever, right? >> raised more money than anyone ever? >> up to this point in hard dollars -- >> hillary clinton has raised more money than we have. she has a couple super pacs. >> right, in hard dollars and particularly small donors -- >> let me be very clear about this. i'm enormously proud. this campaign, our campaign does not have a super pack, does not want a super pac. what we have done is received over 7 million individual campaign contributions averaging $27 a piece. i'm enormously proud of that. >> the question then is, we have seen before campaigns. we have seen before campaigns

that were able to ignite tremendous passion from folks volunteer, knock on doors, give money because of all the things you're talking about and campaign goes away and, what do you say to the folks supporting you about what endures from this no matter what happens in this outcome? >> what i would say first, it would be a lot easier for us to mobilize and endure if i'm elected president of the united states. [ applause ] >> because this is why. and every day i say this, chris, i suspect you heard me say it more than once and that is that no president, not bernie sanders or anybody else can transform this country in the way we have to transform it because of the power of the big money interest, wall street has an endless supply of money, corporate america would shut down a plant in pennsylvania tomorrow if they can move to china and make another $5. the corporate media determines the kind of conversation we have.

your particular station is owned by whom? >> comcast. >> there we go. >> one of the more popular corporations in america. [ laughter ] >> and you have wealthy campaign contributors and the only way, let me repeat it again, the only way we transform this country and this i believe from the bottom of my heart is when millions of people stand up, fight back and demand that we have a government that represents all of us, not just the 1%. [ applause ] >> we have people in the audience that have questions. david supports you, david? >> as a student i'm excited to be voting for the first time tomorrow for you so thank you. my question is many supporters are staunchly opposed to hillary clinton and are considering writing you in, voting for a third party candidate or not

voting at all if you don't win the nomination. i believe you will win the nomination and presidency but if you don't, will you encourage your supporters to vote for hillary clinton? >> first, we're not a movement where i can snap my fingers and tell you what to do. you won't listen to me. you shouldn't. you'll make these decisions yourself. if we end up losing and i hope we do not and secretary clinton wins, it's incumbent upon her to tell millions of people that don't believe in establishment politics who have serious misgivings about the candidate received millions of dollars from wall street and other special interests. she has got to go out to you and millions of others and say yeah, i think the united states should join the rest of the industrialized world and take on the private insurance companies

in the greed of drug companies and pass a medicare for all. i think for young people you shouldn't have to leave 50, $75,000 in debt because we'll make as many other countries around the world do public colleges and universities tuition free. i think secretary clinton will have to explain to millions of young people and a lot of other people that climate change is a real crisis and she is going to have to come on board and say yeah, i know it's hard but i al going to pass a carbon tax. the point i'm making is it is incumbent upon secretary clinton to reach out to my supporters and all of the american people with an agenda they believe will represent the interest of working families, lower income

people, the middle class, those of us who are concerned about the environment and not just big money interests. >> there are hillary clinton supporters i talk to, some are diehards, some aren't. they like you and like politics but there is concern the thing you said at the beginning of the answer strikes me important. you can't snap your fingers this is big and people are passionate. you have tim robins tweeting about elections being stolen and monica lewinsky and that will come out in the wash but the question if it's incumbent upon her what role do you have if and when you come to the movement? >> good. [ applause ] >> fair question. i think the republican party today moved so far to the right they are way, way out of touch where where the american people

are. these are people who almost without exception do not even recognize the reality of climate change let alone want to do anything about it. they want to cut social security and give tax breaks to billionaires and end the affordable care act but have noting to replace it with. i will do everything to make sure no republican gets into the white house in this election. [ applause ] >> we will take a quick break and be back with more from the senator.

we are back in the national contusion center.

we have a question from becky a student studying nursing and undecided. becky. >> hi, my name is becky and my parents are undocumented immigrants that arrived from mexico so i can have opportunities they could only dream of. this came from sacrifices and economic hardship. you impose to implement immigration reform that would create a path to full and equal citizen ship. how will you ensure after implantation immigrants like my parents aren't treated as second class citizens? >> becky, thank you for the question. we have 11 million undocumented people in the country today. many are being exploited because when you don't have legal rights, your employer can take advantage of you. many of them living in fear and living in the shadows. i believe absolutely we have to move aggressively toward comprehensive immigration reform.

my dad was an immigrant that came here at 17. i know a little bit about the immigrant experience. a path towards citizen ship. my concern is that if congress does not do what it should do and pass that legislation i will pick up where president obama left office and use the executive powers to do everything i can to make your parents safe in this country and not afraid. and the other thing where i do disagree with president obama, i will end the deportations we're seeing now. [ applause ] >> natalee is getting a phd and supports hillary clinton. >> thank you, senator sanders. so much of your campaign rhetoric is about revolutionary politics but so much of a president's job is tied to institutions and bureaucracies as they exist.

so, how do you keep the revolutionary spirit a lot despite these constraints? >> okay. thank you. you're right in saying that a lot of the day to day work will take place in capitol hill and messy and a lot of negotiating. what i will tell you is that when i was in the house in a given number of years, i ended up passing more amendments on the floor of the houseworking with republicans than any other member of the house. i can work are republicans. just a few years ago, i helped pass as chairman of the senate veterans committee, the most comprehensive veterans legislation in modern history working with john mccain and a number of other republicans. so if the question is can i sit down, you know, with conservatives, people like chris here and negotiate things, yeah, i can do that. let me also say this and this is important. at the end of the day, the

powers that be, the powers who control, people who control the congress, the big money interest and wall street, they are not going to allow the kind of real change that this country needs raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour ending our disastrous trade policies so corporate america starts investing in this country rather than china. making sure that women do not continue to earn 79 cents on the dollar compared to men. aggressively addressing climate change or making sure public colleges or universities are tuition free. that is not going to be done by congress itself. that requires a political revolution and as president of the united states, what i would do is use the bully pulpit in an unprecedented way to rally the american people to demand that the congress listens to their needs, not just the needs of wealthy campaign contributors. [ applause ] >> president obama when he came

into office had this new unprecedented thing called obama for america where they have the organization and my brother worked for them in texas as an organizer and that proved tough in a lot of ways for it to work. part of that, i think, had to do with the tension between being the president of the united states and outside power. what have you learned from that? is the model if that seemed to not do what you're talking about? >> i talked to the president about that and what he indicated, it's tough and it is tough. it is really tough. but i think that one of the most important things that a president can do is to help ordinary people come together in a variety of grass roots organizations to put the pressure, the pressure wall street and campaign contributors now expert. for example, let me just give

you one example and on this one, i am 100% sure that i'm right. if the young people of this country stood up and were very loud and clear that they are sick and tired of leaving college 30, 50, $70,000 in debt, that they want public colleges and univeriies tuition free and if millions of them stood up, started e-mail, writing and demonstrating without the slightest doubt that is exactly what would happen. [ applause ] >> the question is how we put together that grass roots -- >> that's a hard thing to do. >> but for the future of the country, that is exactly what has to be. let me say this about the president, somebody i love and have enormous respect for. i think because he is such a descent guy in many respects, he actually believed that he could walk into the oval office and

sit down with republicans and negotiate in good faith. he was wrong. republicans had no intention of negotiating in good faith. what they wanted to do was obstruct, obstruct, obstruct in an unprecedented way and it took the president a number of years to learn that lesson. he knows it now, and that's why his executive orders are flying out. i have learned that lesson. i will know that when i get into the oval office. >> do you predict whoever the democratic president, should there be a democratic president elected in january of next year, do you believe they will be met with functionally that same attitude? >> yes. i think the republican party, as i mentioned, a moment ago has moved very, very far to the right. of usually, they are beholding the wealthy corporate interests but they are now also beholding to an extreme right wing base, you know, people who are active in the horrific, you know, trump

effort on the birther movement. people who are very hostile to immigrants. you see trump talking about and referring to mexicans as rapists and criminals wanting to ban muslims from coming into this country and those concepts do have a certain support. so do i think if i became president that we would run into that type of obstruction? i do. >> kerry smith undecided until the issue that he's going to, i believe, ask a question about. >> senator sanders, i was surprised and disappointed to hear you oppose philadelphia's efforts to bring universal preschool to all kids through a tax on big soda distributors. here in pennsylvania, we have a state legislature that doesn't adequately fund our existing public schools and importantly, we also have a constitution that prohibits us from taxing just the wealthy.

given those constraints, i'm interested in hearing your ideas for funding winnable anti poverty agendas like prek for all. >> good. first of all, please do not be disappointed in my views in prek. i believe that we have right now in my state and in pennsylvania a dysfunctional prek system, which is a national disgrace. that we have child care workers who make less than mcdonald's employees, where we have parents who cannot find quality affordable child care. we have kids who are entering school way behind because they are not getting the intel lex well or emotional nourishment they need. i believe absolutely and if elected president one of my priorities would be to establish a cutting edge high quality prek system in every state in this country. i can't think of many things more important to me than that, but when it comes to funding

these programs at a time when we have massive income and wealth inequality when the top one-tenth of 1% owns as much as the bottom 90%, when 58% of income goes to the top 1% to ask poor people to pay for that is wrong. you're taking money from the people who are hurting the most. so please count me in as somebody who will aggressively lead the effort for universal high quality child care but i believe it has to be funded in a progressive way. the wealthy and large corporations are going to have to pay for that. >> followup on that because i think it's a really tricky issue and there is people of all kinds of politics on either side of the issue. the big soda companies are on the same side and pour millions of dollars in new york city to fight that. that's their argument, right? how do you feel when you end up on the same side as them? >> big soda companies will do what they do. i am more than aware of the

negative role that sugar is playing in terms of obesity and health in the united states. but what we have got to do is to have progressive taxation -- look. i don't want to have to repeat it. the truth is the very, very rich are becoming much richer. almost everybody else is becoming poorer. it is absurd to go to the some of the poorest people and raise their taxes and by the way, this tax, as i recall is 3 cents an ounce. 12-ounce bottle of soda is -- if you don't have a lot of money, that's a lot. what i think we have got to do is to understand that nationally we need progressive taxation. there are corporations, chris, right now who make billions of dollars a year in profit, stash their money in the cayman islands not paying a nickel in federal taxes. i intend to end that. there are multi millionaires in hedge fund operators who pay an

effective tax rate lower than many of the people here. i intend to end that. so the argument is not whether we have a high quality prek system. we must do that. the argument is that we have got to fund it by asking the wealthiest people to start paying their fair share of taxes. >> we'll take a quick break and be back with more from the nation the contusion center in just a moment. don't go anywhere. we needed 30 new hires for our call center. i'm spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. (announcer) need to hire fast? go to ziprecruiter.com and post your job to over 100 of the web's leading job boards with a single click. then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. you put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. makes my job a lot easier. (announcer) over 400,000 businesses have already used ziprecruiter. and now you can use ziprecruiter for free. go to ziprecruiter.com/offer6

i'm chris matthews in washington. a big day for ted cruz and kasich joining forces to stop donald trump. earlier tonight trump issued a rebuke to the deal saying cruz and kasich should just drop out of the race. >> one is one for 41 and i won many, many states. millions of votes ahead many states, many delegates. the other one, he's like a total disaster. he goes to new york and doesn't even register he's so low. no delegates. folks, they ought to both drop out of the race so we ought to unify the republican party. >> i'm here with the washington post, just drop out of the race. >> yeah, this is what donald trump said there is a natural extension of his argument for

the last few weeks and that is the system is corrupt. the party establishment is going to try to steal the nomination away from these. take the nomination away from me. we wake up this morning to news that the remaining two people in the contest who could keep him from getting magic number 1237, kasich and ted cruz have come together in a deal to divide states and deny him the nomination. we hear words like collusion, he's -- ted cruz is bribing people -- bribing delegates and so for him to say that they should get out of the race, again, i think is a natural extension of this argument. stop with the back room deal. stop with the collusion. stop with the bribing and let me have this. >> jonathan, well said. thank you. now back to our msnbc town hall with bernie sanders. >> we're back in the national contusion center.

we have a bunch of folks with questions and senator bernie sanders wants to answer the questions do not go anywhere, we'll be back with much, much, much more.

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we're back here, bernie sanders, candidate for president and our next question is from solomon who is 48 years old. >> i want to ask a similar question about there is a lot of talk about mass incarceration. can you speak to as president how you will address the issues around the collateral consequences of convictions around housing, around employment and education?

>> thank you for that important question. as a nation, we should be profoundly embarrassed that we have more people in jail than any other country on earth. we spend $80 billion a year locking up 2.2 million dollar people disproportion anytimely native americans. for a start, what i would propose is when we have unemployment rates of minority kids of 40 or 50% that maybe it makes more sense to invest in jobs and education for those kids rather than jails and incarceration. second of all, we need to end over policing and we need to demilitarize local police departments so they don't look like occupying. thirdly, we need to make police departments reflect the diversity of the communities they serve. number four, we need to make sure that we end private

ownership of prisons and detention centers. and very importantly on secretary clinton and i have a big difference. we really need to rethink the war on drugs and now it turns out in the last 30 years, millions of people received criminal records because of possession of marijuana. and it turns out also interestingly enough with the white community and black community do marijuana at about equal levels but blacks are four times more likely to be arrested than whites, so this becomes a racial issue and not just a criminal justice issue. i would take marijuana without of the federal controlled substance act. [ applause ] >> some of the effects of a criminal convection, felony

conviction that was just mentioned is punitive across the board, right? student aid. living in public housing. some of that comes from the '94 crime bill a bill that you got on the floor and said there is a lot about this bill i don't like and voted for it. >> yeah. >> was that a mistake? >> it's one of these things where you have -- it has the bill had absolutely horrendous impact in terms of mass incarceration, absolutely. is that an awful thing? yes, it is. it also had it when you sit there and vote, the violence against women act. all right? i work very hard as major of vermont trying to end domestic violence. it also had in it, as you know, the ban on assault weapons. and i have believed from way back when that assault weapons should not be sold or distributed in the united states of america. these are weapons designed not for hunting but to kill people. so, you know, i could see if i voted against the bill there

would be 30-second ads saying bernie sanders didn't vote to ban weapons but didn't support women in the fight against come -- domestic violence. we've got to undo the damage it caused. [ applause ] >> obviously, you can't go back in time but learn things about votes because all votes have some stuff on one side or the other. do you wish you had that vote back? >> i wish i had a different piece of legislation. i wish i could vote for the violence against women. and i want to see assault weapons banned. what we need to do, 1994 was a long time to go. what we need to do now is address this serious issue. if elected president by the end of my first term, we will not have more people in jail any any other country.

the other point you made and i thought you were going there is many people who have felonies in this country believe it or not, 2 million people lose their right to vote. my state of vermont is one of the few that allows felons to vote. i think we should do that nationally. [ applause ] >> it's been interesting. i think in the case of secretary clinton, if you said, if you ask her or people say what's the biggest vote she regrets, i think iraq. we should say that. that's an obvious answer. what is your answer to that question? is the piece of legislation in the 40 years you've done this where you think to yourself, i got to one wrong? >> there ain't one. [ laughter ] >> well, you know, chris, it's hard. i've cast many, many thousands of votes and there was one vote where it was almost unanimous in the house on deregulating

deriverties and so forth. i should have voted the other way. i helped lead the effort against deregulation. that was a bad vote. i'll tell you something. if i look back on my voting record, you know, secretary clinton, i don't mean to be overly partisan supported doma in 1996, the defense of marriage act, which i think she's apologized for. it was homophobic piece of legislation. back then it was not easy. i voted against that piece of legislation. [ applause ] back in the early 19 the -- 1990s when corporate america was pushing disastrous trade agreements after trade relations with china, i didn't vote for any of them. i helped lead the opposition. i'm not saying, i'm not saying by any means of thousands of

votes i did not cast bad votes. i did. i will say that time and time again i took on issues and voted -- cast votes unpopular at the time but turned out years later, whether it's the vote against the war in iraq, vote against trade agreements, voting against doma, voting against the first gulf war. those are votes that i cast. they were not popular votes. those are the votes i cast and i'm proud of casting those votes. >> we'll be back with much more and questions from the national contusion center in just a bit. don't go anywhere. we needed 30 new hires for our call center. i'm spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. (announcer) need to hire fast? go to ziprecruiter.com and post your job to over 100 of the web's leading job boards with a single click. then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. you put up one post and the next day

you have all these candidates. makes my job a lot easier. (announcer) over 400,000 businesses have already used ziprecruiter. and now you can use ziprecruiter for free. go to ziprecruiter.com/offer6

we are back in philadelphia, pennsylvania, site of one of tomorrow's five big contests in the primary and we have a question now from a 29-year-old supporter of senator sanders. >> senator sanders you said you think the current u.s. air strikes are authorized under the current law, but does that mean the u.s. military can strike isis groups in any country around the world? >> no, it does not mean that. i hope by the way that we will have an authorization pass in the congress and i'm prepared to support that authorization if it's tight enough so i'm satisfied that we do not get into a never ending war in the middle east.

that i will do everything i can to avoid. but the president -- no president has the ability to be dropping bombs or using drones any place he wants. >> the current authorization which you cite in what he just quoted which is the authorization of use of military force after 9/11, that has led to the kill list. there's a list of people that the u.s. government wants to kill and it goes out doing it. would you keep the kill list as president of the united states? >> look, terrorism is a very serious issue. there are people out there who want to kill americans, who want to attack this country and i think we have a right to defend ourselves. i think as it was said it has to be done in a constitutional legal way.

>> do you think what's being done now is constitutional and legal. >> in general i do. >> one more question, the announcement today the u.s. is going to send 250 special forces operators on to the ground in syria. do you agree with that? do you think that's per missable given the fact that there has not been explicit authorization? >> here's the bottom line. isis has got to be destroyed and the way that isis must be destroyed is not through american troops fighting on the ground. isis must be destroyed and the king of jordan has made this clear with, that the war there is for the soul of islam and it must be won by the muslim nations themselves. what the president is talking about is having american troops training muslim troops, helping to supply the military equipment they need and i do support that effort.

we need a broad coalition of muslim troops on the ground. we have had some success in the last year or so putting isis on the defensive. we've got to continue that effort. >> all right. next question comes from monica. >> hello. how do you plan on protecting women's reproductive rights in all states? >> you got it. i do. i'll tell you how. i have a 100% lifetime pro-choice voting record. i believe not only do i vigorously oppose the republican efforts to defund planned parenthood, i think we should expand funding for planned parenthood. and it is no secret that in states all over this country in a dozen different ways there are governors who are trying to make it impossible for a woman to control her own body.

i will use the department of justice to go after those states in every way that i legally can. i believe that in the united states of america women have that right to control their own body and i find that i must say completely hip karat cal from my republican colleagues who tell me every day how much they hate government and they want to get government out of our live, but they think the government has the right to tell you and every other women in america what she can do with her body. >> how important -- there's a very big abortion case that is a challenge to the texas law. many people believe it guts rowe. it wouldn't overturn it, but how big a deal is that court case to you? >> of course it's a big deal.

that's why it goes without saying if elected president i will appoint or nominate people to the supreme court who number one are prepared to overturn citizens united, a disastrous supreme court decision and number two, absolutely protect a woman's right to choose. >> this is obviously been a contentious fight on the democratic side, although not i think the most contentious. i've got into the archives to look at some stuff in 2008 and it got pretty ugly and 1980 on the republican side got pretty ugly and kennedy and carter, there's a long list. one of the things that happens sometimes in those contested disputes is someone has the other person serve on their ticket or their administration.

would you consider that in this case, either having hillary clinton on your ticket or being on hers? >> let me answer that question in the way you knew i would answer it. and that is to say right now we are running as hard as we can to win this thing and at the end of the process we'll look at what's going on, but right now my job is to get as many delegates as possible and to try to win the nomination for president. but you knew that that would be my answer. >> we try. i've interviewed you probably dozens of times since you started running for president and before that. and what's happened in this campaign in some ways is things you've been talking about haven't changed that much before running for president, but you have found an audience for them that is bigger, i think it's fair to say, then when you're just a united states senator from vermont.

you have also had to go out and poll tick in places you don't have to politic before. you've been in vermont and philadelphia and chicago. you are trying to run the obama coalition. you're running in the party of the first black president. what have you learned on this campaign. >> oh, god. >> about race in america, about the way this coalition operates. what did you learn? what did you come away thinking i did not know before i ran for president this and now i know. >> how many hours do we have to discuss that? one of the extraordinary things about the experience of running for president is you learn just so, so much and you meet so many extraordinary people. we have been -- i have been obviously to flint, michigan and let me tell you something, i will never for get that experience as long as i live talking to a mother who described to me the breakdown of

the cognitive capabilities of her daughter because her daughter was drinking poisoned water. and you ask yourself how that could possibly happen in the united states of america and you've heard me being critical of media more times than one, but i think people in america really don't know not only what's going on in flint, michigan, they don't know that the detroit public school system is on the verge of fiscal collapse, they don't know in baltimore, maryland there are tens of thousands of heroine addicts, they don't know in inner cities all over this country, people are paying 40, 50, 60% of their incomes because that's are not enough affordable housing. people do not really know what's going on in african-american communities where kids are suffering 40, 50, 60% rates of unemployment. what i have learned in this campaign is if i get elected president, we are going to change national priorities.

we're not going to rebuild communities in iraq and afghanistan, we're going to rebuild them in the united states of america. >> senator sanders, thank you very much. everyone here, thank you very much and especially all these wonderful folks. up next rachel maddow hosts another exclusive town hall event with secretary hillary clinton. victory is in sight. >> hillary clinton has the momentum. >> this campaign is the only one democrat or republican to win more than 10 million votes. >> and she's the gop's number one target. >> crooked hillary will not have a chance. >> if i'm the nominee we beat hillary clinton. >> i beat hillary consistently in every single national poll.