is the united states ready maybe for a presidential candidate who calls himself a democratic socialist romance very independent senator bernie sanders talks about a possible white house run and a whole lot more on this edition of politicking. on the politicking on larry king and on today's show us and a birdie sanders the independent from vermont calls himself

a democratic socialist lately then calling for americans to liberate themselves from the one percent he's never shy with his remarks he joins me from capitol hill he's the longest serving independent member of congress in united states has used to be a frequent guest with us on radio and c.n.n. it's nice to have you here with us on politicking with larry king as well good to see bernie great to be with you larry before we discuss inequality and what you might do in the future two quick things i'd like you brief comments first on the situation in the middle east you know this truth an ongoing tragedy of enormous consequence that breaks my heart. and every few years the software rupp's and innocent people get killed and you know israel and the palestinian authority seem to get nowhere close i think all that i can say is that the international community the countries in the region i've got to do everything

they can to get these sides into negotiations and hopefully work out some type of two state settlement and number two your thoughts on the ukraine well i think you know the president has got to be aggressive with putin of the idea that the ukrainian rebels there have access to these types of weapons that can see shoot down commercial airliners is not acceptable and i think this needs to be an issue that the president putin i've got the really thoroughly go all the. analysis discussed things domus that united states income inequality the worst since nineteen twenty eight the one percent own thirty seven percent of everything in this country why isn't there more outrage well you know it has a lot to do with the fact that in congress you have a lot of folks frankly who receive their campaign contributions from the one percent or you have

a media which is owned by large corporate interests but i tell you larry in vermont and throughout this country i think people are profoundly disgusted with the reality that ordinary americans are working longer hours follow wages. that parents don't know that their kids for the first time in the modern history of our country will have a lower standard of living than they do that america is moving in the wrong direction so there is a lot of outrage out there and i believe that people want fundamental change it is absurd in my view that ninety five percent of all new income goes to the top one percent at the same time we have more people living in poverty than any time in american history you recently released the public statement you declare now's the time to stop the movement toward oligarchies the time to create a government which represents all americans what it what you want a peaceful revolution what do you want senator well well that is exactly what i

said look let's be clear you don't you and i were kids a couple of years ago. they taught us about oligarchy and they said look at these latin american countries we have a few families controlling the politics and controlling the economics of those countries well guess what's happening in america today you have is you've just in the catered in terms of distribution of wealth you've got the top one percent owning about thirty seven thirty eight percent of the financial wealth the bottom sixty percent owns all of two point three percent ninety five percent of all no income goes to the top one percent that's oligarchy in terms of politics we're looking at a situation where the koch brothers and other billionaire families will be able to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to elect candidates to make the rich even richer that's called oligarchy so i think my fear is about this country moving toward an oligarchy oligarchy society or not on file that i think they are

real and unless we create a new type of politics where ordinary people start standing up for their rights rather than just allowing the top one percent to dominate us i think we are going to end up in an oligarchy to tell you about your proposed legislation corporate deserve as you would ban businesses from getting government contracts if they reincorporate overseas to avoid paying taxes do you expect that to get anywhere. well in the republican house of representatives do i expect that to get anywhere no of course i don't you know many people now are in a sense in a receiving large sums of money from billionaire families and corporate interests and this is not in the best interests of corporate america but to my mind i mean it is beyond belief it is bad enough that we have trade policies which enable corporations to shut down in america and move to china and then be able to bring their products back to this country that has cost us millions of dollars now with

these guys and say oh we're going to merge with an irish company or with a british company in order to simply lower our taxes that is you know really traitorous that is totally unpatriotic and unacceptable and if those guys want to do that they should not be allowed to bid on government contracts among many other things off the floor when you talk to your fellow senators whether they say the seems so logical what you've just said what do they say they counter what you've just said of the argument is you know depends on who you talk to the people that i talk to most say of course we've got to take action against these people or the truth of the matter is as a percentage of our revenue right now corporate. believe less than it used to be you got one out of four corporations not paying a nickel in taxes today what the republicans will log you is all well the reason

that these guys are going to ireland going elsewhere is because corporate taxes in america ought to high and then what they do is they throw out a nominal rate a rate that's on the books rather than looking the real effective rate what people are really paying you look at what people are paying we're somewhere in the middle of the always see the bottom line is these corporations in many cases could care less about america about the people who gave them their wealth and they're prepared to move abroad if they can save a few bucks i think that's really wrong and you know long and successful career the ever feel at times don quixote ish that you have been fighting windmills all these years well yeah answer is i have been talking about issues for many many years i am that many people have not been talking about larry what i am proud of now is that more people are talking about these very same issues you know i've been talking about income and wealth inequality for thirty years today we got

a whole lot of americans including the president of the united states what's walking about those issues the question now is that we go beyond talk do we do something do we have the courage to take on these people who are worth unbelievable sums of money who are prepared to punish anybody who stands up against them do we have the courage to do that that's the issue are you call yourself a democratic socialist why aren't you a democrat. ok well i am not a republican to be sure because they have become a very right wing party i'm not a democrat because in my view the democratic party today is not anywhere near as strong as it should be and standing up for the vast majority of the people who happen to be working class people middle class people and i think the democrats do a far far far better job than the republicans democrats and i are trying to raise the minimum wage we're trying to make sure that long term unemployment people can

continue to get the benefits the unemployment benefits that they need try to work for pay equity it's all for bob bottom line do the democrats do most democrats are they willing to really stand up to the billionaire class that has so much economic and political power and the answer is no and i think that's one of the reasons why so many people now are disenchanted with both bodies the reason f.e.c. filing you raise nearly seven hundred sixteen thousand dollars in the last three months nine times as much as you raise the preceding quarter so reported you have four point four million in the campaign account where's the money coming from and what are you going to do with it bar you are used to seriously considering running for president well you know in the presidential world records the billion dollars to run four point four million is you know kind of breakfast money. but i will tell you larry that and what i'm very proud of if you dig down into those

figures that you reciting. we raise money. from mostly not all but mostly individual contributors who contribute on average i don't know somewhere around forty forty five dollars so when i run we've got tens and tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of contributors contributing you know forty fifty bucks sometimes twenty bucks sometimes ten bucks we do not get our money as many other senators do from big money interest getting back to your question laurie about democratic socialism i think it's important that we look to places like denmark sweden finland norway countries which have developed policies which protect the middle class in a way that many americans would be hard to they would find it hard to believe i mean you go to those countries health care is a right of all people not a privilege and yet with good quality universal health care they spend

significantly less per capita than we do they have you know what higher education in those countries cost you want to send your kid to college to graduate school the answer is zero it is fun that out of the overall tax base in this country kids are leaving school deeply in debt that is not the case in those countries they have strong child care programs when you have a baby you've got six months off with pay or with half pay whatever it may be give in each country but they treat their middle class and working football with a lot more respect than we do but they're much smaller and their children don't die in war right they've got an easier road to hoe than a country of three hundred fifty million. well the answer is yes and no you know obviously they are small of they are more homogeneous that's true. and they probably spend a smaller percentage of their g.d.p. on the military and maybe there's

a lesson that we can learn from that i find that you know a little bit in congress that we have people saying you know we got to spend more more on the military and you got forty million people this country have no health insurance and we have a trial care system which is in terrible terrible shape. when you run for president are you thinking about it i am giving some thought that i haven't made a decision if i do it you know it the reason you know i'm hesitating going around the country is i want to see what people really think. for me to do well to win a presidential election would be that we would have to put together an unprecedented grassroots movement i mean you would need many many hundreds of thousands of people knocking on the was educating organizing and that is that is not an easy thing to do i thought i want to just give russell ross for almost that well the difference between ross and me and i like ross as well as

a few billion dollars in his back account i don't and that is that is a significant difference but he put together lots of people across the country he did that and so to barack obama for that matter but i think that the i'm sure in the frustration is out there that people very much want to change in a fundamental way the direction of our country and you know that's what i'm trying to ascertain as this president disappointed you how do you assess obama on a couple of levels the one he has an inch gordon a really intelligent man he is very very smart too i like him very much personally . i would say my main criticism of barack obama. is that he seemed to think when he came in. and in the ensuing years. that he could negotiate with right wing extremists who really had no intention of

ever to go shooting you know when you were in politics you know i've been in politics a while negotiation is part of what politics is about but you cannot negotiate with people who refuse to negotiate who really want to politically you show you and i think it took him a number of years to learn that lesson i think what he should have done is gone out to the people and made the republican party an offer they couldn't refuse and that is that they did not they did not support legislation like raising the minimum wage like a massive jobs program to put up people back to work rebuilding the infrastructure they would pay a political price for that because you had an educated and organized population ready to get involved politically that would be my major purchases learned it's always great talking with you thanks for joining us thank you very much for having me lar thank you senator bernie sanders a great american with the group of them or not the great american i hope is again so up next our political panel to talk about president obama's crisis in the.

us. and the problems of the u.s. it's all that just. three years ago the european union was spending several hundred billion if you're also in the public procurement underestimation each property deal. or two sometimes even fifty percent of the money spent on corruption. your friends post a photo from a vacation you can't. call it different. the boss repeats the same oh. joke of course you like. your ex-girlfriend still pens tear jerking poetry keep jobs ignore it. we

post only what really matters at r.t. to your facebook news feed. over. did you know the price is the only industry specifically mentioned in the constitution and. that's because a free and open process is critical to our democracy right albus. role. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and across a cynical we've been a hydrogen lying handful of transnational corporations that will profit by destroying what our founding fathers once built up my job market and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world we go beyond identifying the problem you're trying to fix rational debate and a real discussion of critical issues facing america by bill ready to join the movement then walk

a little bit there. them back to politicking we have troubling issues around lately ukraine he's really tell us that in conflict humanitarian crisis along the u.s. southern border will suppress that doing right was he getting wrong that's what our panel is here to talk about the amy holmes the independent conservative an anchor at the blaze t.v. she goes to see a speechwriter for former senate majority leader my old friend bill frist and rigid

solid political commentator host of the richard farleigh show he joins us from las vegas guys over the weekend secretary of state john kerry said that the fact that the united states of america is more engaged in more places in the world to a greater effect than it anytime in recent memory to our credit how do you react to that the well i think it was administration sort of jibber jabber i you know reporters journalists people across the aisle laughed at that and even today dianne feinstein the senator from the democratic senator from california and chair of the senate intelligence committee she told andrea mitchell on m.s.n. receive that this president needs to be more engaged she said quote that the world would very much respect greater attention paid to these matters she listed isis in iraq even over just this weekend isis was chasing out christians basically running a genocide campaign against them they've fled to the kurdish area of iraq of course

you have the ukraine crisis with the shooting down of flight seventeen which president obama has been roundly criticized about another democratic senator joe manchin of west virginia this week and again told local news that the united that the world doesn't know what the u.s. stands for and that there has been a vacuum of leadership so president obama is getting criticism from across the aisle i name to two very prominent senate democrats who like to see this president more engaged rigid was he doing wrong. oh listen i think this president is engaged i disagree with amy on this point and i think that the truth of the matter is here is that our our our you know our foreign policy and our military is really stretched thin larry and i think that's the bigger problem here we're engaged all over the world and as i think this crises continue to mount on top of each other what we need is greater cooperation in washington from republicans and democrats to come together to sort of come up with a larger broader strategy on how we're going to handle this and sadly we haven't

seen that because republicans in the sitting on the sideline this whole entire time i mean specifically what he wanted to do say. what he wanted to do. well unfortunately that is a crisis that was all too predictable when we took our troops out of iraq completely and left the iraqis to be overrun by these terrorists which has happened we do it's happened which richard it's not funny it's not funny when christians no i mean they're like oh you're not that had that's what they were i think i'm ready meal i would let it run is they continue let me finish continue let me continue this is wait wait a second now this can let you know i learned your question i want to finish it let him state what i want to say i think that we what we need to be doing and you know the president signaled he would do this is to send troops in there as advisors to the iraqi troops we may have to bolster you know that that presence in iraq when it comes to afghanistan pulling troops out of there will predictably encourage greater levels of terrorism we know this when it comes to the

ukraine what we could be doing is getting nato troops to to the ukraine to try to secure that crash landing site to secure those bodies we know that those bodies have been desecrated by pro russian and we'll attempt this is you know listen we could do listen any at the end of the day this sort of boils down to and it was under the fact that republicans want to boil down foreign policy to a yes or no question and we know that's just not the truth now first let's deal with iraq and i would a piece in the house in the post just a couple weeks ago and the ideal of iraq has less to do with one president or another president this goes back fifty sixty years ago we the borders were drawn for iraq iraq has always been a crisis that we've had to deal with but we can't sit here and say oh it's isis fault versus the amount of the government because the amount the government has not worked with the shiite has now with the sunni is that all and that's part of the problem there and so when you talk about foreign policy and republicans are good for doing this they boil it down to a yes or no question as a little bit broader than that i think what this president is really trying to do

is build an international coalition work with our allies to get things done but he can't get that done all he's get when that when republicans who need to throw pebbles and. all that washington what we need is that we need a comprehensive plan on how we're going to deal with our foreign policy when it comes to iraq we need to engage the iranians we need to what we need to put together so we can have six party talks we need to really find a way to get to the solution and it's not it doesn't involve putting american boots on the ground do you think america the american public would support anywhere troops on the ground in harm's way right now anywhere. no and that is why i suggested they don't when it comes to the ukraine crisis for example that we could be using nato troops to try to secure that ground here and nato would be part of those troops will certainly and we were part of nato go later into libya when we bomb to libya which of course was something that president obama you know he led from behind so to speak with us bombs but in terms of these international crises

richard wants to i don't know blame republicans for the president's lack of resolve lack of follow through we know that when the president quote unquote drew a red line when it came to syria that line kept moving and moving and turned into a green light bashar al assad has continued to use chemical weapons until very recently using chemical weapons on his own people but we have there is what appears to be a mass genocide and bashar al assad despite our president insisting that he must step down was just and so we would like to. election so what we're going to weather is a sanctions resolution when john the president as the resident lays out the details of his goal very like i said it's please don't talk over me richard when this president says that there will be serious consequences to you know our enemies crossing him and that they are not what that does is it invites adventurism you know do you think lattimer putin didn't notice that the american had no america had no response to glad to bashar al assad crossing that red line i mean we're here it

is that is what part of the current law is the primary argument and your argument i mean i give him orders on the ground and more caskets going to the dover air force base and that's exactly what the american people don't want we don't want to see anymore of our young men and young women die on the front in a battle that of a war that's not ours and that's that's across the line that's democrat that's republican that's tea party that's that's progressive we do not want to see our men and women in body bags coming back to dover air force base at point blank i'm not suggesting that is exactly what republicans and exactly what you're suggesting what it when i've got it not it won't and i want to do in syria what we do in syria we don't arm the rebels right because that's the john mccain solution. i says it will be used to kill american troops just like we saw in iraq when we engage or the first time that isn't not at all what i'm suggesting and a big so what do you suggest area conflict in the beginning of the syria conflict isis and jihad as radicals from all over the middle east had not yet got involved that was our opportunity but you know about it right when i really want to be that

operable this president and those that offer go right back to isis i decided that i missed that opportunity i want to tell them that you know would you want to know when you're going to not opening that list what is the guy said build a value let me take another saddam what does he do in these seemingly insoluble problem with richard this time of the middle east what it what does what does america do in that situation what i listen larry this is where diplomacy is going to be our strongest tool we need to bring all the powers that be we need to bring them all together whether it's the arab league whether work with the turkish government we need to bring everybody to the table and talk about how we come up with a solution to iraq in particular and as i wrote about this in my piece let's get let's sit down with the iranian sit down with the turks the sit down with the current with the kurdistan going to kurdistan and let's come up with a solution maybe a three part a three state solution which joe biden proposed ten years ago and the george bush administration laughed at but we really need to do is find a way that we can create some sort of level of sustainable peace and that only

comes with everybody that the table and everybody's given a fair seat at the table and that is that we've seen this in a straight we do see more of the what do you do in me when killed in the killed on both sides what do you do. well certainly war is ugly and i think you need to look at where our national security interests lie and you know a conflict conflagration in syria conservatives warned about this would spill over into other parts of the middle east if we didn't take immediate action to try to help those native syrians that were fighting against bashar al assad's genocide against them in rising up for independence we didn't get involved terrorist saw this they took advantage they took advantage of the people on the ground who were not well organized not necessarily great fighters took over that fight and then it's built into iraq and other places richard seems to be suggesting that this administration somehow hasn't brought people together to sit down and chat and talk about all these things the problem is the administration has been it's been too

much talk and for example iran has just simply been gaming these talks and is continuing to pursue. let's be very clear let's be very clear very clear when i when i mention around and i would be very very clear on this larry we're talking about iran iran is already engaged in iraq iran is already fighting against isis so they're fighting just isis and we're fighting against isis why are we talking to each other we cannot go around being american we cannot go out robbing the world version of the mean girls we've got to come to the table we've got to talk to folks we've got to find a way to instead of putting all that foreign aid they're putting out there to the world and bring them back home and rebuild america but i can only happen when the united states has the diplomatic conversation and we bring to the table what i am you suggesting is a world view where we continue to put our money our resources and our men and women on the ground all across the world have not just. not right here tomorrow us. on the ground and rebuild in chicago and los angeles and we need to create

a great new home of course i agree with building up our domestic economy and jobs which you know my solutions to that i'm sure would be very different from yours but no point if i suggested that men and women american men and women should troops. be put out of the way when i am talking about is it us or world view money or diplomacy used in interrupt me a more muscular diplomacy or example what does anyone like you have to create like i'm about to explain it to you if you listen for example in the in the situation with ukraine the sanctions that we've placed which i will agree are actually tougher than what europe has done because they're far more dependent on russian energy but the sanctions that we could be imposing on russia could be much tougher they could deal with russian excuse me russian economy and business is there the energy russia. let me finish richard this is like the fifth time i've asked you what we could be doing is imposing sanctions on russian businesses being able to participate in international financial markets be able to get loans from

international lenders from u.s. businesses being able to do business with russia we could be doing that we're not we could be expanding our sanctions against the russian plutocrats we've done a bit of that it could be a lot tougher on them there is even a piece to say today to say that they're getting nervous that that might happen i'd like to see that happen but i would please ask you do not miss characterize me as suggesting i think we should put more men and women in harm's way on behalf of all these international problems what i'm suggesting is is this president as said by his own democratic supporters senator dianne feinstein just today say that this president is disengaged in his presidency and his diplomacy has not gone far enough . feinstein a prominent democrat. listen larry i listen i will agree with him and i think we can put we could put more sanctions on the russian that i think will see that come from this white house when the president started this sanction regime against the white house this actually it was slow and steady it will contain will continue to

do that this president will continue to do that and i think it's working we've seen the russian economy pretty much collapse but it cannot be u.s. sanctions alone that what's propping up the russian economy and aiming as well as i do is the europeans and so what we need to do is work with our european allies to say let's put more sanctions on let the e.u. put more sanctions on the russians right now is the time to do it when it's not in the summer time so heating prices that he it's not cold so you have to worry about heating oil is that the third but we've that requires us to get to the come to the table and talk to our allies and try to get something done on that so i agree there but i think the world view overall amy is suggesting as well who are more engaging across the world and the more engaged become is code word for us for us to sending more troops a crab a hundred probably that is you know i mean that i'm not he said that that is not my world view i have said it over and over and you put it when you will be raising the debt keep mis characterizing me if you want to have this argument with john mccain have it with john mccain but you're having this argument with me and i would rather

have time thank you both very much as always sprightly and unlike many. thanks larry larry thank you the beautiful amy holmes the dashing richard fowler. and i don't want to hear from you join the conversation on my facebook page and share your thoughts with a. secret laboratory. was able to build its most sophisticated group which on doesn't do the doing without anything to submission to teach creation of life should care about humans. this is why you should want your only on the r g dot com.