Strange but true: Bernie's pragmatic turn

The Conversation with Dasha Burns

POLITICO

News, Politics, Government

4.0 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 July 2021

⏱️ 27 minutes

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Summary

Bernie Sanders is behaving a lot like a pragmatist (just don’t say it to his face). As the Senate Budget chair and a member of Sen. Chuck Schumer’s leadership team, the 79-year-old progressive is one of the most powerful people in Washington and finally has the opportunity he’s been waiting for his whole career: to pass a reconciliation bill with sweeping social reforms. If successful, the $3.5 trillion bill would be the biggest ever passed by Congress. The trick: Can he get it past the members of his own party? Rachael Bade is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO.Laura Barrón-López is a White House correspondent for POLITICO.Faiz Shakir is an advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders.Adrienne Hurst is a producer for POLITICO audio.Annie Rees is a producer for POLITICO audio.Jenny Ament is the senior producer for POLITICO audio.Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO audio. Read more: Strange but true: Bernie takes a 'very pragmatic' turn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Sanders is pragmatic, and he is a realist, and he knows that he has a moment right now that he didn't have before.
0:12.0	I'm Rachel Bade. This is Playbook Deep Dive, and today...
0:16.0	That pragmatic word...
0:18.0	The P word.
0:20.0	There were was pragmatic.
0:21.0	Pragmatic.
0:22.0	Pragmatic.
0:23.0	Pragmatic.
0:24.0	Absolutely pragmatic.
0:25.0	People forget.
0:26.0	Bernie's really pretty pragmatic on a lot of things.
0:29.0	How one of Washington's biggest liberal icons is starting to attract that label.
0:33.0	And that's something that his advisors will say as well, which is that it's the reality of a 50-50 Senate.
0:39.0	It's where the country is at right now.
0:41.0	Even if it's not of his usual alley.
0:44.0	And it's the fact that there is a Democrat in the presidency and that he's the chair of the budget committee.
0:50.0	And all these things have aligned, and now he finally sees this moment where he can get things that he's been pushing his entire career.
0:57.0	Political White House correspondent Laura Barone Lopez says that the independent from Vermont isn't quite embracing that pragmatic label.
1:05.0	In fact, when I was talking to FAS, FAS Shakir, Sanders 2020 campaign manager and current advisor.
1:11.0	He prefaced the words he was going to use to describe Sanders by saying,
1:15.0	I don't think he'll like me using these.
1:17.0	And then he said, realist and pragmatic.
	...

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