Patriot Act Bonus: Hasan Sits Down With Bernie Sanders | Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj | Netflix

Don't make me look too fancy, you'll ruin my image. I spend all day messing up my hair and you straighten it. You have to give him that Bernie edge. That's how it is. You are precious. Thank you. Thank you, Senator. Bernie, you look great too. Thank you. Leave me your opinion on something. You are a Jewish social democrat whose campaign manager is a Pakistani Muslim named Faiz. He thinks of that image. When that image reaches the White House, people will lose their minds. I don't know if people are going to lose their minds. I mean, we don't hire people because they are Pakistani or because they come.

We have a wonderful woman who is from Saudi Arabia, several Jews in our campaign. We have a lot of African Americans, we have Latinos. We hire people because they can do the job: because they are smart, they work hard, and they can do their job. And I don't give a damn where they come from or what their religion is. Now, maybe that sounds radical, but that's what I... No, that's very radical because I understand it. You are Jewish, but quite Muslim. A lot of the things you've talked about... I've been called a lot of things in my life, never "Muslim." Muslim. "Muslim".

This is salon stuff. And Faiz, when you leave, Faiz will break it down for you. Know what it is. The things you talk about are things I've been listening to in my living room for a long time. He wants to demilitarize the United States. You don't want an aggressive, hardline US military around the world... Well, demilitarize is a strong word. We need a strong military, but I want to make sure we resolve international conflicts. Sure, but by means other than military means. But you don't want a drone to attack all the brown countries. If right. –towards the Stone Age.

Yes. And do you speak at Muslim conferences? Yes. Why wouldn't I speak at Muslim conferences? Too many Muslims. I don't speak at Muslim conferences! I speak at so many conferences: I speak at Jewish conferences, I speak at Muslim conferences, I speak at Latino conferences, I speak at African American conferences. Did you know? We are a big country with many people from different backgrounds. I'm running for president and I think if I'm invited, I should speak to as many of those groups as I can. But you're trying to have a political career in the United States. This is a public relations nightmare.

I do not think. So you have more faith in Islam than I do. I'm being serious! Like... It's not a question of faith in Islam, it's faith in the American people. - Well. - And I think... And do you think the American people are ready for so much Big Brown energy? I think the American people are disgusted with Donald Trump's effort to divide us based on our religion, based on the color of our skin, based on our sexual orientation, based on where we were born. And our campaign is about bringing people together. Jews, Muslims, Christians and any other religion, whites and blacks and Latinos.

Asian American, Native American: Bringing people together around an agenda that works for all of us. And incidentally, around an agenda that includes a vigorous, vigorous effort to combat the global crisis of climate change. It doesn't matter what color your skin is, or where you were born. Did you know? We won't have much of a planet left unless we transform our energy system away from fossil fuels. You have spoken out against a relatively aggressive and hardline US military presence around the world. Under what conditions would you consider using military force abroad? Well, look, we have the strongest defense in the world.

We have the strongest army in the world. It may be necessary to use it. I'm not a pacifist. I wish we lived in a world where we didn't have to use weapons or the military. But what I will tell you as someone who voted not only against the war in Iraq and helped lead the opposition to that war, someone who voted against the first Gulf War, someone who, as a child, marched against the war in Vietnam. War is the last resort. And I know it's very easy for politicians to stand up and make big speeches, and then we send our working-class children to some country, to Iraq or Afghanistan, to be killed.

But we have to do everything possible to avoid war. And you know, the goal should be diplomacy. The goal should be to work with people and do everything possible to avoid the bloodshed that wars cause. Would you like to lean more on Congress to... Yes. One of the problems we've had in recent years is that Congress has basically abdicated its responsibility. You know that the Constitution requires that Congress, not the president, go to war. But for many years... Yes. Under Democratic and Republican administrations, Congress has abdicated that responsibility. And by the way, I'm very proud to have led the effort in the Senate to get, for the first time, the War Powers Act passed in terms of the war in Yemen.

And we voted in the Senate and the House also for the first time – 45 years – to tell the president of the United States that he had no authority to get involved in supporting Saudi Arabia in a very, very terrible war. Unfortunately, Trump vetoed that legislation, but it was the first successful use of the War Powers Act. Excellent. Thank you. I think we need to move on to a simple yes or no question. Alright. Israel. Yes. Yes. Israel has every right in the world to exist in peace and security. But the United States must develop a foreign policy that understands that we must treat the Palestinian people with the respect and dignity they deserve.

Our job is to unite Israelis and Palestinians and it is very difficult to create a path to peace. - You have spoken out against Israeli settlements. - Yes. Would you withhold American military aid if Israel did not change its tone regarding... Let me be very clear as someone who is Jewish, who spent several months in Israel as a young man, in fact, on a kibbutz? . And that is: we give more than $3 billion a year to Israel. And in recent years, especially under the Netanyahu government, we have seen this government become a far-right government, I think, a racist government.

And I think the taxpayers of this country have the right to say to the Israeli government: “Look, we support you, we want to help you, but you know what? “You have to treat your neighbors with respect and dignity.” And we have a strong carrot, and it is the billions of dollars that we are giving to Israel. This refers to aid. So let's hypothetically say that Bibi's nightmare comes true. You become president and Iran declares war on Israel. Do they send help, even if they don't change their minds about the settlements? We do everything possible to avoid it.

I have a lot of... Look, you have a region of the world that has been in crisis for a long time. The only thing I can tell you is that the United States must have an impartial foreign policy. What does that mean? It means that we work to do everything we can to unite Israelis and Palestinians. It means that I am personally sick and tired of the conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Now many, many years ago, I suspect for oil reasons, we sided with Saudi Arabia. They are wonderful people, but you know what? With all due respect, your government is a government of demagogues, of murderers, of people who are horrible and who try to repress democracy, treating women as third-class citizens.

They are not great. You are saying this. I'm not saying this. I've already gotten into enough trouble regarding this topic. Yes, I'm saying it. Senator Sanders, you were talking about canceling $1.6 trillion of student loan debt, which is great, but... what about people who just paid off their student loans? What are you going to offer them? Well, we're going to offer them Medicare for all. We are going to offer them the opportunity to send their children to university (public colleges and universities) free of tuition. We are going to offer them well-paying jobs, etcetera, etcetera. But right now we have a generation of young people, who received a college education, and this generation, who is struggling so much right now, should not be punished with outrageous levels of student debt.

I talk to people every day who graduated from college: $50,000, $100,000...grad school adds some zeroes in there. I'm talking about a debt of between $3 and $400,000. Oh, absolutely. Yes that's fine? These people cannot marry and have children. They can't buy a house. They can't buy a car. They're paying... Oh, I talked to a woman in New Hampshire. Not only is she still paying off her own student debt, but she is also paying off her daughter's student debt. Alright. That's pretty crazy. So if we could give $1 trillion in tax breaks to the big 1% corporations – which is what Trump did – if we could bail out Wall Street crooks to the tune of trillions of dollars with zero-interest loans, you know what?

We can cancel all student debt in this country. And that would be a tremendous boom for the economy. Instead of paying, you know, $200 a month in student debt, people go out, they can buy a car, they can buy their own house. Alright, you know, 50 years ago, many public colleges and universities had virtually free tuition. Did you know that? - University of California– - Free tuition? Practically free. That's how it is. So people could go to college without going into too much debt. It's a reasonably new phenomenon of having to leave college with $50,000 in debt, and I think we should address it immediately.

Sure. His debt plan would also give a lot of money to rich families. - That's not a brand for you. Why not set a limit? - No, it is not. -But why not put a limit on who receives that? - Because I'll tell you why. Because I believe in universal programming, and that means there are public schools in New York City right now, right? - Yes. In America? Rich kids go to public schools, but we say public schools are available to everyone. You have social security, you know that the richest people in this country receive their social security check.

It doesn't mean much to them, but they do. Everyone participates. Everyone contributes. Everyone gets it. What we do in our programming is we tell these very, very rich people that they are going to have to pay a lot more in taxes. In fact, we have proposed a fairly significant wealth tax. That's why we believe in progressive taxes, but we believe in universal programs. If you are a rich person, I don't know how many billionaires send their children to public colleges and universities. They choose to do that, that's fine. Believe me, you are going to pay a lot more taxes to make that happen for everyone.

Now, to do this, it's a pretty drastic thing to do. You'll have to go through the Republicans in the Senate. Well, my hope is that there is no Republican leadership in the Senate. We will do everything we can to ensure that they do not remain in power. I mean, we know and I have Indian parents, the best is sometimes not enough, right? I went to the University of California at Davis. I wanted to go to UC Berkeley. The best was UC Davis. So, just like I was an Aggie, Republicans can stay in the Senate. And if that happens, you will have to negotiate with them.

I have some releases. Are you giving me more advice? I've already given you four jobs. Of course. And now you need a–alright, let me hear what you have. - I'm getting hard at painting. Definitely, yes... - Okay. There is going to be a hard-working person in my administration. The first thought is would you consider expanding Medicare for All to cover pipelines? Look, I thought we were going to eliminate the pipelines. I am not going to name you Secretary of Energy, that is clear. This is Mitch's speech. You have to give him something that interests him.

Medical care for pipelines. - Sure. Or here's another one... - So that when they spill, break down, and spill, they get the care they need, is that your point? Correct. Alright, I got it. Or how about this? For every student whose debt is forgiven, a white rhino is killed. I hadn't thought about that either? Where do you come up with these ideas? I was thinking about the white rhino or the normal rhino. Either way, you have to give them something in return for... The problem is that we are running out of white rhinos. That's why I said normal rhino. - You have the option. - Normal Rhino: They're probably running out of those too.

If nothing else works, you can always free Mitch McConnell like Dobby in Harry Potter by giving him this sock. And this sock... - Well, when you give a gift to a house elf... - Yes. They're free. Oh. Then you just walk up to Mitch and say, “This is for you.” All right, I'll see Mitch soon. I'll make sure he gets this. Free Mitch. Release Mitch, it's okay.