Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders makes another campaign stop in Decorah

Posted: Sun, Jan 5, 2020 6:49 AM

Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders spoke Friday night to a large crowd at the Danan Lansing Building at the Winneshiek County Fairgrounds in Decorah, touching on numerous issues.

Sanders spoke for about 45 minutes, covering the minimum wage, Medicare for All, climate change, criminal justice reform, comprehensive immigration reform and gun violence, among other issues. He told the crowd, "our campaign is different and our administration will be, too."

Before discussing the issues, he discussed President Donald Trump, calling him, "the most dangerous president in the history of our country." He called Trump a bully and a constant liar who puts people down while trying to divide the country along the lines of race, religion and other factors.

Sanders then launched into a discussion of the economy, saying the top one percent now has more wealth than the bottom 92 percent of Americans. He proposes raising the minimum wage to $15/hour and making sure women get equal pay for equal work.

On health care, he promised, "we will defeat the health care industry." Sanders defended his support of Medicare for All.

Sanders then called climate change "the fundamental moral issue" of our time; spoke in favor of ending the "war on drugs," and said of his gun control policy, "I am not intimidated by the NRA."

He closed his regular remarks by saying, "at the end of the day, the one percent is only only percent (of us)" and promising to "create a nation that works for all of us."

The Vermont U.S. Senator then took a few questions, including one about the Middle East. He said a president should always use diplomacy first and resort to war as the last response. "It is easy to get into war, but it doesn't always work out the way a president thinks it will," he said.