Hear what Bernie Sanders and AOC said about Marjorie Taylor Greene during CNN town hall

Senator Sanders, we've got another question. This one's for you. This is Logan Carey, who is a student at American University who's a member of College Republicans and has volunteered for Republican campaigns. Thank you for being here, Logan.

You're from Green, Maine. What's your question for the senator?

Thank you.

Senator Sanders, which specific Republicans' leaders do you believe you can work with to pass a CR and reopen the government?

Look, that's a great question. And let me tell you, I can mention a number of them. There are some decent, honest Republicans. And in American society, we believe in democracy. You're a conservative Republican. We disagree. So what?

It's called America. We have different points of view. I got to tell you, though, if I may, one of the things that has concerned me very, very much and is that we are seeing the Republican Party doing less of representing their districts and their states

than just swearing allegiance to the president of the United States. Now, I never thought that I would say this, but you have somebody like Marjorie Taylor Greene saying, you know what? I was elected by my constituents.

That's who I am beholden to, not the president of the United States. So there are good Republicans out there, and if Trump would leave them alone for five minutes and not threaten them with a primary if they stood up and did the right thing, I think we can make progress. I will give you one story. Tom Tillis, conservative Republican from North Carolina. When we're debating this big, beautiful bill,

Tillis looks at the bill, he reads the way it says, this is a disaster for North Carolina. I can't vote for it. Literally, the next day, Trump was all over social media. The billionaires were all over saying, okay, you're finished, we're gonna primary you. And a day later, this guy says, I'm out of here.

I'm not running for re-election. All right? That's where we are right now. And that is a very serious problem.

You mentioned Marjorie Taylor Greene. She's your colleague over in the House. The way she frames this is she says, Democrats created this mess, but Republicans don't have any solutions to fix the health care issue either. Is she someone that you could see yourself working with?

On what?

On the health care.

I mean, listen, I think people can talk a good game. But until they actually support policy that helps people, I'm not particularly interested. But if she wants to, if she actually wants to support legislation and expanding healthcare, I've worked with plenty of Republicans as well on healthcare.

I have a bill that I've introduced with Congressman Malia Takis, a Republican from New York, on expanding maternal health and reauthorizing the Healthy Start program to help newborns and new moms be able to support their kids. And so in terms of bipartisan legislation on health care, I'm more than open to doing that.

But it's not just about talking the talk. We gotta walk the walk.

And you would need to see her actually support something that you're behind in terms of legislation on health care.

Yeah, yeah.

Our next question is for you, Representative. This is a video question. It's from Eric Johnson, who lives in Hernando, Mississippi. He's an air traffic controller and a father of four who is joining us via video tonight. This is his question.

What do you suggest government workers do for food money when the paychecks stop coming?

I mean, these are the real questions that we have to be entertaining. And as I mentioned earlier, the best and most important solution to this is making sure that we reopen the government, not accept the inevitability of this, and come to a resolution as quickly as possible.

Extending the shutdown would be a choice. Mike Johnson saying, we want to make this the longest shutdown, saying this, to prepare for this being the longest shutdown, that's not leadership. That is abdication of responsibility. It's an abdication to families like his and a complete abdication of the responsibility

that we have to people. Now, that being said, we do have to make sure that we come together as communities and that we also systemically expand our programming like the SNAP cuts that just happened, in addition to the trillion dollars

in healthcare cuts as well, for families that are under financial duress.

You mentioned what Speaker Johnson has said about how long this could go on. We've heard from Senator Schumer as well, who said the other day, that as long as the shutdown continues, he said, quote, every day gets better for us.

Do you think every day though gets better for someone like Eric?

No, I mean, it's, at the end of the day, this needs to be as short as possible. We do not want the government to be shut down. We don't. This is not something that is good for any American.

It's not good for the million federal workers that are out there right now. It's not good for the Americans that rely on federal services. It's not good for people who are traveling and can't get through an airport because TSA workers are not being paid. So we have to make sure that this is as swift and as short as possible.

Well, and speaking of airports and what air traffic controllers are having to go through not getting paid, I mean, he's a father of four, so I can't even imagine how that feels. And Senator Sanders, on that front, in a CNN story the other day,

there was a senior Democratic aide who told CNN last week that Democrats won't back down on their demands here, short of, quote, planes falling out of the sky.

All right, what can I tell you? That's obviously unacceptable. Look, what we are dealing with is an unprecedented moment in American history. So it's not only a debate about whether or not we can save health care for tens and tens of millions of Americans. It's also a broader issue. And that issue is whether or not we will accept the reality that a handful of very, very

wealthy people are now making out like bandits, while 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck. So I think what we are saying is that now is the time, not just on healthcare, but all across the spectrum. People can't afford groceries. The housing crisis is enormous.

People paying 40, 50% of their limited incomes for housing. And all the while, while working class families are struggling to put food on the table, Trump gives his billionaire friends huge tax breaks, and they are getting richer and richer. So what all of this is about is do the American people come together and demand that we have a government that

represents all of us, or just wealthy campaign contributors. That is essentially what this whole fight is about. And right now, health care is in the middle of it. But there are a lot of other issues. I worry very much, and Alexander and I were on the road talking about this issue,

that we are increasingly becoming an oligarchic form of society where a very small number of people not only control our economy, but through their campaign contributions have huge influence over both political parties. And if there was ever a time in American history

when we have got to stand up and fight for working families, fight to prevent authoritarianism taking place in this country, this is the moment.

But you're saying it's bigger than just about health care.

Health care is huge. When 50,000 people a year may die because of Trump's cuts, that in itself is huge. But the issue is even broader than that. It's do you have a government that represents you and you, or a government that represents billionaires who want more and more tax breaks and more and more favors from the government? billionaires who want more and more tax breaks and more and more favors from the government?

That's really what this struggle is about.