Man Directly Asks Bernie Sanders How Citizens Can Stop Trump From Imposing Autocracy On The U.S.

At his "Fighting Oligarchy" rally in McAllen, Texas, on Friday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was asked how citizens can combat an autocracy.

Transcript

00:00All right, other comments on this. People, I want to say on this, as I know, as Danny mentioned,

00:05this is very much on people's minds. Am I correct? All right. Yes, I see a young man right here.

00:14So I wanted to say thank you for coming down. Oh, excuse me. Just give it to him. He can hold it.

00:18Okay. I just wanted to say thank you for coming down because many politicians, they can just

00:22get elected and stay over there in office, but I appreciate that you guys are from far away

00:26and nonetheless coming down. What my concern is that there's a lot of misinformation within the

00:31media, that the Republicans, some of them who might want to stand up against Trump are afraid of it

00:39because he threatens them by saying that he's going to primary them. The law firms, as you mentioned,

00:43law firms that might be able to sue him are being silenced. And so it's becoming an autocracy where

00:51Trump has all power. And my fear is that, that what is it that we can do to stop that as the people

00:59of the country? And what is it that the government officials like yourself, that instead of it being

01:05three separate branches, it's becoming just himself controlling the other branches? What is it that

01:10maybe you guys can do to hold them accountable? So this is, I mean, this is why I am here. Thank you

01:16very much. You know, I believe in democracy. I really do, my heart of hearts. You disagree with

01:29me? That's fine. That's what America is supposed to be. Make your point. You want to run against me?

01:32Run against me. But what you, you're going to have to move to Vermont to do that, but it's all right.

01:37But, but what is happening on this young man made the point. If you honestly, if you are a Republican

01:47member of Congress in Texas or any place else, and in your heart of hearts, you understand how

01:54devastating these cuts to Medicaid would be, right? And you think it's really dumb to give tax breaks

02:00to people who don't need it. And you got up and you stood that. The next day, Elon Musk or somebody

02:07else could say, you are finished politically. We're going to primary you. And that is where

02:12we are as a nation right now. Now, the reason I am here and where we're going after we're

02:17here, we're going to Louisiana. I'm going to be right in the district of the Speaker of

02:21the House who helped write this bill. And believe it or not, that guy represents, it's not like

02:30he represents, you know, Speaker Johnson doesn't represent some wealthy community. He represents

02:35a low income, working class community. And the reason I'm going, why am I in Texas? Why

02:41am I going to Louisiana? Why am I going to Oklahoma? To tell people there to stand up and put pressure

02:47on their elected officials.

02:54So they're going to have to make a decision. Is it just their campaign contributions? Or are

03:00they going to have to listen to people who understand what's going on and are going to throw them

03:05out of office if they do the wrong thing?

03:08So that's kind of what the reason you're asking me what I'm doing. That's why I'm here.

03:12Is to mobilize people in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, these are conservative states. But my strong

03:20guess, you go out in Texas, any place else, and you say to people, do you think it's a good

03:24idea? The tax breaks to billionaires and cut Medicaid, 80, 90% of the people will say no.

03:31But they don't know what's going on. And our job is to mobilize those people. And that's

03:34what we're doing right now. All right. Other questions on immigration? Let's stay on immigration

03:39for a moment, if we can. Anyone else want to say a word? I see a woman straight in front of

03:43me. Yes.