April McCullum

The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has delayed his single-payer health care bill in order to leverage his national platform against the Republican health care proposal.

In an exclusive interview, Sanders answered questions about the health care bill, a federal investigation into the now-defunct Burlington College and President Trump's attacks on the news media.

On the GOP health care bill

Sanders called the Republican proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act "a disaster for working families," and said he has delayed his own single-payer health care legislation to focus on stopping the bill.

The Senate Republican health care proposal would leave an additional 22 million people uninsured by 2026, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and defund Planned Parenthood and cut Medicaid.

Sanders said the reductions would harm families of nursing home patients who rely on Medicaid.

"This legislation is the most dangerous and harmful piece of legislation I have seen since I have been in the United States Congress," Sanders said. "It is a disaster for working families, and we have got to do everything we can to see that it’s defeated."

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Sanders recently traveled to Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to rally opposition to the bill, and he said he hopes to take another trip next weekend.

Sanders has promised since at least March to introduce a single-payer health care bill, which he calls "Medicare for all."

The bill has no chance of passage in a Republican-controlled Congress, Sanders acknowledged — but the senator said the bill is written and gaining momentum.

"Right now we are focusing all of our energy on trying to defeat this terrible piece of legislation," Sanders said, "and I did not want to conflate or confuse the two."

On President Trump's attacks on the media

Speaking the day after President Trump posted on Twitter an altered video of himself wrestling and punching the CNN logo, Sanders said he was concerned about attempts to intimidate the news media.

"It's an outrage," Sanders said. "I think it basically encourages violence in this country at a time when there are a lot of unstable people walking the streets of America. And I think it is a very clear goal, a clear effort on the part of Trump to intimidate not just CNN, but to intimidate the media. His goal is for them not to expose what he does."

Sanders regularly lambastes the "corporate media," a criticism that dates at least to his 1980s days as mayor of Burlington.

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As a presidential candidate, Sanders often used his rallies to speak pointedly at or about reporters, accusing them of ignoring what he viewed as the most important issues in favor of political dust-ups.

Sanders referred to media coverage by Politifact, The Hill and Seven Days at three points during the telephone interview to underscore his claims on health care and Burlington College. He said his critique of media is distinct from the president's aggressive stance.

"You know, every politician, every public official will have differences with the media in terms of how they cover a story. Right? That’s natural," Sanders said. "But I have never suggested ever that mainstream media is fake, that everything they write is a lie, that you shouldn’t believe anything they write."

On Burlington College finances

Sanders continues to defend against allegations that his wife, Jane, misrepresented the finances of Burlington College to secure financing to support a 2010 real estate deal on the Burlington waterfront.

Jane Sanders left the school in 2011 and the college closed in 2016 under a "crushing weight of debt," mostly from the property deal. College officials have said the Justice Department and FBI are looking into the land deal, while Bernie and Jane Sanders have denied any wrongdoing.

"When she left Burlington College, the school was in better shape financially and academically than it had ever been," Sanders said in Monday's interview.

He dismissed the allegations against Jane Sanders as an attack from political operatives who cannot win elections based on issues.

"How do you win elections? What you do is you make very ugly personal attacks against public officials," Sanders said, "and that’s often in the form of 30-second TV ads, but second of all, you go after them on so-called legal areas."

A public complaint by Charlotte attorney Brady Toensing, a Republican state official, alleges that Sanders' office pressured People's United Bank into securing the loan for Burlington College. The news organizations Seven Days and VTDigger have reported that the claim was based on hearsay shared by House Republican Leader Don Turner, R-Milton.

Sanders said he did not believe he'd met Toensing prior to the public complaint about Burlington College.