Name: Ro Khanna on Why The Democrats Stopped Bernie Sanders (Twice)
Uploaded: 2025-06-24T20:45:00.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Ro Khanna on Why The Democrats Stopped Bernie Sanders (Twice)' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-06-24. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Ro Khanna on Why The Democrats Stopped Bernie Sanders (Twice)' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-06-24. Transcript available.

You campaigned for, and yeah, I'm going back to some of my charts here, but
that's all right
today, guys. That's where I'm at. It's been a long week and it's been a long
life. You campaigned
for Bernie Sanders in 2016 and co-chaired his presidential run in 2020. Yeah.
Is that right?
That's right. We've asked him directly what happened. You know, and I was
always, I wish
that they made it so that whoever won the presidency, the other, like if a
president
was Republican, the Democrat, the vice president had to be Democrat, right?
Yeah. I wish it
was like that because then it seems like there would be a common ground or
invited them to
govern together. Right. You know, like that has to be some sort of teamwork
because otherwise
you outsource it and it's just, it seems like it's so much more expensive. But
what I was
going to ask you right here was, um, and we've asked him directly what happened,
but in your
opinion, why do you think that, uh, he lost out on the nomination both times?
Because I
think that's had an effect on, um, how the democratic party has been perceived
over the
years. The establishment screwed him. I mean, there's no doubt about that. He
should have
been the nominee in 2020. You had the whole party basically like drop out, tell
people to
drop out and endorse Joe Biden. They resurrected Joe Biden. He had lost Iowa.
He came in like
fourth or fifth. He lost New Hampshire fourth or fifth. It's never happened in
the history
of the party in recent history that someone is losing that badly and then wins.
And they
suddenly see Bernie's winning Iowa. He's winning New Hampshire. He's winning
Nevada. Unstoppable.
Nate Silver had him at 70% odds to win the nomination at that point. And the
party, uh, just reacts and
they say no. And they convinced Buttigieg to drop out and endorse Biden. They
convinced Beto to
endorse Biden. They convinced Klobuchar to, uh, endorse Biden.
How did they convince them all? Was it funding and stuff you think?
Well, I think they said, look, you, you want to have a future. You can be in
the, you can be in
the cabinet. You can, we're going to be for you. And then they're like, Bernie
can't win. Bernie can't
wait. Come on. Donald Trump just won. He's talking about invading Greenland.
And you're telling me we
can't talk about Medicare for all. I mean, like the one thing that Donald Trump
has shown you is like,
you can say what you believe and, you know, anyone. And, and, and that's like,
you know,
JD had that too. He was like, you come on. I disagree with him, but you know
where he stands.
Like just campaign with your heart, campaign with your ideas. That's what, and
Bernie was speaking
to people who were outsiders, who were underdogs. You know, I think that's why
you and I resonated.
I was an underdog growing up. I was not, I was not supposed to be a politician.
I didn't have a
father who was a Senator or a rich person or a Congress person. Like no one
would have thought
this Indian kid of Hindu faith was going to have any shot to get elected to dog
catcher in this
country. But in Bernie was speaking for all the folks who weren't supposed to
make it, who aren't
making it in this country. Bernie was an underdog. He was an underdog. That's
another thing about Trump
though. Trump was also an underdog. You know what I'm saying? He did have part
of that with them.
A lot of these, but I do, I do think there's a, there's people that love an
underdog man. Um,
okay. Let's build the primary early, right? Uh, who should the Democrats run?
Well, first of all,
do you think we need to still have just Republican and Democratic party, or do
you think there's value
in getting a big financier to support like a third party? Like say if Elon Musk
decided to go and
support a third party? I think there's a value in third parties. Here's the
problem I have in terms
of just like third parties running for president. A lot of times it has to be a
billionaire. And then
you're like, okay, is that billionaire really going to have the values of the
working class? But in
terms of parties, and I'm one of the few people in the Democrat party who says
this, I think have
more parties. You know, if like the Democrats are like, oh, your third party is
going to take away
votes from us. That was like, be better. Like it's not the voter's job to vote
for you. It's your job
to convince the voter. I never understood this with like the whole Harris Trump
race. They're like,
well, you know, they're Jill Stein is taking votes away from us. I was like,
her job is to run. Your
job is to convince people to vote for you. Yeah. You know, it's like if like
Apple computers wasn't
selling iPhones, they're like, well, this other third party company is taking
iPhone cells away from
you. Okay. Well, why aren't you making the iPhone better? Right. And so I think
having more parties is
good. I still think the Democratic party is the vehicle where we can really
have a progressive
working class agenda. I think we've got to reform it in the way Bernie Sanders
was trying. And, you
know, and I think the Republican party, I hope will become more anti-war, will
become more working
class centered so that we have reform in this country.
Thank you.