Bernie Sanders and Cardi B talk student debt and police brutality at a nail salon
With the 2020 election looming, and with a President who doesn’t seem fit for the job, it feels more important than ever for young people to be engaged in politics. So it makes sense that Senator Bernie Sanders, one of the 23 candidates running for the Democratic nomination, sat down with superstar Cardi B to discuss matters important to a generation defined by precarity.
Today, the Sanders team released the video of their highly anticipated conversation. The two discussed healthcare, police brutality, immigration, raising the minimum wage, and student debt. They chose to film the conversation at the TEN Nail Salon in Detroit, Michigan.
Cardi asks the first question, about the powerful people that Sanders has challenged in his time in office — from pharmaceutical companies to big banks, familiar foes for the Sanders campaign.
“Are you scared that you will get so many powerful people upset?” Cardi asked. Sanders laughed in response. “Cardi, that’s what I’ve been doing my whole life.”
Cardi went on to break down common instances of police brutality and the racism connected to it, and asked Sanders what he planned on doing about it.
“We have to invest in jobs and education, not jails and incarceration,” Sanders responded, laying out a three-part plan to address a lack of resources, over-policing, and systemic racism.
"I don't want people thinking that we're trying to attack the police because let me tell you, there was this one time that I started to feel like 'I hate the police, they're pigs.' But there's a lot of cops that go in their jobs and they want to protect people," Cardi continued.
"So we need police departments that look like the communities they serve and we get rid of a lot of this militarization of the police department,” Sanders responded.
The pair also discussed the challenges facing immigrants in the United States, and Sanders took the moment to lay out his multi-step plan to ensure the safety of immigrants living in the country. They did the same with Sanders’ plan for universal health care, his promise to raise to the national minimum wage, and with Sanders’ plan to eliminate student debt.
Cardi also explained why her favorite president is Franklin D. Roosevelt. — someone she and Sanders both admire. Cardi notes that she shares the same birthday as FDR’s wife and that she was impressed by FDR’s ability to fix the economy and fund a war, in addition to establishing social security, all while struggling with Polio.
Sanders said that after he wins the presidency, he hopes he’ll become Cardi’s new favorite president.
Cardi signed off by encouraging her followers to educated themselves about the issues they care about and become more engaged in the upcoming election. Bernie seconded that notion: “Young people have got to get involved with the political process.”
