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Bernie Sanders explained to Stephen Colbert why he’s not just a liberal Donald Trump

There's a big difference, he says, and it has nothing to do with policy.

 

Michelle Jaworski

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Posted on Feb 11, 2016   Updated on May 27, 2021, 5:50 am CDT

On Monday’s episode of The Late Show, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly argued that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders were similar, but on Wednesday, Sanders, fresh off his victory in New Hampshire, rejected that idea.

The claim was a bit of a head-scratcher for Stephen Colbert, who noted that Sanders and Trump aren’t exactly two sides of the same coin. In between addressing criticisms of his universal healthcare plan, Sanders disagreed with Trump comparison. He did touch on the anger that has animated both of their supporters, but the difference, he said, is how each man wants to address those problems.

“I think a lot of Donald Trump supporters are angry,” Sanders said. “They’re, in many cases, people working longer hours for low wages. They’re people who are really worried about what’s going to happen to their kids. But I think what they have done as a respondent to Trump’s false message would suggest that if we keep Muslims out of this country or if we keep scapegoating Latinos or Mexicans that somehow our country becomes better. I think that’s a false solution.”

But Sanders has already tried to inspire another kind of revolution on Colbert’s show: abandoning the late-night TV staple of the standing monologue. That desk is calling to him, but he cannot go to it, he says. Sanders believes otherwise.

“Stephen, that’s what the elites want you think,” he explained. “You’ve got to follow your heart. Go your own way, the revolution is possible. You are the revolution. And this time, the revolution will literally be televised.”

Besides, Seth Meyers did it and he seems to be doing just fine.

Screengrab via The Late Show with Stephen Colbert/YouTube

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*First Published: Feb 11, 2016, 10:51 am CST