Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders blasted what he calls “casino capitalism” during Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential primary debate as he stood inside a Las Vegas casino.
The Democratic hopeful, who polls second behind Hillary Clinton, was forced to defend his opposition to capitalism Tuesday when asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper how he would convince Americans to elect a socialist.
“What Democratic socialism is about is saying that it is immoral and wrong that the top 10th of the 1 percent in this country own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent,” Sanders said.
“The question is really about electability here and that’s what I’m trying to get at,” Cooper responded, pressing the senator on whether describing himself as a “Democratic socialist” jeopardizes his chances of getting elected.
“Do I consider myself part of the casino capitalist process by which so few have so much and so many have so little? By which Wall Street’s greed and recklessness wrecked this economy? No, I don’t,” Sanders said to applause.
Clinton jumped into the exchange upon being asked by Cooper if any other candidate joined Sanders in refusing to identify as a capitalist.
“Let me just follow up on that Anderson, because when I think about capitalism, I think about all the small businesses that were started because of the opportunity and the freedom in our country.”
She added, “I don’t think we should confuse what we have to sometimes do in this country, which is save capitalism from itself.
“But we would be making a great mistake to turn our backs on what built the greatest middle class in the history of the world,” Clinton said.
Clinton leads Sanders 43.3 to 25.1 percent among Democratic voters nationwide, according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling average.
