Bernie Sanders Debates Job Creation, Venezuela In Intense Media Interviews [Video]

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was called upon to answer some pointed questions about his resume and job creation record, as well as the ongoing crisis scenario in Venezuela.

The Vermont senator is a self-described socialist who is running for U.S. president as a Democrat and is locked in close contest with rival Hillary Clinton heading into the June 7 California primary.

In a contentious radio interview with John and Ken (who aren’t exactly Bernie bros) on their self-named Los Angeles show, the hosts pressed Sanders about his criticism of Disney for corporate greed and that the Disney CEO fired back about the thousands of jobs the company has created.

Against that backdrop, the hosts asked the senator to detail the number of jobs he’s created and about his own “vague” work history. Sanders offered, in part, this response before ending the interview at about the eight minute mark, with a promise to return soon.

“All right, look, if you don’t like government my friend, that’s fine. I’m proud of the record I’ve established as a mayor, making Burlington, Vermont, one of the more beautiful small cities in America, proud of my record in the House, proud of my record in the United States Senate. You don’t like government? That’s your point of view. I am proud of what I have accomplished.”

Somebody in @BernieSanders world OK'd an interview with KFI's John and Ken Show. https://t.co/2WOB9LBfnn

— Christopher Cadelago (@ccadelago) May 27, 2016

John and Ken also questioned Sanders about his policies in line with socialist principles to further expand the role of government in the centralized management of the economy given the scandal with VA healthcare and long delays at airport TSA checkpoints. Sanders, who was chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs for two years, explained in part that problems also exist in private hospitals and in the private sector generally.

“Okay, my friend, look, I believe, you know, that we should make government run as efficiently and as effectively as possible, but I do not agree with anybody who thinks that we should privatize the VA.”

Listen to the entire interview below and draw your own conclusions.

A foe of income inequality and the one-percent elite, Bernie Sanders, 74, has been a member of Congress since 1991 (and a U.S. Senator since 2007) and voted for most of the Obama agenda in the past seven years. As alluded to above, prior to his election to the U.S. House, he served eight years as the mayor of Burlington.

Bernie Sanders spent his honeymoon in the former Soviet Union as part of his official duties as mayor of Burlington. Investor’s Business Daily claims that Bernie Sanders entered middle age before he began earning a regular paycheck, upon his election as Burlington’s mayor

In the past, Bernie Sanders has spoken approvingly of the socialist regimes in Nicaragua and Cuba, two countries he has visited.

With that in mind perhaps, in a separate interview, a Univision host asked the candidate to explain the failure of various leftist governments in Latin America, including that “The socialist model in Venezuela has the country near collapse.”

In an apparent dodge, Sanders replied that he does have an opinion about the crisis in Venezuela, but for the moment, he is “focused on my campaign.” See clip embedded below.

According to the New York Times, the socialist Venezuelan government is, among other things, rationing water and electricity, and the country’s supermarkets have empty shelves.

“Step by step, Venezuela has been shutting down.This country has long been accustomed to painful shortages, even of basic foods. But Venezuela keeps drifting further into uncharted territory.”

Bernie Sanders Hits Bump on @UniNoticias, avoids commenting on socialism’s failures #TTT16 https://t.co/6HhNVNbTQu

— Jamey W. Bennett (@jameybennett) May 28, 2016

“The OPEC nation is suffering a severe recession due to low oil prices and a collapsing socialist economic model. President Nicolas Maduro is locked in a standoff with Congress after the opposition won a sweeping legislative majority last year,” Reuters added.

“The impact of Venezuela’s economic collapse on its people is almost impossible to put into words…Since oil prices plummeted, all aspects of everyday life — electricity, food, paper — have been rationed. Critically, medical centers are in crisis. Without soap, antibiotics, power, gloves and x-rays, surgeons are struggling to keep patients alive,” the Daily Mail described about the country that Hugo Chavez successor Maduro claims “has the best healthcare in the world.”

Separately, the Bernie Sanders campaign has demanded that former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy be bounced as chairs of key committees at the upcoming Democratic National Convention because the two officials are vocal supporters of Hillary Clinton.

[Photo by Damian Dovarganes/AP]