Bernie Sanders in CNN "State of the Union" interviews during 2018

On Health Care: Don't let Republicans do away with preexisting protection

SANDERS: You have a Republican leadership in the House and the Senate that tried, came within one vote of throwing 32 million people off of the health insurance they currently have. You have leadership there in the House and the Senate that wants to do away with the preexisting protections that people have in this country. You have a president and Republican leadership who supported a budget which would have cut Medicare by $500 billion.

Q: President Trump argues that Medicare-for-All could lead to worse coverage for many Americans who are happy with their private insurance plan. What do you tell them?

SANDERS: Right now, as a nation, we are spending twice as much per capita on health care as do the people of any other country, $28,000 a year for a family of four. That is unsustainable. 70% of the American people understand that Medicare is a good program, and it should be expanded to all people.

On Health Care: Negotiate Medicare prices stop outrageous pharma ripoffs

SANDERS: What you have is a president who promised the American people to provide health care to everybody, and then proceeded to support legislation to throw 32 million people off of health insurance. And most Americans think that health care should be a right of all people. We're moving in exactly the wrong direction. You have a president who campaigned, appropriately enough, on the outrageous ripoffs of the pharmaceutical industry, and he said he was going to take them on. And just the other day, he caved in, of course, and did not go forward in demanding that Medicare negotiate prices with the drug companies or that we allow our pharmacists and distributors to re-import low-cost medicine from abroad. So, I think what the American people perceive is, you have a president who says one thing and does another thing.

On Homeland Security: CIA torture policy means US service members get tortured too

SANDERS: Well, on this one, I would agree with John McCain, and tell you what our leaders in the armed forces say. If the US condones torture for other people, then that subjects our own men and women who are captured to be tortured as well.

Q: But you didn't have reservations about John Brennan, whom Obama nominated; you voted for John Brennan who was also in the CIA at the same time as Haspel. Whatever reservations you have about Gina Haspel, why didn't they apply to Obama's nominee?

SANDERS: It's not just the issue of torture. It goes deeper than that. And that is the foreign policy that we have seen from Mr. Trump, which is something that I also strongly disagree with.

On Immigration: Provide legal status to the 1.8 million DREAMers

SANDERS: I think it is heartless. I think the entire Trump views on immigration is heartless. Some 80% of the American people believe that we should provide legal status to the 1.8 million people in the DACA program. And that's a program that Trump killed. The American people believe that we should move forward for comprehensive immigration reform. And Trump is moving in exactly the wrong direction. And we see the cruelty of his immigration policies when you talk about the United States government separating children from their parents. We need to move aggressively and do what the American people want toward comprehensive immigration reform.