Bernie Sanders in PBS News Hour

On Abortion: Few or no government limits on abortion

• Social Issues: Abortion should be legal, with few or no government limits.
• Sanders is a supporter of abortion rights and voted against a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks.
• When asked in 2016 if he would place any limits on abortions, Sanders did not give a specific answer but repeatedly said he was "very strongly pro-choice" and believed the decision was between a woman and her doctor.

On Civil Rights: 1983: Approved "Gay Rights Day" in Burlington Vermont

On Government Reform: Require disclosure of campaign expenditures over $10,000

On Gun Control: Ban assault weapons; automatic background checks

• A gun-control advocate, Sanders would ban assault weapons as well as high-capacity magazines or equipment that allow more than ten rounds to be fired at once.
• He supports universal background checks and voted for the Manchin-Toomey legislation expanding federal background checks.
• In early 2016, Sanders changed his position on a gun law that protects some gun manufacturers and sellers from civil lawsuits. Sanders supported the measure in 2005 while he was serving in the House of Representatives. In 2016, he co-sponsored a bill to repeal that law.
• In the House, Sanders also voted against the pro-gun-control Brady Bill, writing that he believes states, not the federal government, can handle waiting periods for handguns.
• He told student reporters from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that he voted no on the Brady Bill because his state preferred "automatic background checks" and not waiting periods.

On Immigration: Restructure ICE; don't necessarily abolish it

• Immigration: Path to citizenship for most undocumented immigrants. Restructure, don't necessarily abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
• Most undocumented immigrants who are in the country now would receive a path to citizenship under Sanders' immigration plan.
• He voted for the 2013 Senate immigration bill that proposed a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, doubling the number of border patrol officers, and providing an additional 350 miles of border fencing. (That bill did not become law.)
• Sanders would like to restructure ICE. But he has not given details and has not gone so far as to say that he thinks the agency should be "abolished," a position some of his 2020 Democratic rivals have taken.

On War & Peace: End Syrian conflict; pull out U.S. troops

• Foreign Policy: Use diplomacy to end Syrian conflict. Pull out troops, but in different way from Trump. Cut U.S. support in the conflict in Yemen, hold the Saudi crown prince "accountable" for crimes.
• Sanders would pull U.S. troops from Syria, but said he would do it in a different, less "erratic" way than Trump recently announced. He believes diplomacy with Russia and Iran can turn things around in Syria.
• He also believes the president did not have the right to launch airstrikes against the Assad regime and that war powers must get more rigorous oversight and/or approval from Congress.
• A longtime anti-war activist, Sanders voted against the Iraq war resolution in 2002.
• He regularly called for the U.S. to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.
• In both Afghanistan and Syria, Sanders has said that he believes the U.S. should remain involved, though with no ground troop presence.