Grinning and upbeat from his recent landslide victory in the New Hampshire primary, Bernie Sanders appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Wednesday night to a cheering, feel-the-Bern crowd, but not without getting grilled by Colbert, who challenged the Vermont senator on how he plans to deliver radical change to a polarized country.
In one of the best exchanges, Colbert asked Sanders about the perception that he was simply riding a wave of angry populism among voters, a kind of Donald Trump with different hair. “Yes, people have a right to be angry,” Sanders admitted. “But what we need to be is rational in figuring out how we address the problems, and not simply scapegoating minorities,” he said, referring to Trump’s controversial call to ban all Muslim immigration.
“I think what people are saying is enough is enough,” Sanders said. “We need fundamental changes in our political system and our economic system.”
Colbert also offered up a few pointers for Sanders’ next stop, the South Carolina primary: “If you need the vote down there, you have to eat boiled peanuts,” said Colbert, a South Carolina native.
He then offered him peanuts and a cold beer.
