Bernie Sanders' Medicare For All Online Town Hall Draws 1 Million Live Viewers [View all]

01/24/2018 01:14 am ET

The Vermont senator delighted in circumventing the television networks.


Excerpt:

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ televised town hall on Tuesday night to promote single-payer health care, or “Medicare for all,” drew a live audience of about 1 million people ― all of whom viewed the event exclusively online.

For Sanders, whose single-payer health care legislation elicited the support of over one-third of the Senate Democratic Caucus, the 90-minute broadcast at the U.S. Capitol visitors center was an opportunity to promote a top policy priority while thumbing his nose at the “corporate media.”

“This is the first Medicare for all town meeting held in our nation’s capital. This is the first nationally televised town meeting on Medicare for all,” Sanders said in his introductory remarks. “And very importantly, this is the first nationally televised Senate town meeting that is taking place outside of corporate media.”

“The reason we’re doing this program tonight is you don’t see this stuff,” he said in his concluding remarks. “It ain’t gonna be on CBS. It ain’t gonna be on NBC.”

“What astounds me is we already have a pretty good majority of the American people who already believe in universal health care, believe that it is the government’s responsibility to make sure that health care is a right,” Sanders added. “And we have reached that stage with media not talking about the issue at all.”


https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-medicare-for-all-town-hall_us_5a680274e4b0dc592a0dbcf6