Bernie Sanders Says ‘It’s Pretty Pathetic’ He Just Had To Prevent a Fistfight in the Senate

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) appeared on Tuesday’s edition of AC360 on CNN, hours after he quelled tensions during a Senate hearing.

During a meeting of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, a long-simmering feud between Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) and Teamsters President Sean O’Brien boiled over:

MULLIN: Sir, this is a time, this is a place. You want to run your mouth. We can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here.

O’BRIEN: Ok, that’s fine. Perfect.

MULLIN: You want to do it now?

O’BRIEN: I’d love to do it right now.

MULLIN: Well, stand your butt up, then.

O’BRIEN: You stand your butt up.

Mullin then stood up, prompting Sanders, who chairs the committee, to intervene.

“Hold it,” he said, addressing Mullin. “Sit down! You’re a United States senator!”

CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked Sanders about the madcap scene.

“Senator Sanders, have you seen a moment like this before?” the host asked. “What’s going through your mind when this is happening in front of you?

“Well, it’s pretty pathetic,” the senator replied. “We have a United States senator challenging, you know, a member of the panel who is the head of one of the larger unions in America, which has just negotiated a very good contract for their workers, the Teamsters. You know, I think the point I try to make there is this country, Anderson, faces so many crises.”

Sanders added, “And by the way, it might be nice for the media to pay attention to really what the hearing was about, is that workers all over this country are standing up and fighting back against corporate greed. Unions like the UAW, the Teamsters, others are winning good contracts.”

The senator went on to say that “the media plays a role” by focusing too much on antics and not enough on substance.

“Is the media more interested in confrontation than why we have massive levels of income, and wealth inequality?” he asked. “So, I hope we all get it together. Congress, media, let us ask ourselves why it is that after 50 years the average worker today is earning less in real dollars than 50 years ago while the people on top are doing phenomenally well. That, to me, is kind of an important issue that maybe Congress should be discussing and media should be covering.”

Watch above via CNN.

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