Senator Bernie Sanders, in his first appearance at Austin's SXSW tech conference, took the stage with CNN’s Jake Tapper about Dodd-Frank, gun control, DACA, and "the future of Western civilization."



"Before I get to that, what I want today is something a little different than what Jake and I do when i go on your State of the Union show," said Sanders. "To talk about all of the issues facing Western civilization. I want to answer all of Jake's questions but I want to broaden the discussion today to talk about things that are not usually talked about on mainstream media."



"I',m not Donald Trump and I don't think Jake, and the majority of journalists are into fake news or hate people and are trying to destroy people. He works very hard and he does a good job," Sanders added. "On the other hand, a lot of what TV is about is obnoxious stuff and conflict stuff and sensationalism, and we don't talk about the important issues facing the working people of this country: The collapse of the American middle class, income and wealth inequality, the movement of this country towards an oligarchy, the fact that we have a handful of billionaires, like the Koch Bros., who are undermining American democracy and trying to buy elections."



"Those issues, we often don't talk about on television. I want to do that today."





