Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders defended Jeb Bush’s comments that Americans need to work longer hours, calling them “absolutely correct” if he was referring to the need for “more full-time jobs rather than part-time jobs.”
Sanders made the comments on Friday to “New Day” host Chris Cuomo after the CNN host called on the 2016 Democratic challenger to be “above the board of dirty politics” following an initial attack against the former Florida governor.
CHRIS CUOMO: Now, you jumped on him with this being an example of being him out of– being out of touch. But were you being unfair? You know that what he meant was part-time workers need full-time jobs. Were you playing a little bit of the tricky game?BERNIE SANDERS: Well of course we need full-time jobs rather than part-time jobs. But to suggest people have got to, work harder —Chris here is the fact, people in the United States of America today are working the longest hours of the people of any major industrialized countries. We work a lot harder than the Germans, than the British. We have 85 percent of men working more than 40 hours a week. 65 percent of women working more than 40 hours a week. So what we need to do is raise wages and income, not force our people who are already stressed out by long hours to work even more hours.CUOMO: Right, but he want arguing about ethic. He was talking about the availability of jobs. So I’m just saying you know you’re kind of twisting it a little bit there Senator. If you want to stay above the board of dirty politics you’ve got to be consistent.
SANDERS: If he is talking about the need for more full-time jobs rather than part-time jobs he’s absolutely correct. That’s what we have to do. But I want to reiterate. We work — our people work today the longest hours of any people in any major industrialized country.
CUOMO: Amen. American’s are the most hardworking people in the world. Nobody’s going to battle you on that one.