‘The ‘Bern ‘ at BAM

Brooklyn native Bernie Sanders returns to borough for ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live: Back to Brooklyn’ at BAM

October 22, 2015 By Scott Enman Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Brooklyn native Bernie Sanders appeared at BAM for ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Wednesday. AP Photo/Danny Moloshok, File

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Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders — who was born and raised in Brooklyn — was featured on “Jimmy Kimmel Live: Back to Brooklyn” Wednesday night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).

“Personally, I thought the first Brooklyn-born president would be Mike Tyson,” joked Kimmel, “but it turns out it might be this gentleman. He’s from Flatbush by way of Vermont.”

Throughout the show, Sanders’ statements were met with deafening applause. The statement that elicited the loudest reaction from the crowd was his goal for America.

“Our job isn’t just to defeat Republicans,” said Sanders, a Democratic U.S. senator. “Our job is to revitalize American democracy, bringing people who gave up on the political system back into the system and create a government that represents them rather than large campaign donors.”

The flamboyant Vermont senator is widely supported by the American youth.

One of Sanders’ most popular stances is his desire to make college free.

“This is the year 2015; everybody knows that a college degree today is more or less the equivalent to what a high school degree was 50 years ago,” said Sanders. “So we have free public education through high school, and I think in a very competitive global economy, if we want to compete, we are going to have colleges and universities tuition free in the United States of America.”

When Kimmel asked Sanders about his stance on marijuana, the crowd erupted in laughter as the senator grinned ear-to-ear.

“This is a serious issue. We have more people in jail today than any other country on earth,” said Sanders. “We have large number of lives that have been destroyed because of this war on drugs and because people were caught smoking marijuana.

“I think we have to end the war on drugs and look into what’s going on in Colorado and elsewhere, but I am not unfavorably disposed to moving towards the legalization of marijuana.”

Sanders has also suggested that “postal service provide modest banking to our low-income people [to] help the post office and it will help millions of low-income people.”

When Kimmel humorously suggested that the postal workers deliver the marijuana, Sanders was quick to respond.

“That will get rid of the federal deficit really quickly, won’t it?”