--- title: Bernie Sanders Stops By Stephen Colbert's Late Show description: On the Late Show, Stephen Colbert asked Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders if he was the "Democratic Trump" canonical: https://time.com/4041401/bernie-sanders-stephen-colbert/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-19T14:50:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T11:05:03.491Z article:section: Politics og:title: Bernie Sanders Answers Whether He's the 'Democratic Donald Trump' on Colbert's 'Late Show' og:description: "I think that what Trump is doing is appealing to the baser instincts among us" og:url: https://time.com/4041401/bernie-sanders-stephen-colbert/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltada94cbda9043222/69886461ab6d77f2e46a63b8/488965034.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2825 og:image:height: 1589 og:image:alt: Celebrity Sightings In New York City - September 18, 2015 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bernie Sanders Answers Whether He's the 'Democratic Donald Trump' on Colbert's 'Late Show' twitter:description: "I think that what Trump is doing is appealing to the baser instincts among us" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltada94cbda9043222/69886461ab6d77f2e46a63b8/488965034.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bernie Sanders Answers Whether He's the 'Democratic Donald Trump' on Stephen Colbert's _Late Show_ > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Sep 19, 2015 2:50 PM UTC  NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 18: Bernie Sanders is seen on September 18, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Patricia Schlein/Star Max/GC Images) NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 18: Bernie Sanders is seen on September 18, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Patricia Schlein/Star Max/GC Images) Patricia Schlein—GC Images  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Sep 19, 2015 2:50 PM UTC Bernie Sanders joined Stephen Colbert as a guest on _The Late Show_ Friday night, discussing Donald Trump, economics, and campaign finance. When Colbert asked the senator from Vermont if he was the “Democratic Trump,” referencing arguments that Sanders and the Republican frontrunner are both taking advantage of the same “general anger” in the voting base, Sanders drew a stark distinction between himself and the real estate mogul. “I think that what Trump is doing is appealing to the baser instincts among us: xenophobia and, frankly, racism—describing an entire group of people, in this case, Mexicans, as rapists or as criminals,” Sanders said. “I think that is disgraceful and not something we should be doing in 2015.” Later in the interview, Colbert asked Sanders how much he really wanted the commander-in-chief job, since he refuses the mega funds of a super PAC that would financially boost his campaign. “Frankly, I don’t support the agenda of corporate America or the billionaire class,” Sanders responded. “I don’t want their money.” Watch the interview above. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4041401/bernie-sanders-stephen-colbert/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4041401/bernie-sanders-stephen-colbert/"},"headline":"Bernie Sanders Answers Whether He's the 'Democratic Donald Trump' on Stephen Colbert's Late Show","datePublished":"2015-09-19T14:50:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:05:03.491Z","description":"\"I think that what Trump is doing is appealing to the baser instincts among us\"","url":"https://time.com/4041401/bernie-sanders-stephen-colbert/","keywords":["Election 2016","Bernie Sanders","Donald Trump","Super PAC","presidential campaign"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltada94cbda9043222/69886461ab6d77f2e46a63b8/488965034.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mandy Oaklander","jobTitle":"Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltada94cbda9043222/69886461ab6d77f2e46a63b8/488965034.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Celebrity Sightings In New York City - September 18, 2015","caption":"Celebrity Sightings In New York City - September 18, 2015","creditText":"Patricia Schlein—GC Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/election-2016/","name":"Election 2016"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4041401/bernie-sanders-stephen-colbert/","name":"Bernie Sanders Answers Whether He's the 'Democratic Donald Trump' on Stephen Colbert's Late Show"}}]}] ```