- Video flashback: The time when Bernie Sanders really was a fringe character | "I am not a capitalist," the Vermont pol told Phil Donohue on the "Today" show in 1981 after his election as a socialist in Burlington. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/video-flashback-time-when-bernie-sanders-really-was-fringe-character-n981031 30 comments politics