Following remarks he made prior to the Iowa Democratic debate on Saturday, activist and professor Cornel West gave an impromptu -- and highly entertaining -- speech to attendees in the parking lot after the debate touting Sen. Bernie Sanders.
In the more formal speech delivered at Grinnell College before the debate, West praised Sanders and the great tradition of socialism, reports the Des Moines Register.
"Brother Bernie and I come from a great tradition," West told the audience of 300. "The tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Albert Einstein. The tradition of Helen Keller and Ella Baker. The tradition of John Dewey, who is the founder of pragmatism, but he was a democratic socialist, too."
Following the debate at Drake University, West clambered up on a truck bed and addressed Sander's supporters -- stepping down to hug some of them as they stood listening in the cold Iowa evening.
"Bernie Sanders is a brother who is from Brooklyn and Vermont who exemplifies an integrity rare in American politics, let's just be honest about it," West shouted to the crowd. "Entertainment, the establishment and the media, truncated discourse. Right wing propaganda, Fox News. Milquetoast neo-liberal propaganda. MSNBC too, but not always, not always... They know they're cutting against the grain. I don't think any of them are treating brother Bernie right."
Touting the presidential run of the Vermont socialist, West shouted, "We want somebody with integrity. We want some who will be them self because they are them self and they have such a wonderful self to be," to the cheers of the crowd.
Watch the video below uploaded to YouTube:
