Spike Lee supports Bernie Sanders but can't get wife to stop voting Hillary Clinton

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Spike Lee interviewed Bernie Sanders for the Hollywood Reporter's New York Issue in advance of the Empire State's primary
Lee admitted that his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, was ready for Hillary, while the director was feeling the Bern
Sanders talked about another New Yorker - Donald Trump - and said the billionaire would never take the White House
See more on the Democratic primaries at www.dailymail.co.uk/DemPrimary

By Nikki Schwab, U.s. Political Reporter For Dailymail.com

Published: 16:51 EST, 6 April 2016 | Updated: 17:54 EST, 6 April 2016

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For Bernie Sanders supporter Spike Lee, he's living the Democratic gender divide.

'My wife is a Hillary Clinton supporter, so there's a little bit of a divide in the household,' Lee told the Hollywood Reporter, who handed him over the keys to interview Sanders, who he endorsed in February, for the magazine's New York Issue.

'But my two children are with their daddy,' Lee said.

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Director Spike Lee endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders in February and appeared at a South Bronx campaign rally for the candidate last week - but his whole family isn't feeling the Bern

Spike Lee's wife Tonya Lewis Lee (left) is actually a Hillary Clinton supporter, the director admitted to the Hollywood Reporter. He interviewed Sanders for the magazine's cover story

Bernie Sanders - a native of Brooklyn - basically has to win New York to have the chance of routing Hillary Clinton's run for the White House

Lee articulated his voting split with his wife Tonya Lewis Lee – who he met at Congressional Black Caucus Weekend in Washington, D.C. and married in 1993 – before posing a number of questions to Sanders who he had never met in person before their Hollywood Reporter sit-down.

Both from Brooklyn, with the Atlanta-born Lee growing up in the borough and Sanders being from there before heading to Vermont, Lee wanted to know why so many influential people were from the area.

'Education was very important in all this, you know? And people bouncing off of each other,' Sanders replied, suggesting that 90 percent of the prominent thinkers of Brooklyn probably went to public schools in New York City.

'It was a great place to grow up for me,' Sanders added. 'It is and was a very vibrant community with a lot of great people,' the Vermont senator added.

Sanders has said that he needs to win his home state of New York to continue routing rival Hillary Clinton from the Democratic nomination, though she has ties to the state too, having been elected by New Yorkers twice to the U.S. Senate.

Lee gave Sanders a little grief for high-tailing it to Vermont.

'So how do you go from Brooklyn to Vermont?' the famed director asked the candidate.

'Well, mostly it was by car,' Sanders answered. 'A seven-hour trip north.'

More seriously though, Sanders explained that he first felt the tug of the countryside after attending Boy Scout camp in Narrowsburg, New York.

Spike Lee (right) was joined by actress and activist Rosario Dawson at Bernie Sanders' rally at Saint Mary's Park last week in New York City

Hillary Clinton has a lead in the polls in New York and home state status having been elected twice to represent the state in the U.S. Senate

'It was the first glimpse I had of the country, and you know what? I really liked it,' Sanders explained.

Sticking with the New York theme, Lee asked about another prominent New Yorker running for president – that of businessman Donald Trump – who Lee suggested reminded him of the character Lonesome Rhodes, played by Andy Griffith in the 1957 film 'A Face in the Crowd.'

Not necessarily picking up on the reference Sanders warned that Democrats shouldn't 'underestimate' Trump.

'And God knows who he is really, but we see what her personifies on TV every night,' Sanders said.

'He knows how to manipulate the media very effectively, he knows how to do what he does with people,' the senator continued.

'But let me just reassure you: Donald Trump is not going to become president of the United States,' Sanders added. 'That I can say.'

Lee wondered if the Republican had a 'Frankenstein'-like creation on their hands.

'There's no question,' Sanders replied. 'The establishment Republicans are going nuts. And this could lead to a real dissolution of the Republican Party as we know it.'

Sanders, however, said he understood the attraction felt by voters – 'these 50-year-old, 60-year-old white guys ' who are 'working longer hours for lower wages, they are seeing their jobs go to China, they are seeing their jobs go to Mexico.'

'You don't get to the real issues as to why people are hurting, you scapegoat,' Sanders said of Trump's tactics.

'You scapegoat blacks, Latinos, gays, anybody, Jews, Muslims, any minority out there, that's what you do. That is nothing new. That's what demagogues have always done, and that's what Trump is doing,' he said.

As for going against Clinton in New York, Sanders said he wasn't scared.

'I'm very excited about it,' he told Lee.

'I mean, one of the great joys of New York City – as opposed to a state like Iowa or Wisconsin, where you got to travel long distances – here you're 15 minutes away from another population center. So we're going to do a whole lot of rallies in this city,' Sanders said.