Yesterday, Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig performed with Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth at a big Bernie Sanders rally in Iowa City. (At one point, Sanders sang “This Land Is Your Land” with the group.) During the event, CNN interviewed Koenig about why he supports Sanders, and this is what he had to say:

A few months ago I just read his book, which he wrote in the ’90s, and just realized that even in the ’90s — which, I was a kid then, Clinton era, it’s easy for me to forget how messed up a lot of things were. And to realize that there was this guy who’s an Independent, criticizing Democrats and Republicans, saying a lot of the same things that he’s saying now. I see a consistency in him that’s rare in most human beings, let alone politicians. And I think there’s something so cool about Bernie running as a Democrat — a guy who was the only Independent in the House for a long time, the only Independent in the Senate, a guy who comes from an outside structure and is bringing that to the Democratic Party. There’s something so much more exciting than somebody who comes from within.

When asked what he makes of the Republican primary slate right now, Koenig just laughs. Watch below; Koenig’s segment starts around 2:10.