Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) criticized billionaires who financially supported former President Trump in the 2024 presidential race, calling them “greedy.”
In an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, Sanders – who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee – shouted the billionaires who embraced the former president in support of his agenda.
“At a time when we have so much greed out there, when the religion of the billionaire class is greed, they would rather give up on democracy and they could suffer a coup,” he told Hayes in an interview on Friday.
“These guys are so greedy. So attached to their wealth and their power that they will do anything, anything, to maintain that position,” Sanders continued, adding that “Trump is an outrageous example of selling out for money.”
The senator, who ran against President Biden in the 2020 election, gave examples of areas where billionaires have had the most influence, including health care and climate change.
“This guy Trump wants to further deregulate the fossil fuel industry and destroy the planet,” Sanders argued, asking “Why?”
It’s because billionaires are willing to spend “huge amounts of money” to control the narrative, he responded.
When pressed about how much money political action committees and donors can give candidates post-Citizens United — a 2010 Supreme Court decision that opened the door to unlimited independent spending in federal elections — Sanders lamented that it’s difficult to win an election without billionaire’s money.
“If you have the courage to take on neoconservative foreign policy [or] if you want to take on the corporate interests that are so powerful, say what’s going to happen, you’re going to lose,” he said on Friday. “And this message spreads throughout Congress: you stand up for the working class, hey, your days are numbered.”
“This is oligarchy. And it is an issue that we have to focus on and deal with”, added the senator.
Sanders specifically took aim at Biden, who has promoted himself as the most “pro-union” president, picketing during the United Auto Workers strike last year, and Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, working to combat monopolies such as examples of interests that billionaires probably don’t have. do not support. When you don’t reinforce the same agenda as the rich class, he said, they don’t support you.
His comments came after Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., received $50 million from businessman Timothy Mellon following the former president’s decision conviction in May, according to NBC News. The investment also followed the presumptive Republican Party candidate’s foray into cryptocurrency, seemingly moving away from his previous aversion to the form of payment.
The Vermont Independent Party called the donation “absolutely disgraceful” and called for a reversal of the Citizens United case.
“We have to get rid of this. And secondly, we have to do this like many other countries around the world that have public funding for elections: so if you want to run against me, that’s fine. But you don’t.” I don’t want to have the right to receive 50 times more money from rich people to defeat me,” he said. “We should be debating ideas.”
Sanders reiterated that he believes billionaire donors care less about people and more about their interests. Because of this, he continued, they will want someone like Trump leading the country.
“I think greed is so incredibly ugly and pervasive that these guys want it. They want more and more,” Sanders said of a second Trump term, as Biden and the former president move toward a likely rematch. “I don’t think they could care less about what’s happening to the elderly, the children, the working class of this country.”
“I believe they will do everything they can to enrich themselves and Trump is clearly their guy,” he added.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
