Bernie Sanders: 'Thanks To Donald Trump, We Now Know What Oligarchy Is About'

Forbes Breaking News

At a "Fighting Oligarchy" rally in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) accused President Trump of leading an oligarchy in the U.S.

Transcript

00:00...one-term member of Congress.

00:11You know, for a number of years, in Vermont and around the country,

00:17I talked a lot about our nation moving toward an oligarchic form of society.

00:23And there were people who were saying,

00:25What does oligarchy mean? What is Bernie talking about?

00:30Well, thanks to Donald Trump, we now know what oligarchy is about.

00:43When Donald Trump was elected president,

00:48and I know it seems like a lot longer time ago, but it was only a hundred days,

00:53when Trump was elected president,

00:57he had behind him three of the wealthiest people in America.

01:05You remember who those guys were?

01:07You had Elon Musk.

01:10You know Elon.

01:14And he had Mr. Bezos next to him.

01:18And he had Mr. Zuckerberg next to him.

01:23Three wealthiest guys in America standing right behind the president.

01:29But that wasn't enough.

01:31Behind those guys, you had 13 other billionaires that Trump had nominated to become the heads of major federal agencies.

01:47You know, right here in Pennsylvania, back in 1863,

01:57at that terrible Battle of Gettysburg,

02:00where 20,000 Union soldiers were either killed or wounded.

02:07A few days later, as you all remember, President Abraham Lincoln came to the battlefield.

02:12And he looked at that terrible battlefield where just a few days ago, so many people had died.

02:18And he said in so many words,

02:20what we believe in is a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

02:46And what Trump has made,

02:50perfectly clear, he doesn't hide it.

02:52I gotta give the guy credit for that.

02:54That right now, we have a government of the billionaire class,

02:59by the billionaire class, and for the billionaire class.

03:03And we are not going to accept that.

03:09You have an obscenity in the wealthiest guy in the world,

03:17running all over Washington, D.C., firing thousands and thousands of dedicated federal employees.

03:27At a time when the Social Security Administration doesn't have enough employees right now to service the seniors,

03:35they want to throw away, they want to discharge thousands and thousands of people at the Social Security Administration.

03:44At the time, at a time when the Veterans Administration is understaffed,

03:52that they want to lay off 83,000 employees at the VA.

04:00Well, I don't care if you are Republican, Democrat, or Independent.

04:08We stand with the veterans of this country.

04:11And we're not going to see a deterioration in their health care or in the benefits that they receive.

04:21But it is not just oligarchy that we are dealing with today.

04:33We are looking at an unprecedented attack on the foundations of American democracy,

04:40and under Trump, a movement toward authoritarianism.

04:45You know, the founding fathers of this country were nobody's dummies.

04:55You all recall that they had fought and led the fight

05:00against the autocratic king of England, the most powerful person on earth at that time.

05:07A guy like Trump, who thought he had the divine right to rule.

05:16And what these guys did, founding fathers, they said,

05:19you know what, we see what the autocrat in England is doing,

05:24and we're going to have a constitution which provides for separation of powers.

05:30Right? You all remember that from history class?

05:39So you got an executive branch, the president, a legislative branch,

05:43Congress, Senate, and a House and a judiciary of federal courts.

05:48And the reason we have that separation of powers is precisely to prevent what Trump is trying to do today.

06:00He is usurping the powers, the appropriation powers of the United States Congress.

06:11Unbelievably, unbelievably, when a court decision comes down that he doesn't like,

06:18he says, we're going to impeach the judge.

06:20But it's not only Congress and the judiciary he is going after.

06:29Again, in an unprecedented way, he is going after the media.

06:36Now, this is a guy who throughout his career has leveled the most savage, vicious attacks on his opponents.

06:44Everybody is crazy. Everybody is awful. Everybody is disgusting. Everybody is terrible.

06:50And yet, when the media criticizes him, he wants to sue them and shut them down.

07:00So we say to Mr. Trump, if you can't accept criticism, get out of the political process.

07:09That's what democracy is about.

07:24And let me talk a little bit about something

07:30that the media doesn't talk about and we don't talk about in Congress at all.

07:35And that is the reality that today we have 60% of our people living paycheck to paycheck.

07:46We have more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had in the history of the country.

07:55And as a result of this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision,

08:02we now have a corrupt campaign finance system.

08:10In which billionaires in both political parties are controlling the political and legislative agenda.

08:18And I think this is an issue whether you're a Republican, progressive, conservative,

08:27whatever you may be. Nobody thinks that American democracy is about

08:33Elon Musk contributing $270 million to elect Trump and then becoming the most important person in government.

08:43So brothers and sisters, when we talk about the future of America and our political system,

08:53at the top of our agenda must be the need to end this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision.

09:02And move to public funding of elections.

09:24Now let me tell you something which you're not going to hear much about in the corporate media,

09:28and you're not going to hear much about in the halls of Congress.

09:33And that is that today, that is that today, the average American worker in real inflation accounted for dollars

09:47is earning less than he or she did 50 years ago.

09:53Now you know why the American people are angry?

09:59They're angry because they're looking around them.

10:03They're seeing a huge increase in worker productivity.

10:07And yet all of that wealth is going to the people on top, not to the working class of this country.

10:14And we are here tonight, we are here today, to say loudly and clearly that we demand an economy

10:26that works for all of us, not just the people on top.

10:30And by the way, we need a Democratic Party which makes a fundamental choice.

10:48And that is, are you on the side of the working class of this country or not?

10:53There are millions of working people whose families used to vote Democratic.

11:13And they look and they say, why do we have

11:16the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country?

11:21Why is it that I'm working longer hours for lower wages?

11:24Why is it that I can't afford health care?

11:27Why is it that I can't afford my rent or my mortgage?

11:30Why is it that I can't afford to send my kid to college?

11:34And the Democratic Party is finally going to have to say,

11:38we stand with those people.

11:40We are prepared to take on the greed of corporate America.

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