Senator Bernie Sanders, who has been vocal about his opposition to America’s wealthiest individuals during his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has been relying on private air travel to get from stop to stop, according to campaign finance records.
Federal Election Commission filings released this week show that Sanders’ main campaign arm, Friends of Bernie Sanders, spent $221,723 on private jet charters during the first quarter of 2024, according to a report Thursday by The Washington Free Beacon.
The first of these payments was made just ahead of the tour’s kickoff in February, the filings reveal.
Speaking in California on Tuesday, Sanders declared, “we will not accept a rigged economy where working people struggle while billionaires become richer,” emphasizing the need for an economic system that supports “working people, not just [Elon] Musk and the billionaire class.”
While Sanders once targeted both millionaires and billionaires in his speeches, he shifted focus solely to billionaires after joining the ranks of millionaires shortly before his 2020 presidential campaign.
Michael Bloomberg, who competed against Sanders during the 2020 Democratic primary, took a jab at him during a debate, highlighting the senator’s wealth and lifestyle. “The best known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses,” said Bloomberg, who has a personal fortune nearing $105 billion.
According to Tuesday’s financial disclosures, the Friends of Bernie Sanders committee worked with three private jet firms: Cirrus Aviation Services, N-Jet, and Ventura Jets. Those three vendors made up about 75% of the campaign’s total travel-related expenses for the first quarter of the year.
The filings also show that the campaign spent $63,380 on commercial airfare, nearly $41,000 on hotel accommodations, and $248,245 on event-related production costs.
The “Fighting Oligarchy” tour began on February 22 in Nebraska and has since traveled through several key states including Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and California. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, who has been introducing Sanders at each stop, was seen flying first class to a rally in Las Vegas last month.
{Matzav.com}