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Bernie Sanders: “A handful of billionaires [are] controlling our government.”

Featuring: Bernie Sanders, Independent | U.S. Senate, Vermont

Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar.

Published March 22, 2025 | Video Starts at 1:13:10

Now, right now, right now in America, you have what we call an oligarchy. And what an oligarchy is about is A handful of billionaires [are] controlling our government. Now, some of you may have seen, some of you may have seen Donald Trump's inauguration. See it. Well, I had the unfortunate position of being in the front row. (1:13:10–1:13:16)

CLAIM

Asserts that a small number of billionaires control the U.S. government.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Bernie Sanders

“They [the oligarchs] control the media. They own the media.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:08:34-1:31:25
“They [the oligarchs] have tremendous power over the political process.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:08:34-1:31:29
“There are young people who love America, who want to see better for our country, who are smart, who are disciplined, who are prepared to…”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:09:23-1:09:47
“The American people will not allow Donald Trump to create an oligarchy in America.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:12:03-1:12:12
“They will not allow the billionaire class to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans programs, Title 1 funding.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:12:24-1:12:38
“Right now in America, you have what we call an oligarchy.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:12:59-1:13:07
“Right now in America, the people on top have never, ever in the history of our country had it so good.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:15:41-1:15:51
“Today in America, we got more income and wealth inequality than we've ever had in the history of America.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:16:31-1:16:39
“Three people on top. Mark, Bezos, Zuckerberg, owning more wealth than the bottom half of America. 170 million Americans.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:16:42-1:16:53
“The top 1% owning more wealth than the bottom 90%.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:17:00-1:17:05
“CEOs now make 300 times more than their average worker.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:17:07-1:17:12
“60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:17:30-1:17:36
“60,000 people die each year because they don't get to a doctor when they should.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:18:12-1:18:20
“Three Wall street firms combined being the major stockholders in 95% of American corporations.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:18:36-1:18:44
“We have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on Earth.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:18:48-1:18:55
“Over 20% of our seniors are trying to get by on $15,000 a year or less.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:18:55-1:19:04
“We got a corrupt campaign finance system.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:20:26-1:20:32
“We got to get rid of this terrible Citizens United Supreme Court decision.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:20:31-1:20:36
“Every eligible voter has the right to one vote. Billionaires do not have the right to buy elections.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:20:41-1:20:51
“What Trump is doing is a judge stands up and says, hey, you can't do that. That's unconstitutional.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:23:13-1:23:20
“They are threatening to impeach that judge.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:23:20-1:23:25
“Trump is aligning himself with a ruthless dictator in Russia.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:24:43-1:24:53
“It was Russia that started the war [in Ukraine].”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:25:00-1:25:03
“We don't believe that we should continue funding the murderous Netanyahu government.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:25:10-1:25:17
“45,000 people are dead [in Gaza].”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:25:23-1:25:27
“There is no excuse for 800,000 people to be sleeping out on the streets.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:26:37-1:26:44
“There is no excuse for 20 million people...paying 40 or 50% of their limited incomes for housing.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:26:45-1:26:56
“We can build 4 million units of low income and affordable housing.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:26:58-1:27:04
“We should not be the only major nation on earth not to guarantee health care to all people.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:27:11-1:27:18
“We do not have to pay 10 times more for prescription drugs than do the people in other countries.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:27:41-1:27:50
“No teacher in America should start off at less than $60,000 a year.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:28:37-1:28:44
“We should be making all of our public colleges, universities, community colleges, tuition free.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:29:36-1:29:43
“We're not gonna give tax breaks to billionaires.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:29:52-1:29:56
“The women of this country must have the freedom to control their own bodies, not the government.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:30:17-1:30:24
“We're going to make it easier, not harder, for workers to join unions.”
Fighting Oligarchy with Bernie, AOC, and Greg Casar. | Uploaded March 22, 2025 | 1:31:54-1:32:00