Socialist-minded “independent” Sen. Bernie Sanders defended his use of private jets to travel back and forth during his “Fight Oligarchy” tour with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in an interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday.
Sanders and ‘AOC,’ both of whom have used their ‘tour’ to rail against wealthy Americans, have been the focus of criticism from the right for what many conservatives see as rank hypocrisy on this issue. But during his interview with Baier, Sanders not only pushed back on the criticism, but he also justified the use of a form of travel that only the richest Americans can afford.
“You’ve gotten criticized from other people. Free Beacon says ‘Bernie Sanders spent $221,000 on private jets on Fighting the Oligarchy tour, paid for by friends of Bernie Sanders…’ that you’ve spent millions of dollars in campaign funds on private jet travel over the years. How do you push back on both of those things?” Baier asked.
Sanders then tried to shift the focus to President Donald Trump, who used his personal Boeing 757 for travel during the 2024 campaign.
“When’s the last time you saw Donald Trump during a campaign mode at National Airport?” Sanders said.
Baier fired back, “No, no, no. It doesn’t… But he’s also not fighting the oligarchy.”
“No. You run a campaign, and you do three or four or five rallies in a week. The only way you can get around to talk to 30,000 people,” Sanders responded.
“Think I’m going to be sitting on a waiting line at United, waiting, you know, while 30,000 people are waiting? That’s the only way you can get around. No apologies for that,” he added.
“That’s what campaign travel is about. We’ve done it in the past, we’re going to do it in the future,” he vowed.
In March, Sanders abruptly ended a sit-down interview with ABC News, leaving “This Week” host Jonathan Karl visibly stunned when he declined to answer whether Ocasio-Cortez should run for the Senate.
The Vermont independent dismissed the line of questioning as “nonsense” after Karl pressed him on whether AOC should challenge Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer following his vote in favor of the Republican-led budget to avoid a government shutdown.
After attempting to shut down the line of questioning, the fiery senator abruptly stood up and stormed out of the interview—an exchange captured on camera as Karl pleaded with Sanders not to end it prematurely.
Off-camera, Sanders dismissed the topic as “inside the Beltway stuff” and argued that there were more important issues to focus on than speculation about Democratic Party leadership.
Eventually, the senator relented, giving Karl the chance to ask one final question—this time about Sanders’ own political future, steering clear of anything related to AOC.
Sanders, 83, ruled out the possibility of launching another presidential bid, candidly acknowledging that he’s “old and tired.”
During the interview, Sanders pointed a finger at Schumer for allowing a continuing resolution funding the government through the end of the current fiscal year to pass. However, he stopped short of endorsing calls for a primary challenge against the Senate Majority Leader.
“You said that the passage of this bill, the continuing resolution, was an ‘absolute failure of Democratic leadership.’ Who are you talking about?” Karl asked.
“Well, Schumer is the leader of the party, and it should not have happened, period. No question about it,” Sanders said, though failure of the spending bill’s passage would have led to a government shutdown — something he and most other Democrats in the past have claimed would “devastate” the country.
