Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says “these are the scariest times in my life” because of Elon Musk’s growing power and what the former presidential candidate described as both an “oligarchy” and “the movement toward authoritarianism.”
“It is not just they want to give tax breaks to billionaires and cut programs for working people. Frankly, that’s happened before,” Sanders said of powerful conservatives in America during an interview with former Obama aide Jon Lovett on “Pod Save America.”
“You combine that with the power of the oligarchy in general, you combine that with Mr. Musk owning Twitter and able to send out his messages to hundreds of millions of people,” Sanders said, ticking off what he sees as the biggest threats to progressivism and economic justice in the United States.
He also pointed out the exodus of veteran journalists from The Washington Post and owner Jeff Bezos pledging to dedicate the venerable paper’s opinion section to personal liberties and free markets.
“You combine that with the fact that people like Bezos, the second wealthiest person in the country, fired or got rid of most of his editorial staff and turning it into a right-wing thing,” he said.
Sanders argued that President Trump’s threats against the media and other critics represents a movement toward authoritarianism.
“Trump is suing major media outlets and is threatening to investigate PBS and NPR,” he said. “So it’s not only the power of money, it’s also combined with that the movement toward authoritarianism.”
Sanders argued that Trump and Musk are violating the law by freezing congressionally appropriated funding and shuttering federal agencies without permission from Congress.
“When Trump unilaterally cuts federal funding that was passed by Congress, that is illegal, that is unconstitutional,” he said.
“When you have the vice president saying, well, in his judgment the courts don’t have the right to stop unconstitutional acts of the president, man, that is authoritarianism,” he argued. “He is now trying to end what the Founding Fathers was pretty smart about, creating a form of government where there were checks and balances.
“This is a scary moment,” Sanders declared.
