Bernie Sanders takes down Elon Musk and Donald Trump's "oligarchy" in intense speech

musk has become $138 billion richer Zuckerberg has become 49 billion richer and Bezos has become 28 billion richer since election day 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured in terms of healthc care does anyone really think that the oligarchs give damn about ordinary trust me they don't Mr President we are living in a extremely dangerous time and future Generations will look back at this moment what we do right now and remember whether we had the courage to defend our democracy against the growing threats of oligarchy and authoritarianism they

will remember whether we stood with President Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg who in 1863 looking out over a battlefield with thousands of people had died th thousands of soldiers died in the fight against slavery and he stated that quote this nation under God shall have a New Birth of freedom and that a government of the People by the people for the people shall not perish from the earth do we stand with Lincoln's vision of America or do we sit idly by and allow this country to move into a new vision and that is a government of

the billionaire class by the billionaire class for the billionaire class but it is not just oligarchy that we should be concerned about not just the reality that today three people own more wealth than the bottom half of American society 170 million three people more wealth than the bottom 170 million Americans it is not just that the gap between the very very rich and everyone else is growing wider and it is not just that we have more income and wealth inequality today than we have ever had on top of all of that the reality is that

today we are moving rapidly under President Trump toward authoritarianism more and more power resting in fewer and fewer hands Mr President as we speak right now Elon Musk the wealthiest man on the planet is attempting to dismantle major agencies of the federal government which are designed to protect the needs of working families and the disadvantaged these agencies were created by the US Congress and it is congress's responsibility to maintain them to reform them or to end them it is not Mr musk's responsibility what Mr musk is doing is patently illegal and unconstitutional and must be

ended Mr President two weeks ago president Trump attempted to suspend all federal grants and Loans an outrageous and clearly unconstitutional act and as I hope every sixth grader every kid in the sixth grade in this country knows under the Constitution and our form of government the president can recommend legis ation he can support legislation he can veto legislation but he does not have the power to unilaterally terminate funding passed by the Congress it is Congress the house and the Senate who control the pur strings but in this move toward authoritarianism it is not just the

Congress that has been being attacked it is our Judiciary this weekend the vice president of the United States a graduate of Yale law school who clerked for Supreme Court Justice said that and I quote judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power end quote really I thought that one of the major functions of the federal courts is to interpret our Constitution and when appropriate serve as a check on the unconstitutional power of the executive that's not just what I believe that is what I suspect every legal scholar and lawyer in America understands to be

the case further Mr musk meanwhile has proposed and I quote that the worst 1% of appointed judges be fired every year end quote and he demanded the impeachment of Judges that have blocked him from accessing sensitive Treasury Department files no doubt under Mr musk's rule it will be him and his billionaire friends who determine who the worst judges are and no Mr musk I must tell you you don't impeach judges who rule against you here in the United States you may or may not know this Mr musk but under the US Constitution we have a

separation of powers brilliantly crafted by the founding fathers of this country in the 1770s and it has worked pretty well throughout our country's history we we have an executive Ranch we have a legislative branch and we have a Judiciary Mr President what we are seeing now is not just an organized attack on the power of the Congress and the responsibility of the Judiciary Mr Trump and his friends are not just trying to undermine two of the three pillars of our constitutional government Congress and the courts they are also going after the media in a way

that we have never seen in the modern history of this country trust me that every member of Congress will tell you that the people working in the media and media organizations are not perfect we have all had our experiences with the media media like everything else makes mistakes every day but I do hope that every member of Congress understands that you cannot have a functioning democracy you cannot have a free flow of information you cannot have the pursuit of truth without an independent press a press not intimidated by presidents of the United States but a

president who write it who writes it and sees it the way they understand it to be and in that regard I want to mention to my colleagues what president Trump has done just in recent months Mr Trump has sued ABC and received a $155 million settlement he has sued meta the parent company of Facebook and Instagram and received a $25 million settlement he has sued CBS and his parent company paramont and is right now in negotiations over a settlement he ass sued the de Mo register for a poll results that he didn't like and his

FCC is now threatening to investigate PBS and NPR major news outlets in our country in other words we have a president of the United States who is using his incredible power and the power of His agencies to go after media in this country who are saying and doing things he does not like how are we going to have an independent media if journalists are looking over their shoulders fearful that their reporting will trigger lawsuit from the most powerful executive in the world Mr President in the midst of all of this I think that now is

the time to ask a very very simple question something I think that is on the minds of millions of Americans what do Mr musk Mr Trump and their fellow billionaires really want now it's not really taking over Greenland the Panama Canal all that stuff the real question is what is their endgame what is their goal what are they striving for and in my view uh the answer really is not complicated it is not novel it is not new it is in fact exactly what ruling classes throughout history have always wanted and have always believed to

be their rights their rights and that is more power for themselves more control for themselves and more wealth for themselves and in their pursuit of more power more control and more wealth they are determined to not allow democracy and the rule of law to get in their way for Mr musk and his fellow oligarchs the needs the concerns the pain the ideas the dreams of ordinary people are simply an impediment to what they the oligarchs are entitled to and that is really what they believe they are entitled to all of the wealth and the power

they have and they are determined to stop anyone who gets in their way Mr President this process this phenomenon that is going on right now is not the first time that we have seen this in our country's history as I think many Americans understand in pre-revolutionary America before the 1770s before the creation of the United States and the writing of our constitution the ruling class of that time governed through a Doctrine called the divine right of kings the belief that the king of England was an agent of God that God appointed him and that he

was not to be questioned by mere mortal human beings he was appointed by God in modern times we no longer have the divine right of kings what we now have is an ideology being pushed by the oligarchs which says that as a very very wealthy group of people often self-made often the masters of revolutionary new technology and as high IQ individuals it is their absolute right to rule in other words the oligarchs of today are our modernday Kings and Mr President it is not just power that they want the despite the incredible wealth that they

currently have they want more and more and more their greed has no end today Mr musk is worth $42 billion Mr Zuckerberg is worth 252 billion and Mr Bezos is worth 249 billion with combined wealth of 93 billion these three people own more wealth than the bottom half of American society 170 million Americans and not surprisingly since Trump was elected their wealth has soared musk has become $138 billion richer Zuckerberg has become 49 billion richer and Bezos has become 28 8 billion richer since election day in November meanwhile Mr President while the very rich become

much richer 60% of Americans live paycheck the paycheck 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured in terms of healthare 25% of our seniors in this country are trying to survive on $115,000 a year or less $800,000 Americans are homeless and we have the highest rate of childhood Poverty of almost any major country on Earth and real inflation adjusted wages for the average American worker has not gone up in 50 years does anyone really think that the oligarchs give a damn about ordinary trust me they don't