Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) delivers remarks at a "Fighting Oligarchy" rally in Missoula, Montana on Wednesday.
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00:00Let me begin by sharing a very fond memory with you about Missoula.
00:11I was here, I expect, right in this auditorium a number of years ago
00:18because my daughter Karina thought that Vermont was not rural enough.
00:25So she wanted to go to a real rural state and she decided to come here to the University of Montana.
00:43And while she was here, she met a boyfriend named Blake.
00:50They got married.
00:52And today I am the grandfather of two beautiful kids, Cole and Tessie.
01:00So thank you, University of Montana, for bringing them together.
01:08And let me thank all of the speakers who have preceded me.
01:19A special thanks to Sarah Nelson, one of the great trade union leaders in America.
01:24And a very, very special thanks to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
01:35who is not only a great congresswoman from New York,
01:46but has been an inspiration to millions of young people throughout the country.
01:50I want to say a word about Alexandria, which has less to do with her than to do with you.
02:05And that is that I think six years ago or so, Alexandria was a waitress in New York City.
02:14And she looked around her in a community which has very serious problems and she said,
02:26you know what, we can do better.
02:27And she decided with no money, with no organization, but with just a spirit to fight for justice,
02:38she organized and she took on one of the most powerful people in the U.S. Congress,
02:47and she defeated him.
02:48Now, why I say this is not just about Alexandria, it is about you,
03:01because I suspect that in this room of 7,000 or 8,000 people and a couple of thousand people outside who couldn't get in,
03:10and we have a lot of Alexandrias and Josephs and Harrys and Marys.
03:22And what we are asking you today is to understand that coming to this rally
03:27is just the first step in moving forward to transforming this country.
03:34Donald Trump has taken us into an unprecedented moment in modern American history,
03:49and we have got to respond in an unprecedented way.
03:54And that means you can't look around and say,
04:08well, Alexandria's going to do it, Bernie's going to do it, somebody else is going to do it.
04:12Ain't going to happen.
04:13You are going to have to do it.
04:15Now, brothers and sisters, Alexandria and I have been all over the country,
04:29and we've seen record-breaking turnouts.
04:32Unbelievable.
04:34Including right here in Missoula.
04:36And I believe that people, and it's not just Democrats,
04:46and it's not just independents,
04:47you've got Republicans coming out as well.
04:49Yeah!
04:54Because they are saying loudly and clearly,
04:59we will not allow the United States of America to become an oligarchy.
05:06The United States of America to become an oligarchy.
05:29In America today, one person, I want you to hear this clearly,
05:34One person, you may have heard of him, his name is Elon Musk.
05:43Mr. Musk himself owns more wealth than the bottom 56% of American households.
05:55One person owns more wealth than 56% of American households.
06:06That is not what this country is supposed to be about.
06:16But it is not just oligarchy.
06:19The American people, conservative, progressive, moderate, are standing up loud and clear and
06:27telling Trump, you will not create an authoritarian society.
06:33We're a democracy.
06:49Together, brothers and sisters, and it's hard, I'm not going to sit here and give you some
06:55fancy rhetoric, taking on oligarchy is enormously difficult.
07:01These guys own the economy.
07:04We now have more concentration of ownership than we've ever had in the history of this
07:09country.
07:10They own most of the media.
07:13They own the United States Congress and the White House.
07:21They got enormous amounts of wealth and power.
07:25But you know what we got?
07:27We got the people.
07:41And the last that I have heard is that 99% is a hell of a bigger number than 1%.
07:58So when we stand together and overcome what Trump and his friends try to do, and that is
08:06to divide us up by the color of our skin, or where we were born, whether we were born in
08:13the United States or someplace else, or our religion, or our sexual orientation, wherever
08:20it may be.
08:21That is what demagogues always do.
08:25They always find some minority, and they say to the whole country, you got all kinds of problems?
08:31That's who it is.
08:32It's the immigrants, it's transgender people, it's gay people.
08:40That's how they win, they divide us up.
08:43But when we stand together, black and white and gay and straight, there is nothing that
08:59can stop us.
09:12Right now, in the United States Congress, they are working along with Trump on what is called
09:20a reconciliation bill.
09:25See, it is not good enough for them that Musk owns more wealth than the bottom 56% of households.
09:33It's not good enough for them that the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 90%.
09:41Not good enough.
09:42Not good enough that CEOs of large corporations now make 300 times what their workers make.
09:52Not good enough.
09:57So now they're working on legislation that would provide $1.1 trillion in tax breaks to the 1%.
10:11And they do that by cutting Medicaid by $880 billion.
10:20They do that by cutting nutrition programs for hungry children.
10:29They do that by cutting education and other programs that working families desperately need.
10:40Now you have a congressman here, his name is Ryan Zinke.
10:48Now I come from Vermont, traveled a long distance to get here.
10:52Alexandria comes from New York, traveled a long distance.
10:56Mr. Zinke does not have to travel a long distance to meet with you.
11:05So I would suggest that you ask him to sit down, have a meeting with a few thousand people,
11:15and ask him one simple question.
11:18Mr. Zinke, are you going to vote to cut Medicaid and education and nutrition to give massive tax
11:26breaks to billionaires who don't need it?
11:28So Mr. Zinke, have the courtesy to do what we do in a democracy.
11:41Sit down and have a little chat with your constituents.
11:48And right now, it's not only tax breaks for the rich and cuts to Medicaid, unbelievably,
12:00you have Mr. Musk, wealthiest guy on earth, running all over Washington, D.C.
12:07He is cutting the staff at the Social Security Administration big time.
12:18And here is the truth.
12:19The truth is that before Trump came in, the Social Security Administration was understaffed.
12:27And I, as a senator, I am sure that every member of Congress and senator gets the same calls.
12:33We have calls from constituents.
12:34We are trying to get a hold of Social Security to talk about an issue that we have.
12:38Can't do it.
12:40You don't cut thousands and thousands of workers from the Social Security Administration when
12:47they are already understaffed.
12:50And let me tell you exactly what that means.
12:58People who are old and with disabilities die when they can't get the benefits they are entitled
13:05to.
13:06That's a fact.
13:08They have done it in the past and you cut the Social Security Administration, you're going
13:12to see thousands of people dying who should not be dying.
13:16That is outrageous.
13:24But it is not just Social Security they are going after.
13:27You know, the heroes and heroines of this country are the men and women who have put their lives
13:33on the line to defend us, our veterans.
13:38We got any veterans here today?
13:40Any veterans here today?
13:54And at a time when the VA, the VA, Veterans Administration is understaffed, we don't have enough doctors
14:01or nurses, mental health counsels at the VA, they have, Musk and his friends have the brilliant
14:06idea of firing 83,000 employees at the VA.
14:15And that will mean lower quality health care for our veterans and delays in them getting
14:21the benefits that they deserve.
14:25So what our message to Musk and Trump are, we are not going to allow you to destroy the
14:35veterans administration or Social Security.
14:59Now when we talk about the kinds of changes we need in America, it's important to understand
15:08that the oligarchs do not only have enormous economic power, they do.
15:15But they also have incredible and unprecedented political power.
15:26During the last election, Elon Musk himself spent $270 million in order to get Trump elected.
15:41And his reward for that $270 million was to be made the most important person in the United
15:49States government.
15:54But it is not only Musk and Republicans who put huge amounts of money to elect right-wing
16:01candidates and to defeat those who stand up for the working class.
16:06It is Democratic billionaires as well.
16:14There is a reason why over the years the Democratic Party has not been as strong as it should be
16:21in standing up for the working class.
16:29And that is the power of big money in the Democratic Party.
16:35So I believe honestly that I speak for conservatives, moderates and progressives, for the overwhelming
16:42majority of the American people who understand that there is something fundamentally wrong in
16:49our campaign finance system when billionaires can buy elections.
16:57And that is why together we've got to get rid of this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision.
17:10And why we have to move to public funding of elections.
17:27You know, I may be a radical from Vermont.
17:35And maybe I'm old fashioned, but I believe that democracy is one person, one vote, not billionaires
17:49buying elections.
17:56But it's not just oligarchy and the power of the rich that we are fighting.
18:06Right now, we are taking on a president who undermines our Constitution every day.
18:19Who threatens our freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
18:26We're taking on a president whose agents are riding around in unmarked cars, grabbing people
18:36off of the streets, putting them in vans and taking them to detention centers in this country
18:43and abroad.
18:50And I want you to picture it.
18:51Some of you may have seen some of those videos.
18:53Swarm of Asians come around, surround some woman in Massachusetts, throw her into a car.
19:00That is what takes place in dictatorships, not democracies.
19:06And as some of you know, by a nine to zero vote, the United States Supreme Court told Trump
19:22to bring back that gentleman from El Salvador.
19:33And I think we can all be in agreement.
19:35And again, this is not a progressive issue, it's actually more a conservative issue.
19:40Our conservative friends say, we support the Constitution.
19:45Well, if you support the Constitution, you don't throw people into detention centers in El Salvador.
20:00Every day, every day, every day, Trump is trying to take more and more power away from the Congress.
20:09He is, in an unprecedented way, taking on the judiciary.
20:15What America is supposed to be about is you have a judicial system.
20:21And sometimes they rule for you, sometimes they rule against you.
20:26And I've got to tell you, I am no great fan of the Roberts Supreme Court.
20:30They gave us this terrible decision on Roe v. Wade.
20:36On Citizens United and other bad decisions.
20:43But we live in a rule of law.
20:50Donald Trump obey the Supreme Court of the United States.
20:58But he is not just trying to usurp power from the Congress and the judiciary.
21:15Apparently, Mr. Trump is unfamiliar with the First Amendment to the Constitution.
21:21Freedom of speech.
21:22And in recent months, the President of the United States has sued ABC, CBS, Meta, the Des Moines
21:36Register.
21:37His FCC is now investigating NPR and PBS.
21:44And the other day, the other day he said, CBS should lose its license.
21:58And what terrible crime did CBS commit?
22:02They criticized policies of the President of the United States.
22:06How terrible for the President to be criticized.
22:11So, Mr. President, you're living in a democracy whether you like it or not.
22:24And part of living in a democracy is to accept criticism.
22:30And if you can't take criticism, get out of the political process.
22:35You know, it's really rather amazing suing media who write stories that you don't like.
22:55This is a guy who all of you know over the years has been vulgar in his attacks against
23:00his opponents.
23:01He can dish it out, make terrible comments about anybody and everybody.
23:07CBS writes a story that's critical of them.
23:10Oh, my God.
23:11They've got to lose their license.
23:16But it's not only the media.
23:18Unbelievably, he is going after major law firms who have represented clients opposed to his policies.
23:28And I say to those cowardly law firms, these are multi-billion dollar law firms who make huge sums of money
23:41every year by doing business in Washington representing corporate interests.
23:45The function of a law firm is to protect the rule of law, not cave in to authoritarianism.
24:02And he's going after universities.
24:11These so-called conservatives who believe in local control now want to tell universities
24:17and schools what they can and cannot do.
24:21And I want to thank Harvard University for standing up to Trump.
24:33And I hope every university in this country does the same.
24:48The function of a university, and it is an enormously important effort, is the pursuit of truth no matter where that truth takes you.
25:00That's what it is.
25:01Vigorous debate on the University of Montana and every other university.
25:05The function of a university is not to collapse in the face of authoritarianism.
25:12So universities stand tall.
25:24But it is not just domestic policies of the Trump administration that should concern us.
25:31For the first time, embarrassingly, for the first time in the 250 year proud history of the United States, we have a president who is aligning us with a dictatorship in Russia.
25:47No, Mr. President, Ukraine did not start that terrible war. Russia did.
26:06And let me tell you something else.
26:09We cannot continue to fund, under Biden or Trump, this horrendous Netanyahu war machine.
26:18Israel, Israel, like the United States and every other country, has the right to defend itself against terrorism.
26:47But Israel does not have the right to wage a barbaric war against the people of Gaza, kill over 50,000, wound 110,000 and destroy the entire infrastructure of Gaza.
27:10And let me tell you something that is even worse and almost unimaginable.
27:17And in the beginning, I almost thought it was a stupid joke, bad joke.
27:21And that is, right now, Trump is talking about forcibly expelling the suffering people of Gaza and creating a Riviera for the billionaire class in Gaza.
27:36The American people will not ever allow that to happen.
27:57Our job, our job right now, in this pivotal moment in American history, is to take on Trump every single day.
28:08But it is to do more than that.
28:12It is to understand that in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, we can do a hell of a lot better than having an oligarchy.
28:28While the richest people in America are becoming much richer, 800,000 Americans are sleeping out on the street.
28:40We have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any nation on earth.
28:47And 22% of our seniors are trying to survive on $15,000 a year or less.
29:00Brothers and sisters, the media doesn't talk about it much.
29:04And you don't hear much about it in Congress.
29:0760% of our people in America today are living paycheck to paycheck.
29:16Do you all know what paycheck to paycheck life is about?
29:21I grew up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck.
29:25I know a little bit about what that is like.
29:30And what it means is that every day, moms get up and say,
29:35how can I afford to provide decent quality food for my kids?
29:41What happens if my dad becomes ill?
29:44How can I afford to buy the prescription drugs that he needs?
29:49What happens if my landlord raises my rent and I can't afford to pay it?
29:58What happens if my car breaks down and the mechanic says,
30:03I got a thousand dollar bill.
30:04I don't have a thousand bucks.
30:05How am I going to get to work?
30:07What happens if I can't get to work?
30:09I'm going to lose my job.
30:10I lose my job.
30:11How do I feed my family?
30:14Millions and millions of working class people, low income people are living under incredible stress.
30:22And you know what the impact of that stress is?
30:25They are dying in significantly younger ages than they should.
30:31Do you all know that?
30:33In America today, our life expectancy is four years lower than other wealthy countries.
30:41But if you are working class in America, you're going to die seven years shorter than the rich.
30:54In the richest country, in the history of the world, it is not too much to ask that all of our people have the right to a decent life expectancy.
31:15You know, back in 1944, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, one of the great presidents in American history,
31:27he gave a State of the Union speech, which didn't get a lot of attention because it was in the middle of World War II.
31:34But what he said, he said in so many words.
31:37He said, you know, in America we have this constitution, it's great.
31:40Freedom of speech, you have the right to vote, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly.
31:45But he said, you know what we don't fully appreciate?
31:48We don't appreciate that economic rights are human rights.
31:58See, what the system does, we are taking on a system of enormous power.
32:06And one of the things they are trying to do is to say, you have no rights.
32:11Hey, we'll let you vote every four years to somebody that we paid for, that's fine, no problem.
32:16Hey, we bought this guy, you can vote for him, you ain't gonna win anyhow, it doesn't matter if you do win.
32:21But this is what we will not give you.
32:24We will not allow you, as an American citizen, the right, the right to have health care, the right to have decent housing, the right to have a job that pays you a living wage.
32:40That we're not gonna give you.
32:47So brothers and sisters, our job is to really take that on in as bold a way as we are, and to stand up and say, you know what, we are human beings.
32:59Good, we want the right to vote, very important, freedom of speech, very important.
33:04But you know what, in the richest country in the history of the world where technology is gonna make us richer, we want an economy that works for every single man, woman, and child, not just Musk and his billionaire friends.
33:18So what does it mean?
33:33It means that no, we are not gonna cut Social Security, we are going to expand Social Security.
33:41It means that at a time when millions of workers are earning starvation wages, we're gonna raise the minimum wage to a living wage.
34:00No worker who works 40 hours a week should live in poverty.
34:09It means that no, we're not gonna give Musk and his billionaire friends a tax break.
34:16We're gonna demand they start paying their fair share of taxes.
34:33Does anybody here think that the American healthcare system is working well?
34:43We are spending almost twice as much per capita on healthcare, over $14,000 a year, double what other countries are spending.
34:53And yet we are the only major country on earth not to guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right.
35:0085 million of us are uninsured or underinsured.
35:08Anybody here have a high deductible?
35:1160,000 people a year die because they don't get to a doctor on time.
35:18Brothers and sisters, it is not a radical idea to understand that healthcare is a human right.
35:26We must pass a Medicare for All single-payer program.
35:30In Vermont and all over this country, we have a housing crisis and it is not just 800,000 who are homeless.
35:55It is 20 million people who are spending half of their limited income on housing.
36:02Maybe, maybe, just maybe, instead of spending a trillion dollars on the military-industrial complex,
36:10we build 5 million units of low-income and affordable housing.
36:23We live in a global economy and we need the best educated workforce on earth.
36:35Young people who want to get a higher education, either in college or in trade school,
36:41should not have to go tens of thousands of dollars into debt.
36:50education not only makes important sense for our economy, education growing intellectually
37:03is something that every human being is entitled to.
37:06We must make public colleges and universities tuition free and cancel all student debt.
37:13Now, Donald Trump thinks that climate change is a hoax.
37:32He is dangerously, dangerously wrong.
37:41And our job is to lead the world in transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel into energy efficiency
37:51and sustainable energy and create millions of jobs as we do that.
37:55You know, a lot of my Republican friends, they talk about freedom and freedom and freedom.
38:05Well, if this is going to be a really free country,
38:08every woman in America has the right to control her own body.
38:13Let me read something to you, which was
38:42a statement made in 1857, a few years ago, by the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
38:53You all remember Frederick Douglass?
38:56I want you to hear what he said.
38:59This is in the years preceding the Civil War,
39:02when the great struggle of the time was whether or not this country would end the nightmare of slavery.
39:08Listen closely to what Douglass said back then and see its relevance for today.
39:14This is what he said, and I quote,
39:16Power concedes nothing without a demand.
39:21Got that?
39:23In other words, nobody on top is ever going to give you something unless you demand it.
39:30And then he continued, it never did and it never will.
39:34Find out just what any people will quietly submit to,
39:39and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.
39:47And these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows or with both.
39:53The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
40:06Brothers and sisters, we are tired of being oppressed.
40:22We believe in democracy, not authoritarianism.
40:31We believe in an economy that works for all, not just for Musk and his fellow billionaires.
40:41Brothers and sisters, let's stand together, let's go forward, let us win this struggle.