Bernie Sanders: There Is No Political Issue Of 'Greater Importance' Than Overturning Citizens United

Forbes Breaking News

At a "Fight Oligarchy" event on Saturday in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spoke about the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC.

Transcript

00:00have enormous power over the economy but it's not just it's wait a minute it's not just income

00:08and wealth inequality it's not just concentration of ownership that they have they also own what

00:16you see hear and read you got six major international media conglomerates that control what 90% of the

00:28people see hear and read and it's not just the traditional media that ABC CBS etc it is the

00:36internet as well look who owns look who owns Twitter X or two used to be Twitter that's Mr. Musk

00:43who owns Meta that's Mr. Zuckerberg who owns the Washington Post that is Mr. Bezos

00:52and Mr. Ellison one of the wealthiest people in the world right now recently took over Paramount

01:01which owns CBS

01:02so these guys have enormous media power and every day you are seeing their perspective

01:12they are discussing the issues they think are important not discussing the issues that may be

01:18important to your life but it's not just income and wealth inequality concentration ownership

01:24and the fact that they own the media they also own a corrupt campaign finance system

01:33and I know Abdul was just talking about it but there is no political issue

01:46of greater importance than the need to overturn this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision

01:53Let me give you just a couple of examples of how Citizens United and big money is undermining American democracy

02:15Elon Musk spent two hundred and seventy million dollars to help elect Donald Trump to become president

02:24and his reward was that for a period of time he was allowed to be the most important person in the United States government

02:38and he was allowed to implement his right wing extremist ideology

02:45which meant firing tens of thousands of federal employees including scientists who are doing important work trying to understand disease

02:55proposing to fire over eighty thousand employees at the Veterans Administration

03:03a real way to say thank you to the men and women who put their lives on the line to defend us

03:10firing thousands of workers at the Social Security Administration

03:16breaking the federal unions

03:22so if any of you want to become an important person in government all you have to do is find a candidate

03:33raise two hundred and seventy million dollars in your own business

03:37but between you and me I don't think that that is what democracy is supposed to be about

03:43what democracy is supposed to be about

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