{"id":40822,"date":"2025-04-20T12:35:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T19:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=40822"},"modified":"2025-04-20T12:35:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T19:35:22","slug":"bernie-sanders-says-packed-rallies-scaring-the-hell-out-of-trump-and-musk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/04\/20\/bernie-sanders-says-packed-rallies-scaring-the-hell-out-of-trump-and-musk\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernie Sanders Says Packed Rallies ‘Scaring the Hell Out of’ Trump and Musk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Sen.<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) appear before a packed rally in Nampa, Idaho on April 14, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo: Sen. Bernie Sanders\/X)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The people of this country do not want oligarchy, they do not want authoritarianism, and they want a government that works for all of us, not just the 1%,” Sanders asserted.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

BRETT WILKINS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apr 15, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/a>‘ Fighting Oligarchy Tour continues to draw massive crowds\u2014even in states where people overwhelmingly voted for Republican President Donald Trump\u2014the democratic socialist on Tuesday published a video highlighting the grassroots movement against rule by billionaires like the president and Department of Government Efficiency<\/a> chief Elon Musk.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When Donald Trump<\/a> looks out at this crowd\u2014and they pay attention to this stuff, and Elon Musk does\u2014you are scaring the hell out of them,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said in the video posted on social media, which shows highlights from last Saturday’s rally in Los Angeles<\/a> that drew an estimated 36,000 attendees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/x.com\/BernieSanders\/status\/1912212006607942050?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1912212006607942050%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fbernie-sanders-fight-oligarchy-rallies<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, the Fighting Oligarchy Tour, on which Sanders has been joined by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a> (D-N.Y.), has rocked attendees<\/a> of the Coachella music festival and drawn crowds of more than 20,000 people<\/a> in deep-red Utah\u2014a state in which Trump won the 2024 election by over 20 points\u2014and upward of 12,000<\/a> in Nampa, Idaho, where Trump thrashed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris<\/a> by a whopping 36%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pro-Palestine attendees of the Idaho rally were quickly removed by security after unfurling a Palestinian flag. This prompted Sanders\u2014who has been criticized by Palestine<\/a> defenders for his early refusal<\/a> to endorse a cease-fire in Gaza<\/a> as Israel<\/a> launched its genocidal assault there and, later, by Israel backers for introducing legislation <\/a>to ban U.S arms sales to the key ally\u2014to declare<\/a> that Israel “has the right to defend itself” but “does not have the right to wage all-out war against the Palestinian people.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dismissing claims by Trump\u2014who is known for his crowd size fixation<\/a>\u2014that Fighting Oligarchy rallies are drawing “two, three thousand people,” Sanders told the Los Angeles rally: “He lied. There are people half a mile away!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video’s narrator, pointing to reporting<\/a> that Sanders’ rallies are “pissing off” Musk, said that “Elon is so desperate to try and discredit this grassroots movement” that “instead of facing the reality that working-class people are fed up with billionaires like him, Musk decides to claim the crowd was full of paid protesters.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

cDismissing the unfounded claim, Sanders said: “I invite the president to come to LA. Tell the people here why you think it’s a great idea to cut Medicaid<\/a> and nutrition and healthcare, so you can give tax breaks<\/a> to billionaires.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Musk and his friends see you as nothing more than workers to be disposed of,” the senator continued. “They got rid of tens of thousands of federal workers. They don’t give a damn about you. And what we have got to do is say, ‘Sorry, We are human beings.'”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Because they know what you know and what I know, is that they are the 1%, we are the 99%,” Sanders said, reprising one of the slogans from his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns. “They own Congress, they own the White House, but they don’t own us!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Now, I’m not going to tell you that it’s going to be easy, it’s not,” he admitted. “We’re gonna have to fight them door to door, workplace to workplace, school to school. We’re gonna have to educate, we’re gonna have to mobilize, we’re gonna have to stand up in a dozen different ways.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But from the bottom of my heart\u2014and I’ve been to every state in this country; I don’t care whether you’re Republican, Democrat, or Independent\u2014the people of this country do not want oligarchy, they do not want authoritarianism, and they want a government that works for all of us, not just the 1%,” Sanders added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanders’ video came as the Fighting Oligarchy Tour continued, with one rally taking place Tuesday in Bakersfield, California and another scheduled for later in the afternoon in Folsom, California. Thousands packed<\/a> Dignity Health Arena in Bakersfield to see Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, while enthusiastic supporters were seen<\/a> forming a long queue ahead of the afternoon event in Folsom. Following that rally, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are scheduled to continue the tour with a stop in Missoula, Montana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/x.com\/EytanWallace\/status\/1912247608539844895?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1912247608539844895%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fbernie-sanders-fight-oligarchy-rallies<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Common Dreams<\/em>reported<\/a>\u00a0Tuesday that new polling from Harvard’s Center for American Political Studies and Harris found that 72% of Democratic voters support politicians “who are calling on Democrats to adopt a more aggressive stance towards Trump and his administration and ‘fight harder'” over ones who “compromise” with the president and his authoritarian agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BRETT WILKINS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) appear before a packed rally in Nampa, Idaho on April 14, 2025. \u00a0(Photo: Sen. Bernie Sanders\/X) “The people of this country do not want oligarchy, they do not want authoritarianism, and they want a government that works for all of… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40822"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40823,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40822\/revisions\/40823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}