On Thursday, left-wing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Scott Bessent, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, got into a tense exchange about Trump's ties to "oligarchs."
In the exchange, Bessent pointed out the fact that President Joe Biden gave investor George Soros a Presidential Medal of Freedom this month.
"Do you agree with President Biden who last night stated 'an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that threatens our entire Democracy, our basic rights and freedom’…I agree with him. Do you?” Sanders asked the Trump nominee. He was alluding to Trump’s ties to Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
"The three billionaires who you listed [Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos] all made their money themselves. Mr. Musk came to the country as an immigrant,” Bessent began to answer before Sanders interjected.
“I understand that. But what I’m asking you is when you have a handful of people like Musk, who will soon be part of the Trump administration, and others, when you have three people owning more wealth than the bottom half of American society, when these people have enormous influence over the media, when they spend huge amounts of money, in both political parties to elect candidates, what Biden said last night is we’re moving toward an oligarchy…Forget how they [Musk, Zuckerberg] made their money. Do you think that when so few people have so much wealth and so much economic and political power that that is an oligarchic form of society?" Sanders asked.
"Well, I would note that President Biden gave a Presidential Medal of Freedom to two people who I think would qualify for his oligarchs,” Bessent retorted.
Sanders backtracked, stating, “This is not a condemnation of any one individual.”
Sanders then dropped the subject.
BERNIE SANDERS: "Do you agree with President Biden who last night stated 'an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that threatens our entire Democracy...'"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 16, 2025
SCOTT BESSENT: "The three billionaires who you listed [Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos] all… pic.twitter.com/lRg84D0P8O