Sanders Takes on Manchin, American Oligarchs, and Biden’s Trip to Saudi Arabia

Appearing on ABC’s This Week, Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, took aim at a range of issues, including President Biden’s recent trip to Saudi Arabia, Senator Joe Manchin’s “sabotage” of Biden’s agenda and the oligarchs that he says are benefitting from the economy.

Speaking first about Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia, Sanders seemed less worried about the now infamous first bump that has gotten Biden in hot water even with members of his own party and was instead concerned that Biden made the trip in the first place.

“You have a leader of that country who was involved in the murder of a Washington Post journalist,” the Independent Senator said. “I don’t think that that type of government should be rewarded with a visit by the president of the United States.”

Host Martha Raddatz pushed back, pointing out that the goal of the trip may have been to lower gas prices for Americans. The United States is dealing with near record high gas prices since it imposed sanctions on Russia after that country started its special military operation in Ukraine. Senator Sanders said the real problem lies at the feet of oil companies.

“Martha, I’m sure that is why he went, but the truth of the matter is, if you are looking at the outrageous high cost of gas at the pump right now, one of the things we have got to look at is the fact that while Americans are paying $4.50, $4.80 for a gallon of gas, the oil companies’ profits in the past quarter have been extraordinarily high,” Sanders explained. “I happen to believe that we have to tell the oil companies to stop ripping off the American people and if they don’t, we should impose a windfall profits tax on them.”

Sanders was then asked if he was concerned about a recession, but he turned the question into a criticism of oligarchs who sit at the top of the economy.

“We are moving rapidly into an oligarchic form of society. We talk about how the economy is performing poorly for the working class, for the middle class, that’s true. But we should also recognize that the economy is doing extraordinarily well for the people on top, for the billionaires who have seen a $2 trillion increase in their wealth during this pandemic while a million Americans died,” Sanders stated. “So the struggle must be to create an economy that works for all, not just the people on top, a political system not dominated by SuperPACs and billionaires, a media that is not owned by large corporations.”

ABC is owned by the Walt Disney Corporation, which also owns FOX and multiple other media companies and had over $19 billion in revenue last quarter, according to its website.

Raddatz then asked Sanders about Manchin, saying that he “abruptly pulled the plug” on the democrats’ agenda, a characterization that Sanders took umbrage with.

“He didn’t abruptly do anything. … No, if you check the record, I made it clear, that you have people like Manchin, [Arizona Senator Kyrsten] Sinema to a lesser degree, who are intentionally sabotaging the President’s agenda, what the American people want, what the majority of us in the Democratic Caucus want. Nothing new about this,” Sanders stated as the conversation grew slightly heated. “The problem was that we continued to talk to Manchin like he was serious, he was not. This is a guy that is a major recipient of fossil fuel money, a guy that has received campaign contributions from 25 Republican billionaires.”

Manchin recently announced that he would not support climate change legislation or raising taxes on the rich.