Senator Bernie Sanders's campaign has once again come under scrutiny for its significant expenditure on private jet travel.
Recent federal campaign finance disclosures reveal that between July and September, Sanders's campaign allocated $78,371 to chartering private jets.
This revelation coincides with Sanders's remarks at a CNN town hall, where he expressed concern that the United States is "increasingly becoming an oligarchic form of society."
According to The Washington Free Beacon, this pattern of lavish spending on private air travel is not new for Sanders's campaign. In the preceding six months, Friends of Bernie Sanders expended over $450,000 on chartered jets. Despite the criticism, Sanders remains unapologetic about his travel choices.
In a May interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier, Sanders dismissed concerns about his private jet usage, stating, "You think Im going to be sitting, waiting in line at United, waiting while 30,000 people are waiting? Its the only way to get around. No apologies for that. Thats what campaign travel is about. We have done it in the past, and we will do it in the future."
The campaign's spending habits raise questions about Sanders's stance on his staff's travel arrangements. On the same day in August that the campaign paid $33,371 to the firm N-Jet, it also spent $30,629 on commercial airline tickets. In total, over the three-month period ending in September, the campaign spent more than $50,000 on commercial airfare with major airlines such as American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and JetBlue Airways.
The primary purpose of these private jet charters appears to be facilitating Sanders's participation in his Fighting Oligarchy Tour, a series of political rallies featuring both Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This tour, which began in February, has included 35 stops nationwide, including a recent rally in New York City with Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
This financial disclosure emerges amidst a contentious political climate, with lawmakers deadlocked over a Democratic-led government shutdown. During the CNN town hall, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez attributed the impasse to Republican efforts to roll back tax credits for health insurance and reduce Medicaid funding. Sanders assured federal employees affected by the shutdown,
"We're going to fight for federal employees. We're going to do everything we can and move as quickly as we can to make sure you get your paychecks."
Interestingly, the campaign's spending on private jet travel between July and September mirrors the median salary of federal workers, which stands at $79,386. This comparison highlights the disparity between Sanders's campaign expenditures and the financial realities faced by many government employees.
Login