Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 White House hopeful, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said in Iowa on Saturday that they see “class solidarity” in a report that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos urged former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to run for president.
According to the Des Moines Register, Sanders initially laughed when he was asked about the report during an interview while Ocasio-Cortez responded: “They’ve got class solidarity. The billionaires are looking out for each other. They’re willing to transcend difference and background and even politics.”
“The fact that Bill Gates seems more willing to vote for Donald Trump than anyone else tells you everything you need to know about how far they’re willing to go to protect their excess, at the cost to everyday Americans,” the progressive first-term lawmaker, who was in Iowa to campaign for Sanders, added.
“Jeff Bezos, worth $150 billion, supporting Mike Bloomberg, whose worth only $50 billion, that’s real class solidarity,” Sanders said after composing himself, according to the newspaper.
“I’m impressed by that grassroots movement. We on the other hand have had over a million people contribute to our campaign … So a little bit different approach to politics.”
Vox reported Saturday that Bezos called Bloomberg in February and asked if he’d consider joining the 2020 race. Bloomberg said no at the time, a source told the news outlet, which added that a spokesman for the former mayor confirmed the conversation but Amazon did not respond to requests for comment.
Bloomberg officially filed as a candidate for the Alabama Democratic presidential primary on Friday as part of a possible White House run that could shake up the crowded 2020 field.
The billionaire businessman, who built a financial data and media empire, has a personal war chest estimated at more than $50 billion.
He has not yet made a final decision on whether to run for president, a person familiar with his thinking told The Hill late last week.
Th Register noted that Sanders also ripped Bloomberg’s potential run during the Iowa interview.
“He’s deciding because he is worth $50 billion, he’s going to run for president of the United States,” Sanders said.
“He doesn’t have to worry about coming into Iowa, he doesn’t have to worry about going to New Hampshire or Nevada or South Carolina,” he said. “He’s just going to spend, I suspect, hundreds of millions of dollars in media in California because he’s a billionaire,” he added. “So that’s the corruption of the political system based on the kind of massive wealth inequality that exists right now.”