New York City is on the verge of electing an actual communist mayor of the city, and this requires us to ask a question.
Why?
What is happening with the Left that they&#8217;ve decided to opt for Bernie Sanders over anything like a mainstream Democratic Party candidate?
Of course, this has been coming for a long time. Bernie Sanders ran an incredibly strong race against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Bernie Sanders then ran an incredibly strong race against Joe Biden in 2020.
Thus, there is something happening inside the Democratic Party — and it&#8217;s growing —and it&#8217;s growing — and it&#8217;s growing. That doesn&#8217;t mean the Democratic Party is growing and growing. In fact, the Democratic Party is shrinking even as this movement is growing.
It&#8217;s essentially a tumor destroying the health of the Democratic Party from the inside. But something is happening.
Zohran Mamdani, the former no-name, 33-year-old trust fund kid who’s a socialist and anti-Semite, who has worked for all of three combined years, I believe, in his entire adult life (and that includes him rapping), is now on the verge of becoming the mayor of the most important city in the West.
I think reasonable people look at this and think he is winning in spite of those things. I think that&#8217;s missing the point. He&#8217;s winning because of those things.
That’s because there&#8217;s an Omnicause on the Left; the Scavenger cause, which is to tear down all the systems. Inchoate rage at the system channeled into socialist economics, Howard Zinn-inspired foreign policy, and destructive hatred of traditional institutions.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2226-member-exclusive?elementPosition=6&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
That Scavenger philosophy has gained tremendous credence with the dissatisfied Left, a Left that achieved many of its victories and now has plunged itself directly into nihilism.
The problem with the Left over the course of the last several decades has been that they caught the car. In the 1960s, the Left in the United States began to catch the car with everything from the sexual revolution to the overturning of the constitutional order. In doing so, they then had to construct a system.
The problem is that when you construct a system and then the system fails and fails and fails again, and then the backlash happens in the form of a Donald Trump, you start to lose your mind, you start to become insane.
Thus, instead of them wanting to capture the commanding heights of the system and change the system from within incrementally, “make it better,” which used to be the Democratic way, now they just want to burn everything down.
That is not a particularly attractive message to a broader American public that does not want to burn everything down. The secret about President Trump is that when President Trump ran in 2016, pledging that he was going to burn everything down, the reality is that people realistically believed that he was going to burn some things down, but he was certainly not going to burn everything down.
They actually thought he would be a lot more moderate than he said he would be. It turned out in many ways that he was significantly more institutionalist in his approach from 2016 to 2020 than people expected him to be. Even today, all the crazy people who are yelling about him challenging democracy, won’t recognize that democracy is not under threat, that the courts are not under threat. This idea that Donald Trump is simply running roughshod over our most cherished institutions is a lie.
But Democrats have always used revolutionary language in order to push forward evolutionary ends. Interestingly, Donald Trump did the same thing inside the Republican Party. He used revolutionary language to achieve evolutionary ends. All of that is normal politics in the United States.
That’s what&#8217;s currently happening to the Left. Bernie Sanders and his entire wing of the party are using revolutionary language because they want an actual revolution. This is why you have seen the Left nodding at riots over the course of the last decade, at actual attempts at revolution in the streets.
It&#8217;s why so much of the Left was fine with Luigi Mangione shooting the United Healthcare CEO, because revolution requires a few broken eggs, and it is why Bernie Sanders now has the whip hand in the Democratic Party.
Zohran Mamdani is simply channeling Bernie Sanders at this point, with a few added features. He&#8217;s ethnically diverse, he&#8217;s not originally born in America, his father is a postcolonial studies professor at Columbia University of Shia Muslim descent, and his mother is an Indian-American filmmaker of Punjabi Hindu descent.
All these things add a smattering of exoticism to Zohran Mamdani. The fact that he is a rabid anti-Semite obviously sprinkles a lot of pizazz atop the Omnicause stew. He&#8217;s Greta Thunberg with a beard, with a more ethnically exotic background, and with a lot more charisma.
He is the face of the international Left in a nutshell. In his victory speech, he said:
<blockquote>Let me close with this. In these dark times, I know that it is harder than ever to keep faith in our democracy. It has been attacked by billionaires and their big spending by elected officials who care more about self-enrichment than the public trust, and by authoritarian leaders who rule through fear. But above all, our democracy has been attacked from within. For too long, New Yorkers have strained to find a leader who represents us, who puts us first, and we have been betrayed time and again after so many disappointments. 
The heart hardens, belief becomes elusive, and when we no longer believe in our democracy, it only becomes easier for people like Donald Trump to convince us of his worth, for billionaires to convince us that they must always lead. And I pledge to you that we will remake this great city not in my image, but in the image of every New Yorker who has only known struggle.</blockquote>
“Known struggle?” Are you kidding me? Mamdani has experienced a shocking lack of struggle in his young and non-achievement-oriented life. 
According to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kylemullins/2025/06/24/heres-how-much-new-york-city-mayoral-candidate-zohran-mamdani-is-worth/">Forbes</a>:
<blockquote>At a panel in Harlem in February, New York state assembly member Zohran Mamdani discussed a piece of proposed legislation that would strip Columbia University of various tax breaks and redirect the revenue to fund the City’s university system. Mamdani’s no stranger to Columbia—his father is a Harvard-educated, renowned professor there, and he grew up in university-owned housing. “Columbia was our first landlord,” he told the crowd, according to an account in the student newspaper. &#8230; Forbes estimates Mamdani to be worth around $200,000. &#8230; Mamdani attended Bank Street, a prestigious Manhattan private school that now costs as much as $66,000 a year for elementary school students, before graduating from the Bronx High School of Science, one of the city’s best public schools. &#8230; he studied Africana Studies at Bowdoin College, a private liberal arts school in Maine.
After graduating, he worked on his mom&#8217;s sets. He tried his hand at a rap career using the monikers Young Cardamom and Mr. Cardamom, and “took jobs working on several political campaigns and community organizing efforts.”</blockquote>
That is legitimately his entire work history. This is a person who is campaigning for those who “have only known struggle.”
What is he actually saying?
What he is saying is that if you are unsuccessful in life, what is required is a revolution: a revolution led by someone like Zohran Mamdani, a trust-fund kid.
That&#8217;s what he is. And yet he is treated as though he is a revolutionary.
By the way, a dirty little secret about revolutions: They are very rarely led by true members of the low-income classes. They are usually led by upper-middle-income people who feel upset that they didn&#8217;t get their “fair worth.”
That’s Mamdani. And so he is taking Bernie Sanders’ economics and slapping on top of that all of the spicy peppers that makes so many liberals go absolutely gaga, particularly white, highly-educated, rich, elite liberals.
All the things that normal people see in Mamdani as problems are nectar to the Left.
When I say that Bernie Sanders is taking over the Democratic party, this is what I mean. AOC is Bernie Sanders wearing AOC’s face. Mamdani is Bernie Sanders wearing Mamdani’s face.
There’s a reason that leftists are marching with a queer flag and a Palestinian flag and an Iran flag and also voting for Zohran Mamdani: because they are about destroying the things that work — in the name of nothing.
It is not as though they want to build a better system. They do not have the capacity to build a better system.
This is about a shout and a cry at the “establishment,” screaming at the moon in the name of revolution.
That is Bernie Sanders.
Bernie has never been on a major piece of legislation. Bernie is a lifelong loser. He&#8217;s a loser.
But that doesn&#8217;t mean he’s not dangerous.
Losers can absolutely be dangerous.

New York City Mayoral Candidates Campaign Ahead Of Primary Election

Greta Thunberg With A Beard

Ben Shapiro

Bernie Sanders

Communism

Democrats

Leftists

Liberals

New York City

Opinion

Zohran Mamdani

Bernie Sanders wants to solve AI with socialism — but he doesn&#8217;t know how humans will find meaning in his socialist paradise.
The 83-year-old senior senator from Vermont recently took time off of his &#8220;Fighting Oligarchy&#8221; tour to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYVzme2fybU">appear</a> on &#8220;The Joe Rogan Experience.&#8221;
During the almost two-hour episode, Rogan asked Sanders how humans will find meaning if artificial intelligence takes jobs and the government provides for everyone&#8217;s needs.
&#8220;Andrew Yang was talking about this giant epidemic of automation in this country and the solution being universal basic income, but that&#8217;s not the solution for meaning,&#8221; Rogan said. &#8220;And how do we convince all of these people that they have to not just take this money from the government, but also take action to give themselves meaning in their lives?&#8221;
Sanders tried to reframe the question as &#8220;a revolution in human experience.&#8221;
&#8220;So throughout history, people have worked so hard just to stay alive, right?&#8221; Sanders said. &#8220;If you don&#8217;t need to do work, right, because we&#8217;re wealthy enough, how do you find meaning in your life?&#8221;
Sanders called it a &#8220;trillion-dollar question&#8221; and said dependence on AI is not the answer.
&#8220;All I would say at this moment is the answer is not to fall in love with your AI creature out there,&#8221; Sanders said.
Rogan wasn&#8217;t satisfied.
&#8220;Yeah, don’t do that,&#8221; Rogan said. &#8220;But also, how do you find meaning? How do you — if all you&#8217;re doing is just getting a check, and you can just stay at home and stare at the TV, and the money keeps coming, and then you eat processed food all day, and it&#8217;s all subsidized, what is life?&#8221;
Sanders said the immediate solution is to take care of workers who lost jobs to AI.
&#8220;I think you tell those workers, you&#8217;re going to have health care as a human right, you&#8217;re going to have education as a human right, you&#8217;re going to have a decent income as a human right, and we&#8217;re going to lower — substantially lower — the work week,&#8221; Sanders said. &#8220;What happens later, when even more work is eliminated, and what the purpose of human life becomes, that is a very profound question.&#8221;
&#8220;What do you think happens?&#8221; Rogan asked.
&#8220;It&#8217;s hard to imagine,&#8221; Sanders said. &#8220;Then the answer will be that we are going to have to find different meaning in life. We have to find it in ourselves in ways that you don’t know and I don’t know, because we&#8217;re not there yet.&#8221;
Sanders said he doesn&#8217;t know how far out the problem is.
&#8220;But I think human beings are capable of replacing work with other emotionally satisfying things,&#8221; Sanders said. &#8220;Yeah, I think we can do it.&#8221;
Rogan said the problem would be providing meaning for millions of people.
&#8220;What do you do to all those people to give them some sort of a sense of meaning?&#8221; Rogan asked. &#8220;You&#8217;re essentially redefining life for them.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t have the answer to that question,&#8221; Sanders admitted again. &#8220;That’s the problem. I don&#8217;t think anybody does.&#8221;
Despite not having an answer, the senator still managed to bring the issue back to taxing the rich.
&#8220;The people who own that technology and the corporations who utilize that [AI] technology are becoming phenomenally richer,&#8221; Sanders said. &#8220;And that is the issue. Which gets back to things like tax reform, like making sure that in America, we do not have the massive levels of income and wealth inequality that we currently have.&#8221;

Senator Bernie Sanders Continues Fighting Oligarchy Tour In Pennsylvania

Bernie Sanders Can’t Answer When Asked How Humans Find Meaning If His Socialist Dream Is Realized

Artificial Intelligence

General

Joe Rogan

Politics

Socialism

On Wednesday, hard-Left Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders was slammed after he joined the antisemites who posit that Israel determines American foreign policy.
Sanders targeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu including Hamas, Hezbollah, and now the despotic anti-Israel regime in Iran. On Monday, Sanders introduced the “No War On Iran Act, and attacked Netanyahu again, snapping, &#8220;Netanyahu&#8217;s reckless and illegal attacks violate international law and risk igniting a regional war. Congress must make it clear that the United States will not be dragged into Netanyahu&#8217;s war of choice.”
“Netanyahu is not the President of the United States,” Sanders wrote on X on Wednesday. “He should not be determining U.S. foreign and military policy. If the people of Israel support his decision to start a war with Iran, that is their business and their war. The United States must not be a part of it.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Netanyahu is not the President of the United States. 
He should not be determining U.S. foreign and military policy. 
If the people of Israel support his decision to start a war with Iran, that is their business and their war. 
The United States must not be a part of it.
&mdash; Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) <a href="https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1935358440500773065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
David Friedman, who was President Donald Trump’s U.S. Ambassador to Israel in his first term, savaged Sanders, responding, “You are a sick and hateful old man. Whatever Trump decides, it will be because he deems it best for America. Your completely false charge that Netanyahu is controlling America is a classic antisemitic trope whose only purpose is to foment resentment against Jews. Shame on you!”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
You are a sick and hateful old man. Whatever Trump decides, it will be because he deems it best for America. Your completely false charge that Netanyahu is controlling America is a classic antisemitic trope whose only purpose is to foment resentment against Jews. Shame on you! <a href="https://t.co/8qcManTwoq">https://t.co/8qcManTwoq</a>
&mdash; David M Friedman (@DavidM_Friedman) <a href="https://twitter.com/DavidM_Friedman/status/1935502841789243581?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“Iran started a war with the U.S. in 1979 and hasn’t stopped since,” Fox News commentator Katie Pavlich pointed out.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Iran started a war with the U.S. in 1979 and hasn’t stopped since. <a href="https://t.co/fNbF6MhJuT">https://t.co/fNbF6MhJuT</a>
&mdash; Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) <a href="https://twitter.com/KatiePavlich/status/1935378858737373658?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“Sorry Bernie maybe you missed the two massive waves of drone and missile attacks launched by Iran against Israel last year? But let’s not let simple facts get in the way of your foolish narratives,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) <a href="https://x.com/RepDanCrenshaw/status/1935056652408930675">fired back</a>.
<a href="https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/israel-zionism/2019/04/catering-to-the-democratic-fringe-bernie-sanders-defames-israel-again/">Mosaic Magazine</a> has noted:
<blockquote>
When Sanders wanted to win the Democratic nomination in 2016, he claimed that Israel had killed over 10,000 innocent Palestinians, launched indiscriminate attacks in the Gaza Strip, and shelled hospitals in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge in 2014. The senator not only inflated the numbers by several orders of magnitude, he even outdid the Hamas spokespersons in creating a false narrative that the IDF was intentionally attacking the civilian population.
</blockquote>
In February 2024, Sanders <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/in-the-news/sanders-welch-break-with-democrats-to-vote-no-on-israel-ukraine-aid-package/">voted against</a> a major foreign aid package to support Ukraine’s fight against Russia because he objected to the funding for Israel as it fought against Hamas. He said Netanyahu and Israel were fighting a “horrific war against the Palestinian people.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders Blasted After Joining Antisemitic Conspiracists: ‘Sick And Hateful Old Man’

antisemitism

David Friedman

Israel

Self-described &#8220;working class&#8221; Democrat congressional hopeful Hanna Trudo was exposed after conservative podcast hosts discovered her Ferrari ownership and membership on a millionaire dating site.
Trudo, a former journalist for The Daily Beast, Politico, and The Hill, announced her potential congressional run for New Hampshire&#8217;s first district in early May, <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2025/05/05/trade-deal-done-00326237">claiming</a> that she grew up in a &#8220;working-class&#8221; family that received heating assistance.
&#8220;Like many families, we received heating assistance at times to get through our freezing winters. While my mom was not able to go to college or buy a home due to the high cost of living, she worked tirelessly as a public school Title 1 reading aide,&#8221; Trudo <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14717429/hanna-trudo-new-hampshire-congress-ruthless-podcast.html">wrote</a> in her campaign announcement, according to the Daily Mail.
The hosts of the conservative &#8220;Ruthless&#8221; podcast began investigating Trudo&#8217;s background after she initially offered to appear on their show, but then reportedly ghosted producers for several weeks.
Their <a href="https://youtu.be/Xg9OTcuYbWU?si=O8vPlLnmNjj-Y49y&amp;t=1855">investigation</a> uncovered a profile on Luxy, an exclusive dating website that requires users to have a &#8220;verified annual income&#8221; exceeding $200,000 and describes itself as a platform where &#8220;only sophisticated, successful and people of quality join.&#8221;
According to Luxy’s <a href="https://www.onluxy.com/?srsltid=AfmBOooVjVCVtawXcSGEs8w38DpBCssuc0XIFQsH59HEaCS03pUnFnFI">website</a>, “60% of our members have a verified annual income of more than €200,000,” or $223,000, and “41% verified income greater than €1 million,” or $1.1 million.
On the dating profile featuring her name and photo, Trudo described herself as a &#8220;senior political correspondent, splitting my time between DC (weekdays), NYC, &amp; Miami (for fun).&#8221;
The podcast team also discovered that Trudo had posted an image of a Ferrari on social media, offering it for sale.
Trudo responded to the Daily Mail article on X, writing: “Sorry gentlemen, I like fashion AND Medicare for All! $15 minimum wage.”
“You can try and shame me into not running for NH1 because you hate progressives, but not for being a fabulous woman.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Sorry gentlemen, I like fashion AND Medicare for All! $15 minimum wage.
You can try and shame me into not running for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NH1?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NH1</a> because you hate progressives, but not for being a fabulous woman
Live Free or Die <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nhpolitics?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#nhpolitics</a> <a href="https://t.co/7NxPKLSEAB">https://t.co/7NxPKLSEAB</a>
— Hanna Trudo (@HCTrudo) <a href="https://twitter.com/HCTrudo/status/1923397715305631775?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Trudo initially announced her interest in running for Congress with messaging focused heavily on working-class advocacy.
&#8220;I&#8217;m simply writing with the same fire I&#8217;ve spit for the past decade: Democrats must be better,&#8221; she <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/live-blog/trump-administration-nfl-draft-tariffs-immigration-doge-live-updates-rcna204587/rcrd78355?canonicalCard=true">wrote</a> in her campaign memo, per NBC News.
&#8220;Under Donald Trump’s off-brand of authoritarian politics, we are no longer free. Our First Amendment freedoms are being cruelly ripped away by Trump, Elon Musk and other obscenely rich, unelected tech lackeys who have contempt for us.&#8221;
She specifically cited Senator Bernie Sanders&#8217; (I-VT) failed presidential campaign as her inspiration to explore a run for office, <a href="https://x.com/HCTrudo/status/1915107197010272501">emphasizing</a> that &#8220;new blood matters alongside a working class agenda.&#8221;
Her announcement was met with amusement from conservative media outlets, who pointed to her candidacy as more evidence that many Washington, D.C., journalists harbor partisan Democratic leanings while claiming journalistic objectivity.
The Washington Free Beacon combed through Trudo’s tweets, revealing a “left-wing activist feed” convinced that America was &#8220;no longer free&#8221; under President Donald, in addition to less-than-objective headlines like “Sanders steps back into role as anti-oligarch crusader.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEW: Hanna Trudo, a journalist who covered the Democratic Party for The Hill, is &#8220;exploring&#8221; a run for Congress in New Hampshire.
It seems redundant to mention that Trudo would be running as a Democrat, but there you have it.<a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewStilesUSA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AndrewStilesUSA</a> has reviewed Trudo’s social media… <a href="https://t.co/FPemlT9kKa">pic.twitter.com/FPemlT9kKa</a>
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) <a href="https://twitter.com/FreeBeacon/status/1919770960292429989?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
New Hampshire&#8217;s first congressional district is currently represented by Democrat Rep. Chris Pappas, who announced that he is running for Senate in 2026.

US dollars

Dem Congressional Hopeful’s ‘Working Class’ Persona Crumbles After Lavish Lifestyle Exposed

2026 Midterms

Democratic Party

Elections

Media Bias

New Hampshire

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) says he is ready to assist President Donald Trump in lowering drug prices if the commander-in-chief is &#8220;serious&#8221; about doing it.
The offer came on Monday after Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-signs-order-to-reduce-drug-prices-tells-rest-of-world-to-pay-up?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Trump+Signs+Order+To+Reduce+Drug+Prices%2C+Tells+Rest+Of+World+To+Pay+Up" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unveiled</a> an executive <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/delivering-most-favored-nation-prescription-drug-pricing-to-american-patients/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">order</a> that aims to align U.S. prescription drug prices to match the lowest amount offered to other developed nations, promote &#8220;direct-to-consumer&#8221; sales at these rates, and prevent foreign countries from &#8220;freeloading&#8221; on American-funded pharmaceutical innovation.
&#8220;I agree with President Trump: It is an outrage that the American people pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs,&#8221; Sanders said in a <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-statement-on-trumps-executive-order-on-prescription-drugs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a>. &#8220;It is beyond unacceptable that we pay, in some cases, ten times more for the same exact prescription drugs than people in other major countries. But let’s be clear: The problem is not that the price of prescription drugs is too low in Europe and Canada. The problem is that the extraordinarily greedy pharmaceutical industry made over $100 billion in profits last year by ripping off the American people.&#8221;
Sanders added: &#8220;Further, as Trump well knows, his executive order will be thrown out by the courts. If Trump is serious about making real change rather than just issuing a press release, he will support legislation I will soon be introducing to make sure we pay no more for prescription drugs than people in other major countries. If Republicans and Democrats come together on this legislation, we can get it passed in a few weeks.&#8221;
Trump unveiled his executive order during a press conference at the White House. He was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H79QL4UDU44" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joined</a> by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who in the 2024 cycle ran unsuccessfully for the presidency while challenging the Democratic Party&#8217;s establishment, just like Sanders did in 2016 and 2020. Kennedy Jr. said that Democrat leaders have promised Americans for 20 years they would lower drug prices without actually doing it and asserted that Trump&#8217;s effort now was the &#8220;fulcrum&#8221; of Sanders&#8217; campaigns for the White House.
&#8220;I have a couple of kids who are Democrats, are big Bernie Sanders fans, and when I told them that this was gonna happen, they had tears in their eyes because they thought this was never going to happen in our lifetime, and we finally have a president who&#8217;s willing to stand up for the American people,&#8221; Kennedy Jr. said.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) echoed the call for action, urging Congress to make Trump’s move <a href="https://x.com/HawleyMO/status/1921950612104601836" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;permanent&#8221;</a> through legislation he introduced with Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT).
Their <a href="https://www.hawley.senate.gov/in-bipartisan-push-hawley-welch-introduce-major-legislation-to-lower-prescription-drug-prices/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bill</a>, the &#8220;Fair Prescription Drug Prices for Americans Act,&#8221; would keep pharmaceutical companies from charging higher drug prices in the United States than the average in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, and the United Kingdom, with penalties of 10 times the price difference per unit sold for violations.

Senator Bernie Sanders

Bernie Offers To Help Trump If He’s ‘Serious’ About Lower Drug Prices

Congress

Donald Trump

Drugs

Health Care

Josh Hawley

U.S. Senate

On Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) defended the exorbitant use of private jets to fly around the country during his “Fighting Oligarchy&#8221; tour with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
Fox News host Bret Baier broached the topic during an interview with Sanders on &#8220;Special Report.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
WATCH: <a href="https://twitter.com/BretBaier?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BretBaier</a> challenges Bernie Sanders on why he spent $221k using private jets during his ‘fighting oligarchy’ tour <a href="https://t.co/lMii8D4HC1">pic.twitter.com/lMii8D4HC1</a>
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) <a href="https://twitter.com/TVNewsNow/status/1920246236898070980?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
He first alluded to a POLITICO <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/24/slotkin-has-a-war-plan-to-beat-trump-dont-be-weak-and-woke-00308176" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> on how Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) urged Democrats to stop harping on the “oligarchy” because the term does not resonate beyond coastal institutions.
Then Baier referred to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/friends-of-bernie-sanders-spent-200k-on-jets-for-his-fighting-oligarchy-tour" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent</a> Washington Free Beacon <a href="https://freebeacon.com/politics/bernie-spent-221k-on-private-jets-while-railing-against-trump-during-fighting-oligarchy-tour/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">story</a> on Sanders&#8217; main campaign committee, Friends of Bernie Sanders, spending $221,723 chartering private jets during the first quarter of 2025 after and the senator spending millions of dollars on such flights over the years.
&#8220;You know, Elissa Slotkin, senator from Michigan, she said you shouldn&#8217;t be using &#8216;oligarch,&#8217; it&#8217;s over people&#8217;s head. You&#8217;ve gotten criticized from other people,&#8221; Baier said. &#8220;Free Beacon says Bernie Sanders spent $221,000 on private jets [amid the] &#8216;Fighting Oligarchy&#8221; Tour, paid for by Friends of Bernie Sanders. That you&#8217;ve spent millions of dollars in campaign funds on private jet travel over the years. How do you push back on both of those things?&#8221;
Sanders&#8217; initial inclination was to take a swipe at President Donald Trump.
&#8220;When&#8217;s the last time you saw Donald Trump during a campaign mode at National Airport?&#8221; Sanders asked.
&#8220;No, no, no. It doesn&#8217;t. But he&#8217;s also not fighting the oligarchy,&#8221; Baier replied.
&#8220;No. You run a campaign and you do three or four or five rallies in a week. The only way you can get around to talk to 30,000 people,&#8221; Sanders said. &#8220;Think I&#8217;m going to be sitting on a waiting line at United, waiting, you know, while 30,000 people are waiting? That&#8217;s the only way you can get around. No apologies for that.&#8221;
He added: &#8220;That&#8217;s what campaign travel is about. We&#8217;ve done it in the past, we&#8217;re going to do it in the future.&#8221;
With the reporting on the price tag for the “Fighting Oligarchy&#8221; tour flights, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) criticized Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez for their jet-setting ways with a not-so-subtle nod to their climate activism.
&#8220;Champagne socialists Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez demand Americans surrender their pick-up trucks, air conditioning and meat from the luxe leather seats of their private jets that cost more per hour than most Americans earn in months. Their hypocrisy is staggering,&#8221; NRCC spokesperson Ben Petersen <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/champagne-socialists-sanders-aoc-spotted-exiting-private-jet-fighting-oligarchy-tour" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Fox News Digital.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

‘No Apologies’ From Bernie Sanders For $221K Spent On Private Jets During ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ Tour

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Bret Baier

Private jets

U.S.

On Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) chided the Democrats, saying they lack a &#8220;vision for the future.&#8221;
The critique was made as Sanders was being <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xL1iJR4xRM" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interviewed</a> by moderator Kristen Welker on NBC&#8217;s &#8220;Meet The Press,&#8221; who brought up the senator&#8217;s so-called &#8220;Fighting Oligarchy Tour&#8221; with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
&#8220;What Democrats lack right now is a vision for the future,&#8221; Sanders said. &#8220;How are we going to provide a decent standard of living for a younger generation, which, everything being equal, will be poorer than their parents? How do we repair a broken healthcare system? How do we raise the minimum wage to a living wage? How do we deal with a corrupt campaign finance system that allows billionaires to control both political parties?&#8221;
He added: &#8220;Those are some of the issues that need to be discussed. And we&#8217;re going out around the country right now asking people – working people, run for office. They want to run as a Democrat? Great. They want to run as an independent? That&#8217;s great. But you got to get involved in the political process, because right now, the two party system is failing the working class of this country.&#8221;
Sanders made the comment in the middle of responding to a question from Welker, who asked if he was trying to start a third party given his two failed campaigns in the Democratic Party&#8217;s presidential primaries over the years.
&#8220;No, we’re not trying to start a third party,&#8221; Sanders said. &#8220;What we&#8217;re trying to do is strengthen American democracy, where faith in both the Democratic and Republican parties right now is extremely low.&#8221;
He said that Democrats are &#8220;appropriately&#8221; talking about President Donald Trump&#8217;s &#8220;movement toward authoritarianism&#8221; while opposing the GOP&#8217;s reconciliation bill and the work of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk.
Sanders also pushed back against Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who urged Democrats to stop harping on the &#8220;oligarchy&#8221; because the term does not resonate beyond coastal institutions, according to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/24/slotkin-has-a-war-plan-to-beat-trump-dont-be-weak-and-woke-00308176" target="_blank" rel="noopener">POLITICO</a>.
&#8220;I think the American people are not quite as dumb as Ms. Slotkin thinks they are,&#8221; Sanders said. &#8220;I think they understand very well, when the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 90%, when big money interests are able to control both political parties, they are living in an oligarchy. And these are precisely the issues that have got to be talked about.&#8221;

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

Bernie Says Dems Lack ‘Vision For The Future’

Pope Francis passes away just one day after delivering an Easter message to millions of Christian faithful. It will be days before the church picks a new pontiff, but some favorites have already emerged. And, with Republicans in control of D.C., Democrats are searching for a strategy and a leader to pull them out of the political abyss.
It’s Tuesday, April 22, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/picking-the-next-pope-democrats-new-message-4-22-25/id1576594336?i=1000704426417" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2>Pope Francis’ Legacy</h2>
<div id="attachment_910567" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-910567" class="size-large wp-image-910567" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Pope-Francis-1-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Pope-Francis-1-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Pope-Francis-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Pope-Francis-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Pope-Francis-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Pope-Francis-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Pope-Francis-1-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Pope-Francis-1-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />(Photo by Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)</div>
Topline: Pope Francis, the 266th head of the Catholic Church, died Monday at the age of 88. His death marks the end of a transformative and, at times, polarizing papacy.
Pope Francis will likely be remembered as a progressive reformer. In 2013, shortly after he was elected, he made his famously controversial statement about gay priests, “Who am I to judge?” His 2015 encyclical called for environmental action, and he continually urged world leaders to address climate change. During his last Easter address on Sunday, after meeting with Vice President JD Vance, he warned against politicians stirring up “anti-migrant” sentiments.
But his papacy wasn’t as transformative as many theological progressives would have liked. Francis did endorse civil unions for same-sex couples, which was a historic move for a pope, and approved a document saying priests could “bless” gay couples. But he also upheld the Church’s stance that marriage is between a man and a woman. He also refused to approve the use of contraception and ordaining women, and was staunchly pro-life.
Francis took steps to curb the influence of conservative prelates who viewed his reforms as a threat to Church tradition. In 2014, he removed conservative cardinals like Raymond Burke, a vocal critic, from a key Vatican post. He also appointed more moderate or progressive bishops to various roles of authority and elevated like-minded clerics to the College of Cardinals. Because of this, critics accused him of stacking the deck and stifling dissent.
“He was really progressive,” Robert Sirico, former president of the conservative Acton Institute, told Morning Wire. “People call him a Marxist. They don&#8217;t think he was a Marxist. He certainly wasn&#8217;t a free market kind of guy, the way John Paul was. But on the other hand, I think he profoundly misunderstood the United States on a very visceral level, and I think that is owing to his Argentinian background.”
Despite possibly being the most progressive pope in history, Francis’ tenure saw a resurgence of conservative Catholicism, especially among young believers. Last year, we reported on the surge in Catholic conversions among young people in New York City. However, there is also evidence that this trend is happening in Europe. According to the Bishops’ Conference of France, more than 10,000 adults were baptized into the Roman Catholic Church on Easter Sunday – mostly young adults between the ages of 18 and 25. Something similar is happening in England, where surveys now show that Catholics outnumber Anglicans by more than two to one among Gen Z and younger millennials. These younger people, particularly young men, are <a href="https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/best-of-the-week/honorable-mention/2024/americas-catholic-church-seeing-shift-toward-more-conservative-ways/">being especially drawn</a> to more conservative expressions of faith.
<h2>The Next Pope</h2>
<div id="attachment_910565" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-910565" class="size-large wp-image-910565" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Conclave-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Conclave-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Conclave-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Conclave-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Conclave-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Conclave-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Conclave-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Conclave-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />(Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP via Getty Images)</div>
Topline: Speculation is already swirling about who will become the next head of the Catholic Church.
When a pope dies, eligible cardinals convene a papal conclave, where they cast ballots for the next pope. Famously, white smoke appears from the Sistine Chapel’s chimney when a new pope is elected, and a cardinal comes out to announce the new pope to cheering crowds in St. Peter’s Square. Usually, one of the cardinals is elected the next pope, and the big question on many Catholics’ minds is whether the new pope will lean conservative or progressive on controversial issues.
One of the more conservative candidates being discussed as a possible successor is Cardinal Robert Sarah, 79, an African cardinal from Guinea who has been an outspoken critic of Francis.
“The Church is not a social organization to meet [the] problem of migration or poverty,” Sarah <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG0YSN7LeAM">said</a>, in response to Pope Francis’s stance on immigration policy. “The Church is a divine purpose to save the world.”
Sarah was critical of Francis’ restrictions on the traditional Latin Mass and his statement on blessings for same-sex couples.
Cardinal Wim Eijk, 71, is also considered a conservative potential successor. Eijk is a former medical doctor from the Netherlands – and he’s been a sharp critic of Francis. He is one of the authors of a 2015 document opposing the pope’s approval of civil remarriages among people who have not received an annulment, <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/02/18/world-news/who-are-the-frontrunners-to-be-elected-next-pontiff-after-pope-francis/">calling</a> them “a form of structured and institutionalized adultery.” Eijk also <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/blog/cardinal-eijk-pope-francis-needed-to-give-clarity-on-intercommunion">criticized</a> Francis for giving what he called a “completely incomprehensible” response to a German Bishops’ Conference proposal on allowing Protestants to receive the Eucharist.
Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, 77, is another conservative from Sri Lanka. He criticized bishops who did not obey Pope Benedict on allowing the Latin Mass.
Cardinal Raymond Burke, 76, is one of the few potential successors from the United States. Burke has criticized the Church’s more liberal language under Francis, and he said that Catholic politicians who support legal abortion, like former President Joe Biden, should not receive the Eucharist.
A number of more progressive and politically moderate candidates are also likely to take the reins of the Church.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, 67, who’s been <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20151124125431/http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/01/15/manila-cardinal-luis-tagle-the-asian-pope-francis/">called</a> the “Asian Pope Francis” and would likely continue Francis’ more left-leaning stances. Tagle has defended the Church’s teachings on abortion and contraception, but he has also criticized the Church for using “harsh words” for LGBT people and divorced and remarried Catholics.
Another more progressive cardinal in the running is the French Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, 66, who was reportedly Francis’ “favorite” to succeed him and is well-liked in left-wing circles.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, 70, is an Italian cardinal who has been in the Holy See’s diplomatic service since the 1980s, is considered a political moderate and has played a role in many political issues, including moderating 2014 talks between Cuban and American officials, asking the United States to find an “adequate humanitarian solution” for Guantanamo Bay prisoners, and urging countries to implement the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
<h2>Democrats Tilt Left As They Search For A Standard Bearer</h2>
<div id="attachment_910569" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-910569" class="size-large wp-image-910569" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberal-Tilt-Graphic-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberal-Tilt-Graphic-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberal-Tilt-Graphic-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberal-Tilt-Graphic-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberal-Tilt-Graphic-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberal-Tilt-Graphic-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberal-Tilt-Graphic-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Liberal-Tilt-Graphic-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />(Photo by Gajus via Getty Images)</div>
Topline: As President Donald Trump approaches his 100th day in office, Democrats are still searching for a message — and messenger — to lead their party.
Since their defeat in November, there’s been little cause for confidence within the Democratic Party. For the optimists on the Left, Democrats did see strong turnout in special elections in a dozen or so states, where their candidates outperformed Kamala Harris by an average of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/democratic-performance-improving-slew-special-elections-weary-party-lo-rcna198984">more than 10 percentage points</a>. Most notably, Democrats won a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dangerously-liberal-judge-projected-to-win-wisconsin-supreme-court-race">resounding victory</a> for a Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin — a state Trump won by a point.
But: The bad news outweighs the good. First, <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nn1HT9AZ2OPFuB1z2jKHM6OMrh-NONO0NIzOoHqjxk8/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.35xntky3bxsv">Gallup</a> just found that the approval rating for Democrat leaders in Congress has fallen to just 25%. Not only is that the lowest mark in the poll&#8217;s history, it’s a full nine points lower than the previous record. That disapproval is crossing party lines – according to the latest numbers from CNN, only 63% of Democrats even view their own party favorably.
Polling shows that folks on the Left feel their leaders don’t have a clear strategy for standing up to Trump. A recent survey from Data for Progress asked Democrat voters how they would grade their party leaders’ response to Donald Trump &#8212; 7 in 10 gave a C, D, or F. If they had a singular leader to rally around, there might be more optimism, but there isn’t a clear standard bearer waiting in the wings for them to rally around. President Barack Obama can’t run again and is seemingly content to work primarily behind the scenes. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is 85 years old and could retire at any moment. President Joe Biden is 82 and still unpopular with the general public. Vice President Kamala Harris could come back into the fray, but she’s essentially been in hiding since November.
That void has left an opportunity for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) — two of the Left’s most popular, and controversial lawmakers — to take center stage. A poll last week from Survey USA found that 50% of Democrats want the party to “become more progressive,” while just 18% said “more moderate.” AOC and Sanders&#8217; &#8220;Fighting Oligarchy&#8221; speaking tour has drawn massive crowds all across the country, including in deep-red states like Idaho and Utah. Instead of embracing a more moderate approach, they’ve gone all-in on calling for Democrats to embrace their far-Left base and oppose Trump at all costs.
“Donald Trump is a criminal who was found guilty of 34 counts of fraud,” AOC <a href="https://x.com/Bubblebathgirl/status/1911951880395055606">told</a> a cheering crowd in Idaho. “Of course he’s lying and abusing and manipulating the stock market, too. When he talks about rapists and criminals he should look in the mirror.”
Ocasio-Cortez raised nearly $10 million last quarter — by far her largest haul since taking office, and according to a recent YouGov poll, she’s got a +61 approval rating among Democrat voters. Polls now show that Ocasio-Cortez is a frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028. Plenty of Republicans are salivating at the idea of AOC becoming the party’s leader or nominee, given her endorsements of measures that are unpopular with the general public, including the Green New Deal, defunding the police, and abolishing ICE.
To that point, California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom appears to be pushing his party to make a beeline for the middle, urging it to retreat from political correctness, oppose boys in girls&#8217; sports, and refrain from apocalyptic language about Donald Trump and his supporters. But right now, that message doesn’t seem to be gaining much traction with Democratic voters.

Pope Francis Leads Way Of The Cross On Rio’s Copacabana Beach

Morning Brief: The Pope’s Legacy, Potential Successors & The Future Of The Democratic Party

Catholic Church

Pope Francis

World

While Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has traveled around the country since late February on his “Fighting Oligarchy Tour,” his principal campaign committee has reportedly spent more than $200,000 chartering private jets in the last few months.
“Friends of Bernie Sanders, which manages the Fighting Oligarchy Tour, contracted three firms that charter jets: Cirrus Aviation Services, N-Jet, and Ventura Jets, according to the filings,” The Washington Free Beacon, which examined the campaign’s expenditures, <a href="https://freebeacon.com/politics/bernie-spent-221k-on-private-jets-while-railing-against-trump-during-fighting-oligarchy-tour/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported.</a> “Payments to those three firms accounted for nearly 75 percent of the campaign&#8217;s total transportation costs during that period. The campaign spent another $63,830 on commercial airline tickets. It also spent nearly $41,000 on lodging and $248,245 on event production.”
Sanders and his chosen favorite Rep. Alexandria  Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) “chartered a private jet worth up to a staggering $15,000 an hour for several West Coast stops on their ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour,” Fox News<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/champagne-socialists-sanders-aoc-spotted-boarding-private-jet-fighting-oligarchy-tour" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> reported</a> Thursday.
“Champagne socialists Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez demand Americans surrender their pick-up trucks, air conditioning and meat from the luxe leather seats of their private jets that cost more per hour than most Americans earn in months. Their hypocrisy is staggering,” National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) spokesperson Ben Petersen <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/champagne-socialists-sanders-aoc-spotted-154847767.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>.
In the third quarter of 2017, Sanders’ campaign spent more than $37,000 on private jet travel, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bernie-sanders-senate-campaign-spent-nearly-40g-on-private-jets-last-quarter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Federal Election Commission records. In 2014, Sanders railed against carbon emissions, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-we-need-a-carbon-tax_b_5571408" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writing</a>, “The fossil fuel industry is destroying the planet with impunity and getting rich while doing it. That must end.”
“We will not accept a rigged economy where working people struggle while billionaires become richer,&#8221; Sanders said on Tuesday. “We have got to create an economy that works for working people, not just Mr. [Elon] Musk and the billionaire class.”
In the February 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate in Nevada, Sanders <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/full-transcript-ninth-democratic-debate-las-vegas-n1139546" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declared</a>, “We are living in many ways in a socialist society right now.” He continued by attacking former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, saying, “I believe in democratic socialism for working people, not billionaires, health care for all, educational opportunities for all. Creating a government that works for all, not just for Mr. Bloomberg.”
Bloomberg fired back, “What a wonderful country we have. The best-known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses. What did I miss here?”
Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus once <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/home-depot-cofounder-bernie-sanders-is-the-enemy-of-every-entrepreneur" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> of Sanders, “Don’t bring up Bernie Sanders, because that&#8217;s a red flag in front of me. He is the enemy of every entrepreneur that&#8217;s ever going to be born in this country and has been born in the past.&#8221;

Bernie Sanders And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Hold “Fighting Oligarchy” Rally In L.A.

‘Friends Of Bernie Sanders’ Spent 200K On Jets For His ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ Tour

The internet is going hard on CNN anchor Anderson Cooper for referring to a woman who prefers “they/them” pronouns as “she.”
The incident took place during a Bernie Sanders town hall event on Wednesday. Cooper introduced Democratic activist Grace Thomas by saying, “She’s a local civil rights attorney. She’s a Democrat.”
That inspired Thomas to reply, “It’s they/them pronouns, actually,” leading Cooper to respond with, “Oh.”
Thomas followed up by asking Cooper why the Democratic party is losing so many young male voters. Social media viewers were quick to suggest that the interaction between the activist and Cooper was a prime example of what’s going on.
“The best part is that right after scolding Anderson Cooper for not calling her ‘they,’ she asks a question about why Democrats are losing men,” one person <a href="https://x.com/evitaduffy_1/status/1910349774290551073">observed</a> on X.
“Anderson Cooper just misgendered a civil rights attorney,” another response <a href="https://x.com/GuntherEagleman/status/1910150077361856554">said</a>. “They are not serious. Keep on putting the pronoun police on camera, we will win every election.”
Former U.S. college swimmer Riley Gaines, who rose to national prominence by taking a stand against men infiltrating women’s sports, reacted by saying, “Calling for Anderson Cooper&#8217;s immediate resignation for believing what his eyes were telling him he saw. Bigot.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Calling for Anderson Cooper&#39;s immediate resignation for believing what his eyes were telling him he saw 
Bigot<a href="https://t.co/GpaZML7irO">pic.twitter.com/GpaZML7irO</a>
&mdash; Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1910175582609867160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
President Donald Trump capitalized on the Democrats’ extreme stance on gender issues while campaigning ahead of the 2024 election. One of his most popular political advertisements included the line, “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you.”
While many Democrats fully support radical left-wing gender theory, the majority of American voters have taken a much more reserved approach to the issue, and are largely opposed to the most extreme suggestions, such as the idea of providing life-altering drugs and surgeries to children and allowing trans-identifying biological males to compete against women in sports, the Pew Research Center <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/02/26/americans-have-grown-more-supportive-of-restrictions-for-trans-people-in-recent-years/">found</a>. 
Some prominent Democrats are backing off the most extreme stances, including California Governor Gavin Newsom (D), who is a potential presidential candidate in 2028. Newsom <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/profoundly-sickened-everyone-slams-newsoms-attempt-to-play-both-sides-on-trans-issue">told</a> Charlie Kirk during an interview last month that men in women’s sports is “an issue of fairness” that is “easy to call out.” 
Liberals blasted Newsom for backing down on the issue, while conservatives criticized him for trying to play both sides.

Anderson Cooper

Anderson Cooper Mocked After Getting Corrected By Activist During Town Hall: ‘It’s They/Them’

Anderson Cooper Mocked After Getting Corrected By Activist During Town Hall: 'It's They/Them'

gender ideology

Gender Pronouns

As we all know, in last November’s presidential election, Donald Trump defeated what’s-her-name and left Democrats trailing Republicans in popularity by a margin of approximately everybody to nothing. Now, Democrats are trying to find a new way forward that does not involve finding a new way forward. Democrat National Committee Chairman Mao Tse Muhammed Jihad Vladimir Muhammed Allahu Akbar Stalin Jihad Mohammed recently addressed the subject in a speech entitled “How Can They Hate Us When We’re So Hep?” The Speech was delivered to the annual meeting of the Future Illegal Alien Terrorists Who Hate America of America, or the FIATWHA – and then another A. Mr. Jihad, who goes by the name of Miss Jihad and uses the pronouns He and Be, as in the sentence “He be giving me the heebee geebees,” told the gathering, “It’s time to face up to the truth. We Democrats instigated fatal riots and then pretended they weren’t happening, we opened our borders to criminals and terrorists and pretended that wasn’t happening, we sexually mutilated children in the name of a perverted fantasy, we censored anyone who disagreed with us and tried to put our political opponents in jail, and we acted with such weakness and incompetence overseas that it inspired our enemies to begin wars in both Europe and the Middle East. Now we must ask ourselves, since we’re doing everything perfectly according to plan, why the hell doesn’t the public love us like they should?”
In an attempt to refresh the party’s image, the Democrats have turned to 83-year-old Senator Bernie Sanders, a man who lived through the Communist gulags of Russia, the Communist enslavement of Eastern Europe, the Communist slaughter in China, and the Communist genocide in Cambodia without once changing his opinion that Communism works great, especially in Norway, where they don’t have it. Sanders has been declared the new face of the Democrat party and has been teamed up with Alexandria Ocasio Cortez who has been declared the new rack of the Democrat party. Asked about this arrangement, Sheldon Whitehouse, the Junior Senator from the State of Unbelievable Corruption, said “With Bernie Sanders as our new face and AOC as our new rack we will have a hideous old face with a great rack and that’s a winning combination because when you have a great rack, no one looks at your face.”
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1223-stuck-in-the-story">WATCH: The Andrew Klavan Show</a></h3>
Sanders and AOC have been traveling the country staging what they call the “Rally in Favor of a Failed Economic System that has led to Enslavement and Mass Murder Wherever it’s Been Tried but For Some Reason we still Think Is Great.”
The rallies generally open with a ringing speech from Sanders who tells the crowd, “I happen to believe that billionaires should pay their fair share of utterly useless programs that nonetheless convince poor people to vote for us even as their states and cities descend into apocalyptic dysfunction because of those same programs. I happen to believe that socialism has worked really great, especially in Norway. And I happen to believe that what I happen to believe should happen to matter to every person who happens to care what an octogenarian Communist just happens to believe. And by the way, here’s AOC and, golly, will you look at the rack on that woman.”
When Sanders finishes his speech, he turns the microphone over to AOC who says, “I’ve come here today to say completely nonsensical things in a loud shrill voice full of make-believe sincerity. All across this country, I see people left behind by capitalism for no other reason than that they don’t work or contribute to society in any way. It isn’t fair. Well, okay, it actually is kind of fair, but it isn’t right. And even if it is right, I think there are enough total wastrels who feel entitled to a portion of the wealth created by other people that we might have enough votes to turn this country around. And hey, my eyes are up here. Why aren’t you looking in my eyes?”
So far the rallies have been filled with thousands of cheering people, most of them Republicans who feel they’ll never lose an election again.
* * *
This excerpt is taken from the opening satirical monologue of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Andrew Klavan Show</a>.”
The views expressed in this satirical article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Andrew Klavan is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. Follow him on X: @andrewklavan
Klavan is the bestselling author of numerous books, including the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The fourth installment, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1613165536?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_thcv_3&amp;storeType=ebooks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A Woman Underground.</a>” His most recent nonfiction release is “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Cain-Finding-Literature-Darkness/dp/0310368340/?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_w=nMYjR&amp;content-id=amzn1.sym.bc3ba8d1-5076-4ab7-9ba8-a5c6211e002d&amp;pf_rd_p=bc3ba8d1-5076-4ab7-9ba8-a5c6211e002d&amp;pf_rd_r=133-8344803-2786917&amp;pd_rd_wg=7a8J3&amp;pd_rd_r=5791ea0f-6d96-4732-9d6a-3a4e6b348bb5&amp;ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Kingdom of Cain: Finding God in the Literature of Darkness.</a>” (May 2025, Zondervan/HarperCollins).

Senate Holds Confirmation Hearings For HHS Secretary Nominee Robert Kennedy

Democrats Turn To 83-Year-Old Communist Bernie Sanders For Image Makeover

Andrew Klavan

Humor

Islamic Jihad

Satire

Democrats have a serious problem. President Trump&#8217;s approval ratings maintain their status, hovering somewhere close to 50%, which is higher than they have been in nearly his entire political career.
His main policies are quite popular, ranging from crackdowns on illegal immigration — which is a very popular position — to his positions with regard to DOGE. Most Americans favor cutting waste, fraud, and abuse, and Democrats really don&#8217;t know how to deal with it.
The Democrats have missed governance at nearly every level of government. Meanwhile, President Trump is moving incredibly fast, making it very difficult for the Democrats to figure out what the point of differentiation is. Where do they want to put their chips? Where is the line of attack they can use against President Trump going to be?
Political commentator Matthew Continetti has put forward a rule, which I think is exactly right: If you are trying to scope out the future candidates of any party, the going rule for the last several decades has been that the successful presidential candidate first runs against his or her own party, and then runs for the presidency.
President Trump is an excellent example of this. He came in 2016. He ran against every aspect of the Republican Party. He broke the Republican Party, and then he took the presidency. Barack Obama did this in 2008. He overcame Hillary Clinton (who was considered the establishment pick), took over the party, and then won.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2164-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
There are a few angles that could be used to take over the Democratic Party. The first (and better) administrative angle would suggest that the federal government is actually good at certain things and then should get a lot of regulations out of the way so the government can build things again, like a Hoover Dam, affordable housing, or a bullet train.
One problem for Democrats is that they have a very bad record of administration, as demonstrated by places like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Detroit. That&#8217;s problem number one.
Problem number two is that most of the Democratic hard-core does not care about any of that. They care more deeply about the “moral issues” in the country, rather than caring deeply about being good at administration. They don&#8217;t understand that being a good administrator on the local or state level actually does have a moral component, because if you wish to alleviate poverty, for example, one of the best ways is to provide a stable and useful local government.
But Democrats have stopped believing that to be true, so they are left with a couple of other angles.
One is the DEI angle: that the Democratic Party stands for recentering the marginalized. This is the attempt to elevate candidates of color (see: Kamala Harris) or elevating people on the basis of sexual orientation (see: Pete Buttigieg, who is gay) to a presidential candidacy at the expense of other candidates who might be better qualified.
There&#8217;s a lot of support for that inside the Democratic Party. That is the angle they&#8217;ve been taking, and it has been failing. Democrats may double down on stupid. If they do, they&#8217;re unlikely to win back the presidency.
The Democratic establishment has failed the Democratic Party and they know it, which is why Chuck Schumer is under serious fire right now.
So, what are Democrats left with?
The Bernie-Sanders’ wing.
He’s too old. He&#8217;s not going to be the guy. Nevertheless, the Bernie-Sanders’ energy is the insurgent energy inside the Democratic Party — energy that is full-scale class warfare. DEI has been played out. So, they are reverting to the original Marxism from race or sex Marxism.
This is the direction of the Democratic Party. This is where the energy is.
And this is exactly what the Trump administration should be concerned about. The Trump administration has to be exceptionally good at what it does. If they fail, the next thing up on the Democratic side of the aisle is Sanders and whomever he (an 83-year-old lifelong, useless leech on the rear of society) taps on the shoulder.
It is not a coincidence that Sanders is tapping Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — who is appearing with him at rallies — on the shoulder. Sanders is abandoning certain issues that are tent-pole Democrat issues right now and focusing on pure class warfare.
Sanders is running around because he knows that he&#8217;s being asked to create a war inside the party. What he actually wants is for AOC to run for president.
 Meanwhile, she is positioning herself against an establishment Democratic Party that is unwilling to face up to the challenges of President Trump, which is smart.
The goal right now for Democrats is very simple: to steer into full-scale class warfare.
There&#8217;s a reason they keep using the word “oligarchy.” What they&#8217;re attempting to do is craft a narrative about a group of people at the top of government, in private industry and the public sector, working together to corrupt the system.
The typical comeback to that from the conservative side of the aisle is, “If the economy is booming, what are you complaining about?”
But the reason the class warfare argument is clever is because of the way that people tend to filter politics. We talk about politics every day on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-ben-shapiro-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">my show</a>, and if you listen to the show, you&#8217;re a member of a tiny group in the American public who watch politics at a fairly granular level. You know the players and the general arguments.
But the vast majority of  people in the United States have a picture of politics that is significantly less granular.
Georges Seurat was a famous Impressionist painter. He created paintings by using thousands of dots. People who watch politics closely are like people who view a Seurat painting up close and see every single dot, every pixel.
But if you draw back from a Seurat painting, you see the painting is a picture of something. Most people wander into a room with a Seurat painting, observe the painting as people who are walking by a river, and then walk out of the room. They do not analyze a granular view.
So Democrats are counting on people seeing a picture of President Trump at the inauguration, flanked by Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, Neal Mohan, and all the other tech CEOs in a room together, with a bird’s-eye view — not a granular view.
What the Democrats are banking on is a close coordination between private industry and the president — and then for the economy to fail.
And if there&#8217;s an economic fall, AOC is right there, and so is Bernie.
Let&#8217;s be clear about what the threat level is: It is serious. This is why the economy must succeed.
The greatest danger to the Trump administration is an economic downturn. Anything else can be overcome. An economic downturn gets attributed to the president who is the president when it happens, whether or not he deserves it. That&#8217;s just the way it works.
Therefore, that is the great danger.
This White House being very friendly toward business is great. That is wonderful. But every image showing how friendly this White House is toward business becomes a weapon in the arsenal of people like AOC, who doesn&#8217;t understand business, doesn&#8217;t understand economics, truly hates the rich, and thinks there&#8217;s an immoral quality that adheres to you as you gain wealth and makes you immoral and bad.
That’s a Marxist sentiment that makes no sense on a moral level. Pretty much everyone I know who was at one point not rich and then became rich is the same person they always were.
I know many people who are wonderful and are not rich. I know many people who are wonderful and are rich. I know many people who are awful and are rich. I know many people who are awful and are not rich.
Wealth does not define character.
But for people like Sanders and AOC, there&#8217;s a flattering view they can present to the vast majority of Americans, which is that if you are rich, it&#8217;s because you suckered someone and did something wrong or corrupt; further, they contend that participating in the capitalist system makes you morally inferior in some way.
That’s why Sanders will say billionaires should not exist. He doesn&#8217;t just mean we should redistribute wealth. He means there is something immoral in being a billionaire.
But people tend to judge politics that way: walking through the room, looking once at the painting, and walking out.
If they observe the White House as being close to various industrial capitalists and tech bros who are and have been successful, and then the economy sinks, all will be tied to the sinking ship.
Which is why it is imperative that the Trump administration not let the economic ship sink.

Menu