by Nicole Silverio
Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent turned the tables on independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at his Thursday confirmation hearing by pointing out that President Joe Biden awarded “oligarchs” with the highest honor.
Sanders cited President Joe Biden’s statement made in his Wednesday farewell address that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence,” and questioned the nominee on whether he agrees that tech moguls Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos have overarching influence on the country. Bessent argued that Biden recently awarded to Democratic mega donor George Soros and The Carlyle Group co-chairman David Rubenstein, who he referred to as the president’s “oligarchs.”
“When you have a small number of multi-billionaires who have enormous economic, media and political power, would you agree with President Biden who last night stated and I quote, ‘an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms.’ That’s what President Biden said last night. I agree with him, do you?”
“Look, the three billionaires who you listed, they all made the money themselves. Mr. Musk came to the country as an immigrant,” Bessent said.
Sanders said to forget how they made their money and suggested that a limited amount of people having significant political power creates an “oligarchic form of society.”
“Well, I would note that President Biden gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to two people who I think would qualify for his oligarchs,” Bessent answered, prompting Sanders to almost immediately move onto another question.
Biden gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to a total of 19 participants, which included former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and former Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney. The White House honored Soros and Rubenstein as being “renowned for [their] philanthropy and generous support” for restoring historic landmarks and “cultural institutions.”
Soros has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into his organization, the Open Society Foundations, and other groups to elect soft-on-crime district attorneys and judges. Political action committees linked to the billionaire spend large sums of money to fund left-wing candidates in virtually every state throughout the U.S.
Rubenstein, the co-founder and chairman of The Carlyle Group, has an estimated net worth of $4 billion and has been one of Washington, D.C.’s, most influential philanthropists by serving as a chair and giving millions to the Smithsonian, the National Archives and other institutions throughout the district.
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Nicole Silverio is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
