Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is pushing back against the looting claims with a bold claim of his own, criticizing the “richest 400 Americans.”
Sanders took to Twitter on Sunday night with an overview of America’s wealthiest citizens in comparison to the size of the United Kingdom’s entire economy.
The former presidential candidate went on to address the criticism of looting as he suggested the government is responsible for allowing a different form of looting as a result of billionaires’ tax rates being significantly lower than “people living paycheck to paycheck.”
“The richest 400 Americans sit on $3 trillion—the size of the entire UK economy,” Sanders tweeted. “The billionaire class now pays a lower tax rate than people living paycheck to paycheck. The looting of America has been going on for over 40 years—and the culprits are the ultra-rich.”
The richest 400 Americans sit on $3 trillion—the size of the entire UK economy.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 1, 2020
The billionaire class now pays a lower tax rate than people living paycheck to paycheck.
The looting of America has been going on for over 40 years—and the culprits are the ultra-rich.
Sanders’ remarks come as protests, rioting, and looting continue in various cities across the United States.
While rioting appears to have quelled in Minneapolis, Minnesota, it has not in other areas of the country. Atlanta, New York City, Louisville, and multiple cities in California are facing looting and vandalism.
During a call with governors on Monday morning, Trump labeled them as “weak” as he insisted domination would be the way to stop looting and rioting.
“Most of you are weak,” Trump said. “You have to arrest people.”
“You have to dominate, if you don’t dominate you’re wasting your time,” the president said, according to an unnamed senior staffer listening to the call in a governor’s office. “They’re going to run over you, you’re going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate.”
The president also alluded to this belief during his remarks made in the Rose Garden.
On Monday evening, President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would allow him to deploy military troops in the United States to quell the violence, as previously reported on IJR.
While the president sees this action as a way to “dominate” the streets of America, many have argued that the executive order would do the exact opposite.
“The president seems to think that dominating Black people, dominating peaceful protesters, is law and order. It’s not,” Anderson Cooper said on CNN.
“What the president doesn’t seem to know or care is that the vast majority of those protesting, they, too, are calling for law and order,” Cooper said.
He added, “A Black man killed with four officers holding him down, a knee to the neck for more than eight minutes, nearly three of which he was no longer conscious for. That’s not law and order; that’s murder.”
