Sen. Bernie Sanders blasts former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg for acquiring a “grotesque” amount of money at Wednesday’s MSNBC debate.
CHUCK TODD, NBC NEWS: What did you mean when you said [billionaires] should not exist?
BERNIE SANDERS: We have a grotesque and immoral distribution of wealth and income. Mike Bloomberg owns more wealth than the bottom 125 million Americans. That’s wrong. That’s immoral. That should not be the case when we have half a million people sleeping out on the streets. When we have kids who cannot afford to go to college. When we have 45 million people dealing with student debt. We have enormous problems facing this country and we cannot continue seeing a situation where in the last three years, billionaires in this country saw an $850 billion increase in their wealth.
Congratulations, Mr. Bloomberg. But the average American saw less than a 1% increase in his or her income. That’s wrong.
CHUCK TODD: Mayor Bloomberg, should you exist?
MIKE BLOOMBERG: I can’t speak for all billionaires. I know I’ve been very lucky. I’ve made a lot of money and I’m giving it all away to make this country better. And a good clunk goes to the Democratic Party as well.
CHUCK TODD: Is it too much? has it been an — should you have earned that much money?
MIKE BLOOMBERG: Yes. I worked very hard for it. and I’ll be giving it away.
