In a recent discussion with Glenn Beck, bestselling author and investigative journalist Peter Schweizer described democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) successful, decades-long attempt to turn socialism “into a profession” that has ultimately “generated a lot of money” for his family.
Sanders, Beck said on his show Friday, is “the model” every politician “in every corrupt communist country” is seeking to emulate. “Here’s a guy who’s only worked in public service, or as a ‘public servant’ … and yet he’s a millionaire that owns three different houses.”
“He was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont at age 39,” said Schweizer, whose new book, “Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America’s Political Elite,” includes a section on Sanders. “Up until that point, he’d never actually held a steady job for very long. Some of his friends at the time recount when he was in his 20s and 30s, he sort of dismissed regular jobs as ‘moron jobs.’ And he was not going to take a moron job. When he ran for the U.S. Senate in the 1970s, he ran twice, he actually collected unemployment insurance.”
After having a laugh at Sanders’ disdain for the private sector and willingness to milk the public, Schweizer got to the more serious allegations.
“When he gets elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont, one of the first things he does … he puts Jane — his girlfriend, later his wife — on the city payroll,” Schweizer told Beck. The action prompted protestations from the city counsel, who were mostly Democrats, who complained that he wasn’t even giving her an existing job and didn’t take applications for the position, said Schweizer, but “Bernie just kind of blew them off, and they accepted it. And that began this pattern of him using taxpayer money or campaign money and steering it to his family members.”
That “pattern,” Schweizer said, played out in Sanders’ decision when he ran for national office that he would appoint his wife to be his media buyer for his campaigns. “Media buying is one of those dirty little secrets in D.C. that a lot of people don’t know about,” Schweizer explained, “but it’s highly lucrative and you can steer money to people without anybody knowing it.”
A media buyer, he noted, often receives between a 10 to 15 percent commission on all media campaigns, according to industry standards, without having to disclose it with the Federal Elections Commission. A million-dollar ad campaign would net a media buyer $100,000 to $150,000, Schweizer noted as an example.
“So what does Bernie Sanders do? He says I’m going to make my wife my media buyer,” said Schweizer. “So she gets the commissions, it’s not recorded anywhere — never mind that Jane had no background in being a media buyer.”
Schweizer then said that his research had found that Sanders appeared to withhold his endorsement from other candidates until they agreed to use Jane as their media buyer, thus directing more money her way. “This has become a mechanism for wealth for Bernie Sanders,” said Schweizer.
“And then you have the whole mystery about the 2016 presidential campaign, where $83 million in media buyers goes through this company called Old Towne Media that doesn’t have a website, doesn’t have other clients, it doesn’t have an office, it’s registered to a home in suburban Virginia, that’s run by Jane’s two friends that she worked with back in the day,” said Schweizer. When Jane was asked about it by a progressive reporter in Vermont, said Schweizer, she reportedly “hung up the phone.” How much money they made, he said, is still unclear.
“It’s a major problem for Bernie Sanders,” Schweizer said. “He’s turned socialism into a profession that has generated a lot of money to his family.”
“Isn’t that what happens?” Glenn responded. “Everybody in charge of a socialist country, they walk away with billions, in some cases, and the people are left starving.”
“It is a racket for Bernie Sanders,” said Schweizer. “And the sort of austere image that he presents — he’s kind of the John the Baptist of the progressive movement — is simply not true.”
Schweizer went on to point out that, while he slams big business and capitalism, Sanders has a financial portfolio that’s “quite sizable” and suggests an ideological hypocrisy. While he’s seen by the Left as the “authentic guy,” said Schweizer, he encouraged people not to listen to what he’s telling people but to look at what he’s actually doing.
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