SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman speaks during the Business Roundtable CEO Innovation Summit in Washington, D.C. on December 6, 2018. (Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
Calls for Trump-Supporting Billionaire Schwarzman to Apologize for Saying "Maybe Bernie Sanders Shouldn't Exist"
"Maybe Steve Schwarzman should apologize for making such a disgusting comment," said Sanders speechwriter David Sirota.
Oct 02, 2019
Following news Wednesday that Sen. Bernie Sanders underwent heart procedure to treat an artery blockage, Sanders speechwriter David Sirota demanded that billionaire financier Steve Schwarzman apologize for his comment Tuesday evening that "maybe Bernie Sanders shouldn't exist."
"Maybe Steve Schwarzman should apologize for making such a disgusting comment," Sirota tweeted Wednesday.
"I'm not going anywhere. But billionaires can be damn sure they'll pay their fair share when I am president."
--Sen. Bernie Sanders
Schwarzman's remark came during an event promoting his book at the New York Public Library Tuesday night. The financier and adviser to President Donald Trump was asked to respond to Sanders's recent comment that billionaires, as a class, should not exist.
"I don't think that billionaires should exist," Sanders, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, told the New York Times last month in an interview on his wealth tax plan. "This proposal does not eliminate billionaires, but it eliminates a lot of the wealth that billionaires have, and I think that's exactly what we should be doing."
Sanders hit back at Schwarzman on Twitter Tuesday after the billionaire's comments surfaced online.
"I'm not going anywhere," tweeted Sanders. "But billionaires can be damn sure they'll pay their fair share when I am president."
\u201cI\u2019m not going anywhere. But billionaires can be damn sure they\u2019ll pay their fair share when I am president.\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1569977413
Warren Gunnels, a senior adviser to Sanders, estimated Schwarzman would pay over a billion dollars more in taxes under the Vermont senator's wealth tax proposal.
"Schwarzman is worth $17 billion," Gunnels tweeted. "He would pay over $1.1 billion more in taxes under Bernie's plan to tax the extreme wealth of the top 0.1 percent. Schwarzman also compared Obama to Hitler when he tried to close the carried interest loophole. Disgusting."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Following news Wednesday that Sen. Bernie Sanders underwent heart procedure to treat an artery blockage, Sanders speechwriter David Sirota demanded that billionaire financier Steve Schwarzman apologize for his comment Tuesday evening that "maybe Bernie Sanders shouldn't exist."
"Maybe Steve Schwarzman should apologize for making such a disgusting comment," Sirota tweeted Wednesday.
"I'm not going anywhere. But billionaires can be damn sure they'll pay their fair share when I am president."
--Sen. Bernie Sanders
Schwarzman's remark came during an event promoting his book at the New York Public Library Tuesday night. The financier and adviser to President Donald Trump was asked to respond to Sanders's recent comment that billionaires, as a class, should not exist.
"I don't think that billionaires should exist," Sanders, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, told the New York Times last month in an interview on his wealth tax plan. "This proposal does not eliminate billionaires, but it eliminates a lot of the wealth that billionaires have, and I think that's exactly what we should be doing."
Sanders hit back at Schwarzman on Twitter Tuesday after the billionaire's comments surfaced online.
"I'm not going anywhere," tweeted Sanders. "But billionaires can be damn sure they'll pay their fair share when I am president."
\u201cI\u2019m not going anywhere. But billionaires can be damn sure they\u2019ll pay their fair share when I am president.\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1569977413
Warren Gunnels, a senior adviser to Sanders, estimated Schwarzman would pay over a billion dollars more in taxes under the Vermont senator's wealth tax proposal.
"Schwarzman is worth $17 billion," Gunnels tweeted. "He would pay over $1.1 billion more in taxes under Bernie's plan to tax the extreme wealth of the top 0.1 percent. Schwarzman also compared Obama to Hitler when he tried to close the carried interest loophole. Disgusting."
Following news Wednesday that Sen. Bernie Sanders underwent heart procedure to treat an artery blockage, Sanders speechwriter David Sirota demanded that billionaire financier Steve Schwarzman apologize for his comment Tuesday evening that "maybe Bernie Sanders shouldn't exist."
"Maybe Steve Schwarzman should apologize for making such a disgusting comment," Sirota tweeted Wednesday.
"I'm not going anywhere. But billionaires can be damn sure they'll pay their fair share when I am president."
--Sen. Bernie Sanders
Schwarzman's remark came during an event promoting his book at the New York Public Library Tuesday night. The financier and adviser to President Donald Trump was asked to respond to Sanders's recent comment that billionaires, as a class, should not exist.
"I don't think that billionaires should exist," Sanders, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, told the New York Times last month in an interview on his wealth tax plan. "This proposal does not eliminate billionaires, but it eliminates a lot of the wealth that billionaires have, and I think that's exactly what we should be doing."
Sanders hit back at Schwarzman on Twitter Tuesday after the billionaire's comments surfaced online.
"I'm not going anywhere," tweeted Sanders. "But billionaires can be damn sure they'll pay their fair share when I am president."
\u201cI\u2019m not going anywhere. But billionaires can be damn sure they\u2019ll pay their fair share when I am president.\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1569977413
Warren Gunnels, a senior adviser to Sanders, estimated Schwarzman would pay over a billion dollars more in taxes under the Vermont senator's wealth tax proposal.
"Schwarzman is worth $17 billion," Gunnels tweeted. "He would pay over $1.1 billion more in taxes under Bernie's plan to tax the extreme wealth of the top 0.1 percent. Schwarzman also compared Obama to Hitler when he tried to close the carried interest loophole. Disgusting."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.