Bernie Sanders refuses to back down from Wall Street comment like a Super Bowl quarterback
Chuck Todd tried to coerce Bernie Sanders into taking back his attack on Wall Street using a tactic of harm to middle-class & unions. Sanders did not bite. Todd pointed out to Bernie Sanders that much of their pensions are invested with Wall Street.”
“Let me move on to something else you said from the debate,” Chuck Todd said. “It was a tough charge. And you yourself said this was going to be a tough charge when you said it. ‘The business model of Wall Street is fraud.’ Boy, that was a broad brush. And I was thinking about the fact that there is a lot of union pension funds that are invested in Wall Street, thirty percent in many of them. … a lot of 401Ks, a lot of retirements is based on retirements on Wall Street. It seems to me if you believe it is a fraud, you would not like to see money invested in something based on a fraud.”
Bernie Sanders responded as most would expected him to respond. He is that old Super Bowl quarterback that is engineering a message to carve through a strong but flawed defense.
“Look Chuck, what I said I believe to be true,” Bernie Sanders responded. “A few weeks ago as you know, Goldman Sachs reached a settlement with the United States government for $5 billion. … Why? And the answer is obviously they were defrauding investors in terms of selling sub-prime mortgage packages that were worthless. That’s my definition of fraud. And other major banks also have paid huge settlement fines to the federal government. And what really burns the American people is after paying $5 billion in a settlement agreement, none of these people, none of these executives on Wall Street get charge with anything. Kid’s gets caught with marijuana, gets a police record. Fraudulent activity on Wall Street destroys the economy, no police record for any executive. So do I believe that the business model of Wall Street is fraud? I think the answer is obviously is of course it is.”
Bernie Sanders need to keep pushing that message. Wall Street and the stock market system as we have it today is no more than legalized gambling with substantial fraud. It has nothing to do with free enterprise or democracy. It has taken over the American economy. Americans when educated to Wall Street’s fraudulent and extractive machinations and when emboldened to assert their worth will elect those who will apply the necessary regulation to cripple the fraud.