CNN Anchor Mocks Bernie Sanders For Private Jet On Anti-Trump Tour: ‘Can You Fight The Billionaires From Coach?’

CNN anchor Abby Phillip roasted Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for his indignant response when Fox News anchor Bret Baier challenged him over his use of a private jet on his anti-Trump “fighting Oligarchy” tour.”

On this week’s edition of CNN Saturday Morning Table for Five, Phillip was joined by Chuck Todd, Ashley Allison, Josh Rogin, and Melik Abdul.

Phillip devoted an entire segment to mocking Sanders over his answer, introducing the discussion by asking that eternal question “Can you fight the billionaires from coach?”:

PHILLIP: Can you fight the billionaires from coach? The answer is apparently no from Bernie Sanders, who’s getting heat for flying private jets to and from his Fighting the Oligarchs rally with AOC. Check out this explanation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I-VT): When’s the last time you saw Donald Trump during a campaign mode at national airport?

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: No, no, no, it doesn’t. But he’s also not fighting the oligarchy.

SANDERS: No. You run a campaign and you do three or four or five rallies in a week. The only way you can get around to talk to 30,000 people.

You think I’m going to be sitting on a waiting line at United waiting while 30,000 people are waiting? That’s the only way you can get around. No apologies for that. That’s what campaign travel is about. We’ve done it in the past. We’re going to do it in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: According to the FEC, the Sanders campaign committee has spent more than $200,000 on his private jets just in the last quarter. That is actually quite a lot of money. I have to say this, my very first story out of Washington for “Politico” was about a politician, Chuck Schumer, flying on private jets, and I am here today to tell the tale. But which is not saying a lot for politicians. I mean, Chuck, tell me what the moment was in that answer that you thought, oh, this is going wrong.

TODD: The United thing, you know, because, we all like —

(LAUGHTER)

TODD: You’re a man of the people. How dare I have to be with the people, right? That’s what — look, it’s a cheap question. It’s a smart-alecky question. So it wasn’t a serious question. It was kind of trolling. But his answer was terrible. Like, you can’t defend this answer. Hey, buddy, we all have to stand in line. We all have to do this. Even if you have one k privileges, you’re still standing in line. You still have to do this. You’ve got to go through security.

PHILLIP: It definitely came across as like, I’m not going to stand in this line with peons.

ABDUL: Did you hear him? He mentioned Trump. Well, I’ll remind him Donald Trump, doesn’t own his plane. That is much different than Bernie Sanders going around on the plane. I think that this is something very, you know, Donald Trump — and the point was right that Bret made is that he fights against the oligarchy and the rich. He wants to tax all of the rich. And a similar thing to even Bill Gates, who also flies around on his private plane. And he has these concerns about the environment. I think many people look at this and say, well, you’re a hypocrite.

And I’ll say to everybody at home, whether it’s a president, whether it’s Bernie, vice president, any politician will love to ride on a private plane, and they will probably do it until they can’t stop doing it.

ROGIN: No one has asked the question, what’s the carbon footprint of this private jet?

PHILLIP: I mean, private jets have a very bad —

ABDUL: Democrats as a party, they have those —

PHILLIP: I don’t think — I mean, I don’t think he’s wrong, though, that yes. I mean, he’s campaigning, right? He’s going from rally to rally. I’ve covered a lot of campaigns, everybody flies private, including the press, because you cannot make those stops commercial. But it was how the answer came out that I think made it an issue.

ALLISON: This is what I have said a long time, is that I don’t actually have a problem with people being billionaires. It’s the type of billionaire you are. I don’t have — I want to like, that’s the American dream to start out in middle class and go up the economic ladder. I think when you’re saying like there should be no billionaires. Well, billionaires fly on private jets. That is where the — I understand what he was saying is like, it’s a means to an end because he has to get a lot of places. But the whole story arc is like, either you fly like, what, coach, or make a —

PHILLIP: Schedule that allows —

ALLISON: Allows you to fly and don’t hit as many places at once, or don’t knock the billionaires.

TODD: I could argue the symbolism of going through. I’m old enough to remember John McCain grabbing his suitcase on his own, going and proving, hey, I’m not wasting money.

Watch above via CNN Saturday Morning Table for Five.