Joe Rogan, Bernie Sanders spar over big money in politics after Sanders complains about Musk’s spending

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., tried to slam Elon Musk over the $270 million he spent to help get President Donald Trump elected during an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Tuesday, but Rogan quickly shot back with the large sums donated to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ doomed campaign.

Sanders sparred with Rogan over political donations during a discussion of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. The ruling found that political donations were a form of speech, and therefore could not be limited under the First Amendment. Sanders slammed Citizens United as “maybe the worst decision that the Supreme Court has ever made.”

“What is says is you’re a billionaire, you now have the constitutional right because your money is your freedom of expression,” Sanders said. “The result of that decision, let’s take us to where we are today, Elon Musk… he spent $270 million to elect Donald Trump. I think that’s absurd.”

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Rogan then asked what the largest donation to the Harris campaign was. Sanders didn’t give a sum but said the campaign spent “a lot of money.”

“They spent $1.5 billion just in the course of a couple months,” Rogan said. 

The Harris campaign raised $1.5 billion during her 15-week-long campaign, and exited the race $20 million in debt. The Tesla CEO formally endorsed Trump after he survived his assassination attempt at his Butler Pennsylvania rally. 

Musk then jumped into the race head first, pouring $240 million into a pro-Trump Super PAC called America Pac. He also handed out $1 million checks at rallies he hosted to audience members who signed a petition endorsed by his PAC, as well as spending millions on other pro-Trump efforts. Sanders claimed that as a reward, Musk became the “most powerful person in government” when Trump took office.

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The SpaceX founder ran the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), whose mission was to cut “waste, fraud and abuse” from the federal government. During his brief tenure at the agency, DOGE made headlines for effectively shuttering USAID, as well as many other high-profile cuts to federal spending.

Sanders, a long-time outspoken opponent of big money in politics, went on to state that both parties rely on billionaire donors, and he doesn’t limit his criticisms to Republicans and Musk. 

“You’re not going to hear me defending [the] Democratic Party on this issue… During the election it wasn’t just Musk and the Republicans putting a lot of money into Trump, it was Democratic billionaires putting money into Kamala and other candidates as well,” Sanders said.