Bernie Sanders Takes His ‘Donor Class’ Fight to the Next Level

Bernie Sanders, the famously self-declared “democratic socialist” senator from Vermont, has taken his war on establishment Democrats to the next level. Last month, Rahm Emanuel picked a fight with the Green Mountain State independent, claiming the “Bernie bros” were destroying the Democratic Party. But Sanders quickly fired back and lambasted Emanual and others for their reliance on billionaire donors. Who’s right? Maybe both! Either way, though, Sanders is now fighting for a ban on super PACs in Democratic Party primaries – and if he succeeds, incumbent lawmakers and establishment candidates nationwide will, to quote the 2016 campaign slogan, “Feel the Bern.”

Bernie Sanders Goes to War

“It is insane that the Democrats allow super PACs like AIPAC to spend millions in their primaries – only for those same special interests to help elect Republicans in the general election,” Sanders posted on X Sunday afternoon. “My message to Democratic leaders: Ban super PACs from Democratic primaries NOW.”

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He attached a letter, dated August 8 and addressed to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin.

“As you know, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, also known as AIPAC, recently spent more than $30 million in the Michigan Democratic primary to try to defeat Dr. Abdul El-Sayed,” he explained in the letter. “It is now being reported that AIPAC plans to spend tens of millions more to support Republican Mike Rogers in the general election.”

He goes on to say that super PACs in general have already spent a record $517 million in this election cycle and argues that the Democratic Party must act now to prohibit super PACs from participating in its primaries.

Feeling the Bern

Now, at this point, it must be pointed out that Bernie Sanders himself has benefited from super PAC money over the years. Such funding is a matter of public record, and it’s known that several smaller super PACs have contributed millions to his campaigns over the years. But let’s not forget that Bernie also received $219 million in 2016 and $211 million in 2020 during his presidential campaigns from “small donations” through ActBlue.

Now, here’s the problem with ActBlue: It’s actively under investigation even now by multiple government entities, including congressional committees and the DOJ. For what? Why, fraud, of course. ActBlue stands accused of spoofing and smurfing, which is to say, taking donations in fabricated or stolen names and breaking up illegally large contributions into smaller, “legal-sized” ones. To make matters worse, much of this money was believed to be laundered contributions from foreign actors including Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and China.

So, Sen. Sanders’ own war chest may not be quite as clean as he’d like America to think. Add to that the fact that the socialist senator is a millionaire himself, whose net worth comes from years of tax-funded salary and the sales from books that were only successful because of his political career, and it does give the situation something of a pot calling the kettle black feel.

But that doesn’t change the fact that outside special interest groups are funneling millions into candidates, then backing the opposing party when their candidates lose the primaries. One could even surmise that, at least in some cases this could be a sinister plot to sabotage the party. But Bernie’s ban would block all super PACs, not just the ones that appear to turn coat. And that would cost the party’s leadership a lot of money. Chuck Schumer has already benefited to the tune of $160 million from the Senate Majority PAC in the 2026 cycle alone. The House Majority PAC shelled out more than $46 million to run ads for House Democrats, including Hakeem Jeffries.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris blew those numbers out of the water, though, of course. Future Forward USA Action brought them $613 million in a single year of the 2024 cycle, and when Biden stepped back and Harris stepped up, it unfroze another $150 million within 24 hours to solidify her position.

Rahm Emanuel may not have realized he was playing with fire when he targeted Bernie Sanders last month. Now, in true socialist form, Bernie is trying to “redistribute” – and in the unlikely event he succeeds, it’s the whole Democratic establishment that will “Feel the Bern.”