Sen. Bernie Sanders Tuesday joined the call for President Donald Trump to ask for Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta's resignation for his handling of billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's 2008 plea deal.
"What I think that verdict and the treatment of Mr. Epstein indicates is the ugly two-tier criminal justice system we have in America," the Vermont independent and Democratic presidential candidate told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell. "If you're a billionaire charged with sex trafficking with young girls, you do your time, short time in jail and you get off to go to work. Virtually no punishment at all."
A working class person or a person of color would be in a far different situation, said Sanders.
"It's not just Mr. Epstein, it's how we dealt with the Wall Street bailout. Wall Street firms were billed billions, and somehow or another, it ended up no CEO went to jail for their crimes which destroyed the American economy."
As far as Acosta is concerned, Trump should ask him to resign, said Sanders, but beyond that, he does not agree with Trump on Acosta's job performance.
"If you're a great Secretary of Labor, you'll be supporting my legislation and other legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour," said Sanders. "You'll be supporting efforts for working people to have universal healthcare so everybody in this country, every working person in this country can go to a doctor when he or she is sick."
Meanwhile, billionaire Tom Steyer has entered the Democratic race, and Sanders said he likes him personally and considers him a friend, but he's also "a bit tired of seeing billionaires trying to buy political power."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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