CBS host Charlie Rose called out Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) on Friday for going into talking points about the "billionaire class," telling the lawmaker "you've said that before, many times."
Rose effectively teed Sanders up over President Trump's tax cut proposal, quoting the New York Times as saying the plan would shift trillions to the wealthiest Americans. The plan calls for sweeping rate cuts to individuals and corporations.
"Can that get through Congress?" Rose asked.
Sanders said the Republican leadership in Congress was doing the business of the billionaire Koch brothers. Sanders then began going into campaign-style rhetoric about the "billionaire class" he often rails against.
"I think at a time when the top one-tenth of one percent now owns as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, when so many of our people are hurting, when the middle class is shrinking, the idea that you cut programs that people desperately need to give tax breaks to the billionaire class is totally insane," he said.
Rose cut in.
"Senator, you've said that before, many times, even during the campaign," Rose said. "So what can you do about it in this Senate, in this Congress?"
"Well, we can rally the American people to say that when you had a president who campaigns on supposedly behalf of the working class of this country, that he's being totally hypocritical and dishonest," Sanders said. "Giving tax breaks to billionaires is not standing up for the working class of this country."
Sanders' populist campaign for president in 2016 made him a progressive star. He frequently invoked wealth inequality as one of the biggest problems facing American society during what turned out to be a strong bid for the 2016 Democratic nomination.