Bernie Sanders offered a bizarre defense for using private jets while traveling the country to speak on his ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour, during which he slammed billionaires.

The democratic socialist and environmental campaigner said he should not be expected to ‘wait in line’ for commercial flights.

Sanders, 83, a longtime Vermont senator and two-time presidential candidate, said he made ‘no apologies’ for the trips.

He told Fox News that ‘you run a campaign, and you do three or four or five rallies in a week, the only way you can go around to talk to 30,000 people,’ is by private jet.

‘You think I’m going to be sitting on a waiting line at United while, what, 30,000 people are waiting around?’ Sanders said. ‘It’s the only way you can get around. No apologies for that.’ 

Last month, Sanders was spotted along with fellow progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez jet setting from stop to stop aboard a cushy Bombardier Challenger jet that reportedly costs $15,000 per hour to operate. 

The jet itself comes with a price tag ranging from $5 million to $7 million. During his 2020 presidential campaign, Sanders splashed out nearly $2 million on private flights. 

In another defense of his jet use Sanders argued: ‘When’s the time you saw Donald Trump during campaign mode at [Washington] National Airport?’

Fox host Brett Baier quickly shot back: ‘But he’s also not fighting the oligarchy.’ 

Already this fiscal year, Sanders has spent nearly a quarter million dollars on private jet travel, according to Federal Election Commission filings. 

The disclosures reveal that Sanders’ campaign fund, Friends of Bernie Sanders, has spent upwards of $221,000 in the first quarter of 2025.   

Despite his gas-guzzling jet usage, Sanders has loudly championed environmental causes like ‘The Green New Deal.’ 

The initiative, which failed to gather enough support in Congress, sought to reform carbon emissions and fossil fuel manufacturing.

‘Climate change is the single greatest threat facing our planet,’ Sanders posted on X in 2016.  

Private jet use is by far the most polluting way to fly.

Nine years later Sanders told Fox News: ‘At a time when the people on top are doing phenomenally well, when seniors, working class people are struggling, people want to hear action to stand up to the people who have the wealth and the power. 

‘That’s what campaign travel is about. We’ve done it in the past. We’re gonna do it in the future.’

However, it is unclear what office Sanders is campaigning for, though he has filed the necessary paperwork to run again in 2030, when he will be 89-years-old.

The self-proclaimed Democratic socialist has also teased that his current term in the Senate, which he just won reelection to in November, could be his last.

Though Sanders’ political campaigning days seem to be waning, the oligarchy tour has served as a profile raising pedestal for fellow progressive Ocasio-Cortez. 

AOC, the 35-year-old leader of the progressive ‘Squad’, has enjoyed a measurable boost in support as the tour has brought the Queens native to Colorado, Arizona and beyond. 

Polling that’s come amid the tour shows she could prove a formidable challenger to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, though that race wouldn’t come for years.

AOC, for her part, appears to prefer commercial travel. 

She flew first-class on JetBlue from New York to Las Vegas before speaking to a massive crowd in Sin City on the oligarchy tour, the New York Post reported.