Two of the biggest progressive climate justice champions in Congress have been busted for flying around on a gas-guzzling private jet. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and self-proclaimed Democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., were filmed by Fox News boarding a private, $15,000 per hour private jet to travel to events on their ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour.

The plane itself carries a hefty price tag as well, with models ranging from $5 million to $7 million. According to the report, Sanders and AOC boarded the luxurious Bombardier Challenger jet in California on Tuesday afternoon after speaking at a tour stop in Bakersfield.

But their use of a private jet directly contradicts comments they have made in the past disparaging unnecessary polluting practices. ‘How many private jets do these CEOs need?’ AOC said in 2023 when decrying Warner Brothers Discovery CEO David Zaslav as union strikes roiled the film industry. ‘It is insatiable. It is unacceptable. I do not know how any person can say I need another $100 million before another person can have health care,’ Ocasio-Cortez, 35, said at the time.

In March, AOC decried how Republicans ‘aren’t cutting tax cuts for private jets. You got to love the hypocrisy of the left!’ one X user, Wayne Dunlap, posted about the progressives’ travel. ‘Bernie is paid by his Billionaire donors to ‘Fight Oligarchy’ one private jet trip at a time.’

Another X user wrote: ‘Funny how those preaching fairness enjoy private jets. Real change comes from policies that empower hard-working Americans, not hypocritical virtue signaling.’ Journalist Kyle Becker posted: ‘Noted ‘green’ activist AOC jumps off a private plane on Earth day. What happened to saving the earth?’

Conservative commentator Liz Churchill reacted: ‘Communists proving once again that Climate Change is a Hoax as we see Bernie Sanders and AOC step off a Private Plane.’ While he has not been particularly outspoken against private jets, 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. Still, Sanders famously jetted around on a private aircraft during his 2020 campaign, totaling in excess of $1.9 million.

According to a 2021 Transport and Environment report, private aircraft pollute 14 times more than commercial planes. It found that just one percent of people make up 50 percent of global aviation emissions. 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. AOC, however, was also spotted last month traveling to a tour event on a commercial flight. She flew first-class on JetBlue from New York to Las Vegas before speaking to a massive crowd in Sin City, the New York Post reported. Neither the offices of Ocasio-Cortez nor Sanders returned DailyMail.com’s request for comment.

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