Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was confronted during an appearance on the CBS Sunday show “Face The Nation” about selling $95 tickets to events promoting his anti-capitalism book.
The senator was grilled by host Margaret Brennan about the book tour and its cost.
The book is ironically titled “It’s Okay to Be Angry About Capitalism.”
“Tickets for your [book] tour apparently are selling for $95 on Ticketmaster, which is accused of anti-competitive behavior…aren’t you benefitting yourself from the system that you’re trying to dismantle?”
Bernie Sanders says “no.” 🤔 pic.twitter.com/JIcpW0kaw5
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 19, 2023
“Tickets for your tour apparently are selling for $95 on Ticketmaster, which is accused of anti-competitive behavior. You know that some of your [fellow] Democrats are criticizing them. Aren’t you benefiting from the same system you’re trying to dismantle?” Brennan asked.
With the $16 Ticketmaster surcharge, the tickets cost $111, according to a report from the Conservative Brief.
“Those decisions are made totally by the publisher and the bookseller,” Sanders said. “I think there’s one case where in one place here in Washington, Politics and Prose, an independent bookstore charging some tickets. Most of them, I think are 40 dollars, 50 dollars, and you get a book as well. So if you want to come, you’re going to have to pay 40 bucks, I’ll throw in the book for free. And we’re doing a number of free events. But I don’t make a nickel out of these things.”
“But you’re okay doing business with Ticketmaster?” Brennan asked.
“No, not particularly,” Sanders replied. “But that’s again, I had nothing to do with that. That is- if you wrote a book, probably be the same process.”
Brennan asked, “So you have to operate within the system?”
“I do. Write a book, a major publisher, etc. etc,” the Democratic Socialist replied.