(José Niño, Headline USA) The purported champions of the “little guy,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, were caught living large aboard a $15,000-per-hour private jet en route to a “Fighting Oligarchy” rally.
Footage captured by Fox News shows the far-left New York congresswoman and her longtime democratic socialist ally stepping off a Bombardier Challenger 604 — a luxury aircraft with a $5 million to $7 million price tag — even as they routinely denounce private plane travel and those who can afford it.
The extravagant ride — costing an eye-popping $15,000 per hour — ferried them to stops on Sanders’ “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, where the campaign website boasts they aim to “have real discussions across America,” and combat “the oligarchs and corporate interests who have so much power and influence in this country.”
Ironically, the campaign site solicits public donations to help fund the tour, claiming that it only requires “a modest amount of resources” to cover travel expenses.
The site also brags the effort is “Paid for by friends of Bernie Sanders (not the billionaires),” a jab at the wealthy class both politicians routinely vilify.
According to The New York Post, the tour has included stops in Tucson, Arizona; Los Angeles, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; Nampa, Idaho; and Bakersfield, California, where AOC and Sanders speak before enthusiastic crowds about the dangers of wealth and income inequality.
At one rally, AOC proclaimed, “We as a community must choose and vote for Democrats and elected officials who know how to stand for the working class.”
Private jets appear to be a lifestyle upgrade for AOC, who made headlines just in March when she was photographed flying first-class on JetBlue to another “Fighting Oligarchy” rally — traveling from JFK Airport in Queens to Las Vegas — an excursion critics mocked as her battle against inequality, one “mimosa at a time.”
A first-class ticket for a similar JetBlue flight can cost upward of $1,100, according to The New York Post.
Meanwhile, Sanders is no stranger to criticism over his preferred mode of travel. During President Trump’s 2020 impeachment trial, Sanders’ campaign chartered a private jet for the entire period.
Federal Election Commission records show Sanders’ campaign dropped over $221,000 on private jet expenses in the first quarter of 2025 alone.
The hypocrisy is especially glaring given that both Sanders and AOC claim to champion the environment.
According to the International Energy Agency, 51% of private jets consume around 239 gallons of fuel per hour. In other words, they emit more carbon in just two hours than the average individual produces in a full year.
The Bombardier Challenger 604 the pair chartered reportedly burns a staggering 365 gallons of fuel every 1.32 hours, per a study published in Communications Earth & Environment by Nature journal, putting their climate footprint well above even the already-bloated private jet average.
The study further found that regular private jet travelers emit nearly 500 times the amount of carbon per year compared to the average person worldwide.
Fighting “oligarchy” one luxury jet ride at a time seems to be the real message of the tour.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
