FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., chartered a private jet worth up to a staggering $15,000 an hour for several West Coast stops on their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.
Sanders boarded the luxury Bombardier Challenger private jet at the Meadows Field Airport in Bakersfield, California, on Tuesday afternoon, according to a photo captured by a source on the ground and shared exclusively with Fox News Digital. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, whom the source also spotted boarding the private jet, spoke at their “Fighting Oligarchy” event in Bakersfield just hours earlier.
Flight records reveal the jet landed at Sacramento Mather Airport on Tuesday evening, which is about a 20-minute drive to Folsom, California, where the self-identified Democratic socialists hosted their second rally of the day.
The jet Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez were seen boarding made stops in Salt Lake City and Boise prior to landing in Bakersfield, according to flight records. The arrival dates match the duo’s “Fighting Oligarchy” events in Salt Lake City and Nampa, which is about a 25-minute drive from Boise Airport.
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“Champagne socialists Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez demand Americans surrender their pick-up trucks, air conditioning and meat from the luxe leather seats of their private jets that cost more per hour than most Americans earn in months. Their hypocrisy is staggering,” National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) spokesperson Ben Petersen said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
The Bombardier Challenger private jet is operated by Ventura Air Services, which touts “one of the widest cabins of any business jet available today” and provides “superior cabin comfort for its passengers.” According to their website, the private jet can cost up to $15,000 an hour.
Sanders has long been ridiculed for relying on luxury private planes while crisscrossing the country, warning Americans about climate change and the threats of billionaires seizing political power. Despite his Democratic socialist platform advocating for universal healthcare, the Green New Deal and ending wealth inequality, Sanders flying private has become infamous.
Sanders’ campaign committee, Friends of Bernie Sanders, spent over $221,000 chartering private jets during the first quarter of 2025, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings reviewed by Fox News Digital. The filing, which was released on Tuesday, shows that Sanders dropped the massive haul between three private jet companies: Ventura Jets, Cirrus Aviation Services and N-Jet.
The six-figure spending on private jets this year follows Sanders spending over $1.9 million on private jets during his failed presidential campaign in 2020. A Fox News Digital review found that Sanders dished out almost $2 million to Apollo Jets and the Advanced Aviation Team, a Virginia-based private jet company.
Private jets have faced the ire of Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez’s fellow climate activists. According to 2021 Transport and Environment report, private jets are up to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes.
“For real, how many private jets do these CEOs need? It is insatiable. It is unacceptable,” Ocasio-Cortez said in 2023, in one example of the New York congresswoman herself railing against private jets.
Both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez championed the Democrats’ failed Green New Deal, the aggressive climate change policy targeting carbon emissions and fossil fuel production. Ocasio-Cortez proposed the controversial legislation in 2019, and Sanders designed his own Green New Deal plan during his 2020 presidential primary campaign.
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have welcomed massive crowds to their “Fighting Oligarchy” stops across the country. On Saturday, the two political leaders hosted what they said was their largest rally ever, with 36,000 people in Los Angeles.
Sanders started the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour in response to President Donald Trump’s second term to “take on the Oligarchs and corporate interests who have so much power and influence in this country.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez for comment.
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