Bernie Sanders Slams Trump For Targeting Media: 'If You Can't Take Criticism, Get Out'

Marco Margaritoff
Tue, April 15, 2025 

HUFFPOST

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is calling out President Donald Trump for his thin-skinned reaction to Sunday’s “60 Minutes” broadcast on CBS — and for once again demanding the network lose its license over last year’s interview with Kamala Harris.

Sanders has been drawing large crowds in recent weeks with his Fighting Oligarchy tour alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). He shared concern Monday at a Nampa, Idaho, stop about Trump’s mass deportations and defiance of the U.S Supreme Court.

“And right now, he’s going after the media,” the Vermont senator said. “I don’t know if any of you saw it. He is now wanting to take away CBS’s license because they did a story that criticized him.”

“Oh, my word, CBS criticized him! Oh, let’s drive them out of business! How terrible is that!” Sanders continued in a mocking tone to boos from the crowd directed at Trump.

He added: “He has sued ABC. He has sued Meta. He has sued the Des Moines Register. This guy cannot take criticism. He can dish it out all right — but he can’t take it.”

Trump has targeted the media since the earliest days of his first presidential term and has decried any reporting critical of him as “fake news.” He ramped up substantially last year after Harris gave a seemingly standard interview on “60 Minutes.”

Trump demanded at the time that CBS lose its Federal Communications Commission license — and doubled down on that Sunday.


The conservative billionaire, whose frequent defense of free speech galvanized voters at the polls but contradicts his actual White House policies, wrote on social media that CBS should land “maximum fines and punishment” over Sunday’s “60 Minutes” broadcast.

The program covered Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and Trump’s plan for the U.S. to take over Greenland. It prompted him to relitigate the Harris interview, complaining that CBS edited its own show and claiming they engaged in “unlawful and illegal behavior.”

Trump has been in office again for only 85 days but his actions have already spurred large demonstrations against him. The “Hands Off” protests on April 5, prompted by his declaration of steep international tariffs that have roiled the stock markets and raised the risks of a recession, became the largest single-day protests since he returned to the White House.

The administration has also been deporting foreign-born students with legal U.S. status who have expressed support for Palestinians. Last week, the White House said Trump is exploring ways to deport American citizens who have committed crimes to foreign prisons.

“I say to Mr. Trump, if you can’t take criticism, get out of the political process,” Sanders said Monday. “This is a democracy.”