Sanders to corporate America: ‘You cannot have it all’

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday vowed that his criticism of Verizon is the opening salvo of his battle against corporate America.

“Verizon is just a poster child for what so many corporations are doing today,” he said during a rally in Washington Square Park in New York City. “This campaign is sending a message to corporate America — you cannot have it all.”

{mosads}“If you think you are going to continue to destroy the middle class in this country, if you think you can continue to throw the American worker on the street, you’ve got another guess coming. It ain’t going to happen when I’m president,” he continued.

Sanders said that his disgust with wealthy special interests drives his rejection of super-PACs and lobbyists. 

“You can tell a lot about a candidate in the campaigns that they run by how they raise the money they need to run those campaigns,” he said. “We do not represent the billionaire class. We do not represent Wall Street. We do not want their money.”

Sanders also linked Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton with global trade deals, arguing that they hurt the U.S. economy. 

“We have seen a race to the bottom,” he said. “What has happened over the last 30–40 years is that we have seen tens of thousands of factories across America shut down. 

“I not only opposed every single one of these disastrous trade agreements, I helped lead the opposition to them. On the other hand, Secretary Clinton supported virtually every one of these awful trade deals.”

Sanders joined a picket line against Verizon in Brooklyn earlier Wednesday, slamming the company for “trying to destroy the lives of working Americans.”

About 36,000 Verizon workers represented by the Communications Workers of America, which has endorsed Sanders for president, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, of which the New York chapter has endorsed Clinton, were striking against Verizon.

Participating workers were objecting to proposed pension cuts and rule changes that would make it easier for outsourcing jobs.