Politics

Bernie Sides With Trump Over ‘Incredibly Large’ Amazon

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

David Krayden Ottawa Bureau Chief
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Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders agrees with President Donald Trump that Amazon is out of control and wields too much “power and influence” over small business people.

The senator who ran against Hillary Clinton for the 2016 presidential nomination was asked Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” if he thinks Trump was right to attack Amazon over the weekend because the online company is almost weekly increasing the size of its footprint on American commerce.

“Yeah, I do. I do. I think this is — look, this is an issue that has got to be looked at,” Sanders said.

“And I think this is — look, this is an issue that has got to be looked at. What we are seeing all over this country is the decline in retail. We’re seeing this incredibly large company getting involved in almost every area of commerce. And I think it is important to take a look at the power and influence that Amazon has.”

Sanders suggested the concentration of economic activity will lead to lower paying jobs.

“You know, right now, in this country — we don’t talk about it enough — there are millions of people who are working two or three jobs because wages are much too low. And what the American people say is, raise the minimum wage to a living wage, 15 bucks an hour.”

Trump has been raging on his Twitter account over Amazon — about its size, for allegedly not paying state taxes and for becoming a burden on the U.S. Postal Service.

The president has also drawn a connection between Amazon and the Washington Post because Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon, is also the owner of the newspaper. Trump said that relationship makes the Post a paid lobbyist.

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