I left out the “guilty” or “sheepish” or “nervous” to avoid charges of clickbait, but a fellow passenger “caught” Bernie Sanders in first class on an American Airlines flight and the look on his face is just priceless.
Bernie Sanders Flies First Class On American Airlines
In an undated photograph, the Vermont Senator and self-identified “Democratic Socialist” can be seen sitting in seat 4A on an American Airlines flight:
A nervous democratic socialist in first class. #FeelTheBern pic.twitter.com/XbONXNBZNn
— Hank Thomas (@HankThomasDC) February 13, 2020
Check out the look on his face! Maybe he was just annoyed when he noticed Hank Thomas was secretly taking his picture. But that look of guilt is priceless.
Relax Bernie! You can still target the 1% and fly first class…no one will begrudge you for taking advantage of a free upgrade.
It’s primary season of course. On Twitter, many used this picture to attack (or defend) Sanders. If you click on the comments for the Tweet above you’ll be quite amused.
But I just laughed. As Thomas later said:
For the record: I have no ill will against @SenSanders or his political beliefs. The intention was for humorous discourse. The photo is 100% authentic. Our country is far too polarized.
— Hank Thomas (@HankThomasDC) February 13, 2020
In case you are wondering, he was flying on an Embraer ERJ-175, which I have reviewed here. The first class on this aircraft is more comfortable than most mainline aircraft, so I wouldn’t have turned down an upgrade either!
And in fairness to Bernie, he has no trouble flying economy class:
You forgot to add these pic.twitter.com/hQwqMTYbn6
— Ali R. Naqvi 🗳🐀 (@AliNeedsHelp) February 13, 2020
CONCLUSION
Somehow, I feel bad for Bernie for this viral tweet. Maybe it was just one frame “taken out of context” that suggested such a guilty look. But again Bernie, don’t worry: airline elite status and complimentary space-available upgrades do not reflect poorly on you…
> Read More: Two Democratic Presidential Candidates. One United Airlines Flight.
@ Matthew — If he is the nominee, welcome to 4-more years….Sorry, but things are not free in life. No matter how liberal I may be, his policies are absurd. Waive loans for able-bodied adults than signed up for them, paying them off with my hard-earned tax dollars? HELL NO.
@ Matthew — But I will still vote for him over Trump any day.
@Gene….because you hate freedom? Because government does a bang up job in running their govt programs? Really now.
How can there be freedom when Trump is trampling all over the same constitution that guarantees it?
Wow blue no matter who
@Gene, no presidential candidate ever follows through on everything they say so even if it sounds absurd, I’ll take Bernies possibility of crazy and unknown over the clear dictatorship were moving toward. I hope you know if trump wins another 4 years i dont think he’ll ever leave office and even if he looses this year no candidate has answered how their going to make him leave and that makes me nervous because no one seems to understand the seriousness of a comedian asking “what are you gonna do if you win the election and trump doesnt leave the next day?” and no one can answer. start thinking about that and remember love him or hate his ideas bernie is the only other person with followers with and enthusiasm that matches trumps followers and THAT wins elections. The BELIEF not the POLICY.
@Will….TDS?
Trump is so much about being a dictator that he was able to make sure the R’s kept the House in 2018. Oh…wait…
That was more due to the R’s decades long efforts at gerrymandering and voter suppression.
If trump wins i hope he does the following:
No more gay marriage, no more abortion, lgbt is not protected class, supremacy of Christian religion, all other religions are lower, women find their spot in the kitchen, no more gender protection for women, police have unquestionable authority including lethal force aka police can shoot blacks and browns on the streets without being second guessed, people can repay debts through physical labor, no more bankruptcy protection from medical loans or any loans, you become a slave to the person you owe the loan to.
Liberals deserve this if they can’t get their act together.
@debit. Wow. Talk about delusional and a severe case of TDS! You are really out of balance in life.
Debit might be delusional, but in this case, what he said was spot on.
Wtf?
How can i be delusional and spot on?
Republicans make it easy to hate them. Hypocritical, racist jerks. I hate republicans. All those white faced lying, raping scum. Conservative ideas may not be so bad. But they have been hijacked by psychopaths who only think about ideas through their own greed.
Trump has had 4 years and did none of that
Really? Have you been out of the country for the last three years?
@ Gene – I will vote for DT any day over ANY “socialist”…..Born and raised in a place where these “socialists” were preaching free-for-all (read poor-for-all) while they were driven around in limousines…..
Maybe learn what words mean. I really have no patience for people that use words like “socialist” and “conservative” as blanket terms. Doing so is literally saying “I don’t have the capacity to process nuance or complexity.”
Look we all get that you had a bad experience. Get over it.
mallthus for the win.
This is an old picture that got recirculated again. Shame on you for not doing your due diligence
Who said it was recent? But it was the first time I had seen it.
Honestly, coy does not become you…
Do you know what coy means?
If Bernie gets the perk of flying first class by being a senator it would be foolish to not take it. That is not inconsistent. That is like saying you are concerned about hunger in the world and then you being shamed for eating dinner.
Republican jerks say you can pay more taxes if you want. A liberal asking for larger taxes but using all the tricks currently available to reduce his own personal income tax is not inconsistent.
Does anyone respect other people’s privacy anymore? Yes it’s Bernie Sanders, but who gave you the rights to photograph him and post it online? Piece of s$%&!
Well at least he experiences different standards of comfort that can be EARNED
I’d rather a ‘socialist’ as an elected official who isn’t really one than one who really is. Hopefully he is the former and doesn’t enact policies that hinder the ability to earn rewards in life.
Hey, Matthew! That is a hilarious photo! The context is almost irrelevant. Thanks for sharing it (even if it is old).
I don’t know about AA, but I have found that United flights operated on Embraer-175s are about the easiest upgrades to get in the system.
Very easy on both!
That’s ok because Socialists do things like that. North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un is a socialist and look how well he lives. Sanders says “Free Medicare for All, Paid for by the Rich” not “Paid for by Socialist leaders”. So give Sanders a break. He’s just a socialist, not a man of the people.
Um, if the Socialist leaders are rich, then according to Bernie, they should pay for it. Try to keep up, dear.
very odd that literally every developed country has universal healthcare and manages to function fine. but god forbid a politician suggest that we not get ripped off by insurance executives, and it’s the “end of liberty.” Just delusional
LOL, Actually, economy on an E175 is the best economy in the country. Wide 2×2 seats!
I must admit that I’m no fan of creepy douchebags taking unwanted pictures of other people on airplanes, regardless of political affiliation.
I’d be looking nervous/anxious in this situation, with Hagar the Horrible taking snaps surreptitiously. These cell phone zombies are the living end, truly…
The fact he volunteered to fly AA makes him unelectable.
Let’s not forget that comrade Sanders also owns several houses and is worth millions. If he practiced what he preached, how could this occur?
I’m not sure if you’re being a troll or if this is a genuine question. I’ll go with genuine question and respond. My example is Ikea, which you’ve probably visited and have certainly heard of. The founder is a Swedish billionaire, although he is apparently very frugal. The company is likewise Swedish, and Sweden is a proudly socialist country. How can it possibly be that you can become a billionaire in a socialist country? Because socialism is where the rich are taxed heavily but not enough to make them poor. Destroying all wealth is both stupid and counterproductive. That’s also communism. Communism is the most extreme left wing side of socialism, just as Nazism is on the extreme political right. Frankly, extremism pretty much doesn’t work in the real world in most cases. Like him or not, what Sanders is proposing is a higher minimum wage, health care for everyone, and a higher overall standard of living. Sounds great doesn’t it? Except that in order to pull this off, the very rich will become just regular rich and the regular rich will become only very well off. Instead of buying a new Porche every year, the rich might have to make it every two years. Whether you find that agreeable or not is your choice, but implying that Sanders is a communist is wrong and makes the person making the implication look ignorant.
@Christian
Let’s not repeat the “Nazis are far right” fiction. The Nazis (National Socialist Democrat Worker’s Party) were Socialists.
So let’s do a tally for the far-left:
Hitler: 17 million
Stalin: 20 million
Mao: 30 million
Pol Pot: 2 million
Kim Il Sung: 1.5 million
Mengistu: 1 million
Bernie: ?
Socialism is one of the deadliest forces known to man. Amazing that people think that we need to keep trying to get it right.
Fails to mention the death toll from unbridled capitalism, including that which gave raise to the figures cited above…maybe 200,000,000 .
The fanatical left and the loony right have a lot in common. Sanders has NOTHING in common with them…he’s about as ‘centre’ as it gets. The fruitcake incumbent is another matter entirely….always rambling on about freedom and choice ( but all the while seeking to restrict them, with some form of profit the ultimate motive…)
First off, your numbers are low across the board. Pol Pot picked off a lot more than 2 million as I learned in Cambodia last year, but that has zero to do with the fact that you choose to dislike. Politically, Nazis absolutely are the far right. You can dislike the fact but it’s fact nonetheless, and yes I’m aware of the full name. Can you say that Communists killed off more people? You bet. Does that change the truth of the political spectrum? Not one bit. Or are you trying to argue something else? Communists are obviously extremists on the political left. Nazis are obviously on the political right. Are you suggesting that Nazis are right wing moderates?
what a bunch of socialist left wing brain dead LIBERALS ON HERE!!What are you People smoking or doing???