Sanders Calls Clinton's Dinner With Clooney 'Obscene'

But the actor isn't the problem, he says
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 28, 2016 6:03 AM CDT
Updated Mar 28, 2016 6:48 AM CDT
Sanders Calls Clinton's Dinner With Clooney 'Obscene'
US actor George Clooney, right, and his wife Amal Clooney arrive at the red carpet for "Hail, Caesar!" the opening film of the 2016 Berlinale Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016.   (AP Photo/Axel Schmidt)

Sharing a seat with Hillary Clinton and George and Amal Clooney at an April 15 Bay Area fundraiser will cost you. At $353,400, Politico notes two head-table seats are going for 400% the average annual income for San Francisco. Bernie Sanders has a word for it: "Obscene." In an interview with CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, the candidate made clear that he's a fan of Clooney as an actor, and that the issue isn't really Clooney at all—it's "big money." He continues, "It's not a criticism of Clooney. It's a criticism of a corrupt campaign finance system, where big money interests—and it's not Clooney, it’s the people who are coming to this event—have undue influence over the political process. And [my supporters and I] are trying to move as far away from that as we can." Indeed, Yahoo quotes Sanders as saying tickets to his events typically go for $15 or $50.

Last week, Sanders' campaign manager also used the word "obscene" in a letter to supporters about the dinner, reports the Hill. "In the movie Ocean's 11, a gang of lovable thieves successfully heist $150 million from a vault in the basement of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino," wrote Jeff Weaver. "Fueled primarily from high-dollar donations, Hillary Clinton has raised more than that in this campaign," it adds, "and is now enlisting the support of George Clooney (Danny Ocean) to pad that total." The lower end of the Clinton spectrum—at least as far as Clooney is involved—is not so low. An April 16 dinner at Clooney's LA mansion costs $33,400 per person. California votes on June 7, and doles out 475 delegates. Before Clinton and Sanders get there, though, they'll battle it out in New York, among other states. (More Election 2016 stories.)

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