Vegas Strip

Bernie Sanders hits the Las Vegas Strip, takes aim at billionaire Sheldon Adelson

By Philip Rucker

Directly across the Las Vegas Strip from the Venetian, the lavish hotel and casino built by wealthy political donor Sheldon Adelson, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders rallied more than 700 supporters here Friday to join his revolution against the billionaire class whose greed he says is crushing the United States.

“Today we live in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, but the vast majority of the American people do not know that, do not feel that, because almost all of that wealth today rests in the hands of a tiny few," Sanders said. "What we are saying to the billionaire class is, 'Your greed, which is destroying this country, has got to end.'"

Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont who describes himself as a socialist but caucuses with Democrats, took direct aim at Adelson, who together with his wife, Miriam, spent roughly $100 million to help elect Mitt Romney and other Republicans in 2012.

"People like Sheldon Adelson -- you know who he is! -- and the Koch brothers are now spending unbelievable sums of money," Sanders said. When he argued that such political spending had created an "oligarchy" and wrecked "the foundations of American democracy," the crowd stood on its feet and chanted, "Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!"

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a White House contender in 2016, is known for his stances on budget issues and war. Here are his takes on Obamacare, Social Security and more. (Julie Percha/The Washington Post)

Sanders received a raucous reception here Friday, with repeated standing ovations and loud cheers. The hour was early, especially by Las Vegas standards -- 9 a.m. -- but hundreds of people, young and old, streamed in, sipping coffee and munching on muffins and breakfast cake.

The Sanders campaign received so many responses from locals wanting to see him that they relocated his town hall meeting from the University of Nevada Las Vegas to a venue that could accommodate hundreds more -- the ballroom at Treasure Island, a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

On Saturday, Sanders is scheduled to hold an event in Denver, where campaign officials said they already have received about 7,000 RSVPs. If they all show up, it would be perhaps the largest rally any candidate in either party has staged thus far in the 2016 campaign cycle.

Sanders argued that the reception he saw here in Las Vegas and in other recent stops, from Iowa to Minnesota to New Hampshire, shows that his message is resonating with progressive activists.

“This campaign is about you, your kids, our parents, our grandparents," he said. "It is about having the courage to do something which is pretty hard, and that is to say very loudly and clearly that enough is enough, that this government, our country belongs to all of us and not just a handful of billionaires."

Climate change is a core theme of Sanders's pitch to voters, but he added a new line to his stump speech, referring to Pope Francis's call to action, issued Thursday from the Vatican, that the burning of fossil fuels and human activity contribute to climate change.

"As Pope Francis reminded us yesterday, climate change is real; climate change is caused by human activity; climate change is already having devastating impact in America and around the world," Sanders said. He argued that it is an "international embarrassment" that some U.S. senators from the Republican Party continue to deny climate change science.