Senator Sanders insists that the current political moment is the “scariest” in his life and is likening Democrats’ “cringe” response to President Trump so far to America’s preparation to join World War II. 

The Vermont senator sat down for an interview with the popular liberal “Pod Save America” podcast in the middle of his “Fight Oligarchy” town hall series. The speaking tour has already sparked outrage after social media users found and shared a clip of a transgender singer at one of his events performing a song with lyrics that read, “Does your God have a big fat d—? Cause it feels like he’s f—-ing me.”

In the interview with “Pod Save America,” released on Tuesday, Mr. Sanders fretted about the presence of billionaires at Mr. Trump’s inauguration.

“I think the evidence is pretty clear [that America has become an oligarchy],” Mr. Sanders said. “When you have a president get inaugurated and sitting behind him are the three wealthiest people in the country – Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos, Mr. Zuckerberg – and then sitting scattered throughout the stage, 13 other billionaires who Trump nominated to head major agencies, secretary of treasury etc., you tell me what you’d call it. I find it hard not to describe it as a government of the billionaires, and that is what oligarchy is about.”

Mr. Sanders expressed dismay at various changes to the social media and media landscape made by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. 

“These are, you know, the scariest times in my lifetime. I think that’s objectively the truth. You know, it is not just they want to give tax breaks to billionaires and cut programs to working people,” the senator said. “Frankly, that’s happened before. But you combine that with the power of the oligarchy in general. You combine that with Mr. Musk owning Twitter and being able to send out his messages to hundreds of millions of people.”

He also singled out Mr. Bezos’ changes to the Washington Post, which he owns, where the Amazon billionaire said its editorial section would publish columns “in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.” Some top opinion staff have resigned. 

“You combine that with the fact that people like Bezos, the second wealthiest person in the country, fired or got rid of most of his editorial staff and is going to convert ’em into a right wing thing,” Mr. Sanders said. 

Mr. Bezos’s changes are to the unsigned editorials, an archaic tradition which persists at some newspapers. He says that the Post will still be able to publish columns representing multiple viewpoints. However, the opinion editor, David Shipley, resigned, followed by longtime Post reporter and liberal opinion columnist Ruth Marcus. 

Mr. Bezos’s move sparked a liberal frenzy. The New Yorker’s David Remnick told MSNBC that Mr. Bezos was “throwing up his hands and kissing the ring of the president of the United States.” Meanwhile, the co-founder of Axios, Jim VandeHei, said the changes at the Post were an example of media companies “buckling” to Mr. Trump. 

Mr. Sanders also said, “Combine that with the fact that Trump is suing major media outlets and is threatening to investigate PBS and NPR.”

Mr. Trump is currently suing CBS but said he is in settlement talks over the selective editing of Vice President Harris’ “60 Minutes” interview. The network removed what critics said was a “word salad” to make her sound more coherent at a critical time when there were questions about her ability to speak on important issues off the cuff. 

Meanwhile, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million to settle his defamation after host George Stephanopoulos falsely said he had been found liable for rape. Veteran Hollywood reporter Matthew Belloni suggested the case would have been “very winnable” even though Mr. Stephanopoulos did “falsely say Trump was found liable for rape,” because of the high bar of proving that such comments about public figures were made with “actual malice” that is required to find someone liable for defamation. 

Additionally, the Trump-appointed chairman of the FCC, Brendan Carr, is investigating PBS and NPR for allegedly violating federal law by “broadcasting underwriting announcements that cross the line into prohibited commercial advertisements.”

“So it’s not only the power of money; it’s also, combined with that, the movement toward authoritarianism. You know, when Trump unilaterally cuts federal funding that was passed by Congress, that is illegal,” Mr. Sanders said. “That is unconstitutional. When you have the vice president saying, well, in his judgment, the courts don’t have the right to stop unconstitutional acts of the president, man, that is authoritarianism. That’s what the courts are.”

Vice President Vance made headlines in February for stating that federal judges do not have the authority to “control the executive’s legitimate power.” His comment came as district courts issued nationwide injunctions blocking several parts of Mr. Trump’s agenda. While his comments stirred up warnings of a “constitutional crisis” from liberal commentators, there is an ongoing scholarly debate in the legal realm about the practice of nationwide injunctions issued by district courts that bring executive branch policies to a halt. 

However, Mr. Sanders disregarded that debate as he claimed Mr. Trump is “trying to end what the Founding Fathers were pretty smart about — creating a form of government where there were checks and balances, you know, a legislative body, an executive body and a judiciary.”

“So he’s moving aggressively in all of these areas … This is a scary moment,” the senator said. 

Mr. Sanders sought to encourage Democrats downtrodden by the Trump administration’s successes, saying, “I talk about the history of this country, this is not the first time… Slightly different thing in December 1941, the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor. You know what? We had to fight a war on two fronts. The military was not prepared to do that. Yet, in two years, the country came together, and we were able to lay the groundwork for victory.”

In the “short term,” Mr. Sanders said success looks like a “solid defeat” of Mr. Trump’s “one, big beautiful” reconciliation bill that would pass portions of his agenda. The senator insisted defeating that bill would put Republicans “on the defensive.”