Tim Dillon really went from interviewing J.D. Vance on his podcast two weeks before the 2024 election to asking Bernie Sanders who in American politics is protecting the billionaires.
Ever since Vance and President Donald Trump re-took the White House, the vaguely conservative ecosystem of male-focused comedy podcasters has begun to question the far-right movement that they, themselves, assisted during that contentious 2024 campaign trail. In the weeks leading up to their victory in the general election, both Vance and Trump made a point to court culturally influential figures like Dillon, Joe Rogan, Andrew Schulz and Theo Von, and many critics of those comics now argue that their endorsement of the current regime, either tacit or explicit, has emboldened the far-right to attempt an even greater takeover of American politics, culture and media.
Now, almost a year after Dillon cozied up to a Vice President whose entire political career has been orchestrated by billionaire right-wing power broker and misanthropic tech mogul Peter Thiel, Dillon is trying to figure out how American politics became a playground war between a select few super-rich political donors.
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On the most recent episode of The Tim Dillon Show, the comedy podcaster spoke with Senator Sanders about the latter’s push to protect what’s left of American democracy from the growing class of wealthy, well-connected oligarchs who are loyal only to themselves and to Trump and Vance. During the talk, Sanders stated that overturning the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court decision is the best way to curtail the power of billionaires in American politics, suggesting that the Legislative Branch could lead that charge.
Dillon asked Sanders to name the biggest opponents of such an effort among our elected leaders, and Sanders was more than happy to identify Dillon’s next podcast guest.
Sanders told Dillon that, when the federal government handed unchecked power to billionaire donors and Super PACs in swaying elections, “Mitch McConnell was one of the leaders in the effort as a Republican.” Sanders than added, of our post-Citizens-United society, “The big-money interests love this! Why wouldn’t they? If you’re a billionaire, you want to pick your candidate for President, hey, what’s a few hundred million dollars to you? They love it!”
Dillon then shifted the focus to partisan politics, asking Sanders, “Is the Democratic Party, in your view, a bigger obstacle to your ideas becoming mainstream than the Republican Party?”
“No,” Sanders shot him down, “Look, the Republican Party in the last 15 years under Trump, has undergone a major transformation. It used to be a conventional, George W. Bush, center-right party, right? That’s what it was, it represented the wealthy, corporate interests, banks, et cetera.” Sanders continued, “What Trump has done is really transformed that party. He won more working-class votes than did Kamala Harris, and he has created, in the Republican Party, a right-wing extremist party.”
“What worries me about their ideology is this cult of the individual. You know what I’m talking about when I mention that, Tim?” Sanders asked.
Dillon said, “Explain it, but I think I do.”
Sanders clarified, “Right now, in the Republican Party, with very few exceptions – and there are some – they follow what Trump says and they are afraid to move in any different direction.” Sanders invoked the case of North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, who, after rightfully recognizing that Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act would cause hundreds of thousands of his constituents to lose their healthcare, publicly criticized the bill and declared that he wouldn’t vote for it.
“The next day, Trump was all over social media attacking this guy, and the billionaires are saying, ‘We are going to spend unlimited amounts of money to defeat you in your primary.’ A day later, Mr. Tillis said, ‘Bye bye, I don’t need this crap,’ and he retired,” Sanders concluded. “That’s what it is right now – if you are a Congressman, you kind of disagree with Trump on this, are you really going to open your mouth and have Elon Musk saying, ‘Okay, we’re going to primary you, my guy’s going to get $50 million to beat you.’”
Dillon agreed with everything Sanders had to say about the dangers of big money donors and the cult of personality that has taken over the Republican Party. However, when Musk’s hypothetical candidate offers to go on The Tim Dillon Show, will Dillon have the spine to bring up those exact points, or will he once again allow his podcast to become a platform for a billionaire-sponsored candidate to deliver a campaign speech and soft-launch mass deportations?
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