Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT., responded to criticism of the price of the tickets for his book tour on Ticketmaster during an interview on Sunday and said he needs to operate within the system.
"Tickets for your tour apparently are selling for $95 on Ticketmaster, which is accused of anti-competitive behavior. You know that. Some of your Democrats are criticizing them. Aren't you benefiting yourself from this system that you're trying to dismantle?" CBS' Margaret Brennan asked.
Sanders said the decisions were made by the publisher and the bookseller. Brennan also asked if he was okay with doing business with Ticketmaster.
"No, not particularly. But that's again, I had nothing to do with that. That is - if you wrote a book, probably be the same process," he said.
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"So you have to operate within the system," Brennan followed up.
"I do," Sanders responded. "Write a book, a major publisher, etc., etc."
Front row tickets for Sanders' event promoting his new book, "It's Okay To Be Angry About Capitalism," at the Anthem in Washington, D.C., are on sale for nearly $100 on Ticketmaster.
"I think there's one case where in one place here in Washington, Politics and Prose, an independent bookstore, charging some tickets, most of them I think, are $40, $50. And you get a book as well. So if you want to come, you're gonna have to pay 40 bucks, I'll throw in the book for free. And we're doing a number of free events, but I don't make a nickel out of these things at all," Sanders said during the interview.
Republicans and many others slammed Sanders for selling tickets via Ticketmaster and pointed out the "irony" as the Vermont Senator's new book is extremely critical of capitalism.
"Anyone else see the ‘irony’ in Bernie Sanders selling tickets for his "It’s Okay to Be Angry About Capitalism" book tour on Ticketmaster?" Rep. Bill Huizinga, D-Mich., wrote on Twitter.
Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, announced a Judiciary Committee hearing that would look into Ticketmaster and a lack of competition in the ticketing industry following the site's mishandling of Taylor Swift's "The Era's Tour" ticket sales.
Sanders, who is 81, also reacted to Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley's call for "mental competency" tests for any politician over the age of 75.
"Yeah, you know, we are fighting racism, we're fighting sexism, we're fighting homophobia, I think we should also be fighting ageism," he said. "Trust people, look at people and say, you know, this person is competent, this person is not competent. There are a lot of 40-year-olds out there who ain't particularly competent. Older people, you know, you look at the individual, I don't think you make a blanket statement."
