More than 12 000,people packed the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa Monday night to attend Bernie Sanders’ “Fight the Oligarchy” tour. The Senator from Vermont was joined onstage by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Ocasio-Cortez called the Trump administration’s willingness to deport citizens to foreign prisons without due process anti-American and bone-chilling.

“This concentration of power, greed and corruption is oligarchy. It's oligarchy in America. And we must acknowledge the terrifying moment that we are in right now, and that what we are hearing and seeing with our own eyes is in fact, happening. We are watching as our neighbors, students and friends are being fired, targeted and disappeared. This is real,” Ocasio-Cortez said, speaking before Sanders.

“Activists are being detained with no charge or evidence for using their First Amendment rights, especially if they are being used to end the war in Gaza,” she added in reference to student activist Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest.

Sanders also strongly condemned the deportation of immigrants and the targeting of dissidents by the Trump administration. The senator called out the president’s relationship with Russia and the U.S. funding of the war in Gaza. He advocated for labor and reproductive rights, free healthcare, free university and free childcare.

“We should not be the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to every man, woman or child. We need to pass Medicare for all. Instead of spending $1 trillion on the military, we need to build 5 million units of low income and affordable housing.”

Idaho voted overwhelmingly for the Republican White House ticket in 2024, with President Donald Trump winning 67% of the vote.

“What concerns me is that Democrats have just kind of receded from the debate. And if you're not having a serious debate, one side is going to prevail big time,” Sanders said in an interview after the rally.

“The Democratic Party has failed in the sense that it has really turned its back on dozens, not just Idaho, but dozens of states all over this country. And if you don't have an opposition, then you're going to have right wing Republicans doing pretty much what they want to do. ”