ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Standing in front of thousands at Harrah’s Cherokee Center –Asheville on Sunday, the Rev. William J. Barber II and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont delivered back-to-back speeches calling for a nationwide movement to confront what they described as greed, authoritarianism and political policies harming working-class Americans.
Barber, founding director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School, drew on biblical themes and civil rights history as he rallied attendees to join a “love army” aimed at countering the “hate unleashed by (President Donald) Trump’s regime” and policies backed by some North Carolina Republicans..
“We must be a truth army to challenge the lies,” Barber said. “We must be a nonviolent army of ‘we the people’ who refuse to bow down to the greedy rich, the greedy politicians, and the greedy MAGA Republicans determined to undermine our democracy.”
Barber criticized recent House GOP-backed budget measures, saying they would strip health care from hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians, cut nutrition assistance for children and risk closing rural hospitals. He named several Republican lawmakers he accused of advancing “morally indefensible” policies and called on voters to “strip them of their power” in 2026.
“This is not about partisanship — it’s about greed,” Barber stressed. “We must love God enough, love ourselves enough, love humanity enough, love the poor enough, love low-wage communities enough, and even love Trump and every politician intoxicated with and thrilled by the dreams of neo-fascism, white religious nationalism and authoritarianism, we must love them enough to say no to their craziness.
“It’s time for the love army, and the truth army. We have the power. It’s time to speak the truth in love.”
Sanders, in Asheville as part of his national “Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here” tour, reinforced Barber’s message, warning against the growing concentration of wealth and power among billionaires who “own and control much of the nation’s media and political system.”
“We’ve got two worlds — one, billionaires doing great, the other one, middle-class, working-class, low-income people, not so good,” Sanders said. “In the richest country in the history of the world, 60 percent of our people are living paycheck to paycheck.
Sanders said the United States has the highest rate of childhood poverty among major countries, millions without health insurance and seniors struggling to survive on $15,000 a year or less
“We’ve got 85 million Americans who are uninsured or underinsured,” he said. “In America today, half of older workers, people who worked their whole lives, have nothing in the bank as they face retirement, 22 percent of seniors are somehow, I don’t know how, trying to survive on $15,000 a year or less.”
He called for the overturning of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, enacting public financing of elections, raising the minimum wage to at least $17 per hour, expanding Social Security, guaranteeing paid family and medical leave, investing in affordable housing and making public colleges tuition-free.
Sanders also criticized Trump, accusing him of breaking campaign promises and promoting policies that benefit the wealthy at the expense of the working class. He cited studies suggesting that cuts to the Affordable Care Act could lead to tens of thousands of preventable deaths each year.
“So here we are right now. In terms of basic necessities of life, the housing system, broken; educational system, in terms of child care, in terms of kids being able to afford to go to college, in terms of the pressure on public schools all over America, in deep trouble; wages in deep trouble, workers are going nowhere in in a hurry,” Sanders said.
Both speakers urged unity across racial, ethnic and political lines to resist authoritarianism and economic inequality.
“Throughout our history, in very dark and difficult times, the American people came together to take on incredible power and corruption — and they won,” Sanders said. “They did it then, we can do it now.”
“You can’t put your covers over your head. We need you to join us in the struggle. Now, I don’t have a PhD in mathematics, but I do know that 99 percent is a hell of a lot bigger number than 1 percent.
