Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Republican White House hopefuls will cater to the "greedy and selfish" in their first debate Thursday.

In an interview with SiriusXM Progress host Ari Rabin-Havt, the self-described socialist said the Republican presidential field would be speaking to the "wealthiest" and their donors.

"At the end of the day, listen closely. And this is what they will tell you," Sanders told Rabin-Havt. "Number one, they want to give more tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires at a time when the rich are getting much richer. Number two, I don't know, there may be one or two on there who actually have listened to the scientific community and think that climate change is real. Most of them refuse to accept that. And none of them are prepared to act aggressively to transform our energy system. C, they want to cut or privatize Medicare, cut Medicaid, cut education, cut the Environmental Protection Agency. That is what their agenda is."

"Essentially, when you watch that debate just imagine if you are one of the wealthiest people in this country and extremely greedy and selfish, and you're going to have ten candidates, more or less, talking about your needs and not the needs of working people," Sanders said.

The GOP's main event is slated for 9 p.m. Eastern Thursday night, with a forum for candidates who didn't qualify at 5 p.m. Eastern.