Bernie makes it official: It’s Biden or bustSanders’ endorsement is a big step toward avoiding the rancor that marked the end of the 2016 Democratic primary.
By MARC CAPUTO and HOLLY OTTERBEIN
04/13/2020 02:20 PM EDT, Updated: 04/13/2020 06:37 PM EDT
Joe Biden became the Democratic Party’s indisputable presidential nominee Monday when Bernie Sanders paid a surprise visit to the former vice president’s livecast and issued an unexpected and full-throated endorsement.
Sanders, who formally suspended his campaign last week, said he needed everyone — not just his supporters — to back Biden and make sure that President Trump becomes a one-term president.
“Today, I am asking all Americans — I'm asking every Democrat; I’m asking every independent; I’m asking a lot of Republicans — to come together in this campaign to support your candidacy, which I endorse, to make certain that we defeat somebody who I believe is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country,” Sanders told Biden.
“I will do all that I can to see that that happens, Joe,” Sanders pledged, after calling Trump a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe and a religious bigot who botched the nation’s initial response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I want to thank you for that. It’s a big deal,” Biden said. “Your endorsement means a great deal, a great deal to me.”
Sanders and Biden pledged to form six task forces to advise the Biden campaign on policy to bridge divides with progressive voters and, especially, young people who voted for Sanders and against Biden in droves.
Last week, in the days leading up to Sanders’ withdrawal and after, the two spoke several times — including Wednesday, when the Vermont senator formally suspended his campaign. Sanders and Biden’s teams have also been in regular communication, with Sanders’ campaign manager Faiz Shakir and senior adviser Jeff Weaver speaking with Biden’s top two advisers, Anita Dunn and Ron Klain.
Sanders’ endorsement was no mere formality. Though the Vermont senator formally suspended his campaign last week, Sanders did not say he endorsed Biden, nor did he call on his dedicated followers to vote for his former opponent. Sanders also pledged to hang on to his delegates, which caused some Democrats to fear the primary could wind up repeating the mistakes of 2016, when acrimony marked the relationship between Sanders and Hillary Clinton in 2016. Many Democrats believe that bitter divide played a role in her loss to Trump in November.
That rancor between Clinton and Sanders surfaced again this year when the former senator and secretary of state made headlines during the primary for saying “nobody” likes Sanders.
But Biden did. He always made sure to be friendly and respectful with Sanders, who repaid the favor — sometimes too much, Sanders advisers fretted when he refused to bludgeon Biden on the debate stage.
Even in 2016, Sanders aides note, Biden made sure to praise Sanders when he was anathema to the rest of the Democratic establishment.
"Bernie is speaking to a yearning that is deep and real. And he has credibility on it. And that is the absolutely enormous concentration of wealth in a small group of people with the middle class being left out,” said Biden in January 2016. "It's relatively new for Hillary to talk about that.”
Biden repeated those words about Bernie’s credibility as he lavished praise on his former rival Monday.
Sanders’ endorsement gave Biden a chance to break into the news cycle with a headline-grabbing announcement, a rarity in recent weeks as he, along with Sanders, remains stuck at home during the pandemic as reports about the contagion and the president’s response to it suck up all the media oxygen.
“Not in a million years would we have believed that we would be talking to each other in our respective homes, that we could not do rallies, that we could not get out of the house,” Sanders said on the livestream.
The two men then traded compliments, took turns criticizing Trump and even asked each other questions. Biden, in response to a question from Sanders, reiterated he supports a $15 minimum wage. Sanders reminded Biden of the need to offer free college tuition.
Biden went so far as to say that, if banks receiving help from the just-passed stimulus bill don’t loan to small businesses, “the federal government should use their war time authority to compel them to do so.”
The endorsement follows an ongoing charm offensive that Biden has waged with Sanders and his supporters for a month, praising the senator and offering progressives more policy proposals concerning healthcare and education on Thursday.
Though many on the left said Biden was making a good first step, they still want to see more —and Biden and Sanders promised there will be more to come.
Their staffs have in recent days met to discuss establishing six task forces — concerning the economy, education, criminal justice, immigration, climate change and healthcare — to bridge any gaps between the two wings of the Democratic Party.
“The announcement of joint Sanders-Biden task forces is a good step forward and is aligned with key parts of the #EarnOurVote letter sent out by progressive millennial and youth organizations. We’re waiting on the details,” said Waleed Shahid, a spokesman for the progressive group Justice Democrats, who last week issued a letter on behalf of a coalition of progressive outfits asking Biden to adopt more Sanders policies.
Shahid said Sanders’ endorsement “generally seems more significant than anything Bernie 2016, Kucinich 2008, Dean 2004, Jackson 84-88 received directly from the nominee. Points to young people and progressives being taken more seriously as a key force within the Democratic Party.”
Sanders said “it’s no great secret” that he and Biden have differed on policy and they’re not going to ignore it.
A person familiar with Sanders' thinking said that while Biden has moved a bit left with his new proposal to lower the Medicare eligibility age to 60, the Vermont senator will continue to continue to urge him to adopt more liberal health care policies.
"Because of the mutual respect, he understands who Bernie is," the source said of Biden. "He's not expecting him to [say], 'Okay, he's lowering the age to 60 and then that's fine and we'll just support that.' No, we'll continue to push for Medicare for All.”
Biden pledged to have “the most progressive administration since [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt.”
“What is important about these task forces is that it really represents an openness on the part of Vice President Biden and his campaign to bring the progressive wing of the party to the table and that's something very new,” said Jeff Weaver, Sanders‘ adviser. “It is important that there is this kind of representation in these policy circles, which has not always been the case, which is part of the frustration of the progressive part of the party, which provides all the energy and volunteers and foot soldiers in the elections and then sometimes is left out after the campaign is won."
Not everyone from the Sanders campaign is on board, though.
Sanders former National Press Secretary Briahna Joy Gray tweeted that she has “the utmost respect for Bernie Sanders, who is an incredible human being & a genuine inspiration, I don't endorse Joe Biden. I supported Bernie Sanders because he backed ideas like #MedicareForAll, canceling ALL student debt, & a wealth tax. Biden supports none of those.”
Sanders adviser David Sirota was more circumspect, saying he would vote for Biden but noting in a blog post that progressives want to know the answer to two questions: “Are we getting the retrograde triangulating Joe Biden?” and “Are we getting a new and evolved Joe Biden?”
Before bringing on Sanders as a surprise guest Monday, the former vice president already sounded more like Sanders by ditching his usual promises to simply bring America back and instead focusing on the structural inequities that existed prior to the pandemic.
“When this crisis has receded, we can’t just talk about, think about, building back to the way things were before,” Biden said. “We need to build better for the future.”
When asked if he had some final words, Sanders briefly referenced the chess board behind him.
“I thought we’d play some chess,” he joked. “We’ll bore everybody for a few hours.”
Biden laughed.
“You and I have been friends. We’ve disagreed. But we’ve been friends,” Biden said. “I appreciate your friendship. And I promise you I won’t let you down.”
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