Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersBiden wins West Virginia primary Biden wins Georgia primary The Hill's Campaign Report: It's primary night in Georgia MORE (I-Vt.) said he has “a better relationship” with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden Joe BidenGOP senators introduce resolution opposing calls to defund the police Biden fundraiser with Harris raises .5 million President sinks amid stumbles over protests MORE than he had with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonHillary Clinton: 'Probably more differences' than similarities between 1968 and 2020 Romney says he wants to be part of change between black voters and GOP Joe Biden's ideal VP is Condoleezza Rice MORE.
Sanders, who was the No. 2 contender in each of the last two Democratic presidential primaries, told The New Yorker in an interview published Tuesday that he thinks he has a “stronger” and “closer” relationship with Biden because he’s known the former vice president for about 14 years.
“I think the difference now is that, between you and me, I have a better relationship with Joe Biden than I had with Hillary Clinton,” Sanders said. “And that Biden has been much more receptive to sitting down and talking with me and other progressives than we have seen in the past.”
The former 2020 contender said he chats with Biden on the phone, and if he requests a call, Biden’s campaign will set it up “within a day or two.”
Sanders said the former vice president has been “open and personable and friendly, but his views and my views are very different, in some areas more than others.” The Vermont progressive predicted Biden will be “rather strong” on a push for a new economy and said Biden wants to be “as strong as possible” on climate change.
The senator said he is waiting to see what the six task forces, made up of his own and Biden’s supporters, come up with for agreements on the economy, health care, immigration reform, criminal justice reform, education and climate change policies.
“Joe has been open to having his people sit down with some of the most progressive folks in America, and that’s a good sign,” Sanders said.
But Sanders said he rejects the argument that he could have done more to get Clinton elected president four years ago, saying he “did everything that I could in 2016” to get her into the White House and move the Democratic Party in a progressive direction.
“There is a myth out there that all a candidate has to say, whether it’s Bernie Sanders or anybody else, to millions of people who voted for him or her, is, ‘I want you to do this,’ and every single person is going to fall in line,” he said. “That’s just not the way it works in a democracy. In fact, that’s not the way it should work.”
Biden formally clinched the Democratic presidential nomination last week. Sanders dropped out of the race in early April after the former vice president developed a strong lead starting with the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday.
Democrats have criticized the Vermont progressive for not throwing enough support behind Clinton in the 2016 election, saying that helped lead to President Trump Donald John TrumpMcBath, Handel to face off in Georgia House rematch Trump thanks George P. Bush for his support: 'Great honor' Trump Jr.'s Mongolia hunting trip cost K in Secret Service protection MORE’s win.
lsspam on June 10th, 2020 at 17:42 UTC »
Ironically, Bernie probably has a better relationship with Biden because of the very reasons so many Bernie fans criticize Biden.
Biden isn't a policy-wonk or ideologue. It's why he and Obama got along so well (who is a policy wonk and probably didn't feel like arguing tooth and nail for every inch of his ideas with a different VP like, oh, I don't know, Hillary).
Biden has always been an empathizer and consensus builder. In a lot of ways, in terms of leadership style (and liberals will hate this comparison but whatever) he's a lot like Bush.
You can rail Biden over his policy positions in the past if you want but it kind of misses the point. That's not really what Biden is interested in, he never had some deep ideological commitment to lots of his previous positions. What he's interested in is coalition building and (this is a scary word for some) therefore compromise. The idea isn't as important as broad level support for the idea.
Consequently, while the lack of "conviction" may be infuriating to progressives, it's also why he's broadly more receptive to Warren and Sanders. He doesn't care that it's their ideas and he doesn't have strongly held policy/ideological concerns that prevent him from happily co-opting them. He cares about whether he can build broad enough support for those ideas.
If the progressive coalition holds strong in their demands they'll get plenty of say in a Biden administration.
Hillary by contrast was a policy wonk. This isn't meant to necessarily shame or criticize her, like I said, it's not any different than Obama. But it meant she had very detailed and precise thoughts on what policies would work and how. She would not have been easily moveable like Biden is, for better or for worse (and if you're Dubya surrounded by Cheney and his cronies, it's for worse).
Quirkiness101 on June 10th, 2020 at 16:59 UTC »
There was a great article a while back talking about the end of Sanders 2020 campaign. Very interesting scuttlebutt, but the part that stuck out to me was this segment:
(Bold emphasis mine)
CerseiClinton on June 10th, 2020 at 16:37 UTC »
I think it was pretty obvious Hillary did not like Sanders on both a personal and professional level.