Bernie Sanders expresses concerns about Biden campaign
Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during the Democratic National Convention in
late August.
Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during the Democratic National Convention in
late August. (AP)
By
Sean Sullivan <https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/sean-sullivan/>
Washington Post, September 12, 2020 at 10:23 a.m. EDT
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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is privately expressing concerns about Joe
Biden’s presidential campaign, according to three people with knowledge
of the conversations, urging Biden’s team to intensify its focus on
pocketbook issues and appeals to liberal voters.
Sanders, the runner-up to Biden in the Democratic primary, has told
associates that Biden is at serious risk of coming up short in the
November election if he continues his vaguer, more centrist approach,
according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to
describe sensitive talks.
The senator has identified several specific changes he’d like to see,
saying Biden should talk more about health care and about his economic
plans, and should campaign more with figures popular among young
liberals, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
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Sanders urges his supporters to come together to defeat Trump
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Aug. 17 said President Trump is leading
the U.S. toward authoritarianism. (The Washington Post)
Asked for comment, Sanders’s team provided a statement from Faiz Shakir,
the senator’s former campaign manager in the presidential race, saying
that Sanders is “working as hard as he can” to get Biden elected but has
advised some strategic adjustments.
“Senator Sanders is confident that Joe Biden is in a very strong
position to win this election, but nevertheless feels there are areas
the campaign can continue to improve upon,” Shakir said. “He has been in
direct contact with the Biden team and has urged them to put more
emphasis on how they will raise wages, create millions of good paying
jobs, lower the cost of prescription drugs and expand health care coverage.”
Shakir said Sanders “also thinks that a stronger outreach to young
people, the Latino community and the progressive movement will be of
real help to the campaign.”
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The Biden campaign declined to comment.
Sanders led asurging liberal faction
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bernie-sanders-dnc/2020/08/17/17b8b286-e0a2-11ea-b69b-64f7b0477ed4_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_13>during
the Democratic primaries and scored early successes in Iowa, New
Hampshire and Nevada before ultimately falling short. His critique of
Biden’s approach reflects his status as a longtime stalwart of the
party’s left and a self-described**democratic socialist.
But it is rare for such a prominent party figure to repeatedly voice
private criticisms of the party’s nominee and acknowledge them publicly,
especially in the campaign’s final stretch. Sanders’s decision to do so
suggests the ongoing frustration among liberals, who urgently want Biden
to defeat President Trump but are upset that he has taken a relatively
centrist path.
Biden is determined not to play into attacks from Trump seeking to cast
him as a radical or a socialist. The nominee has distanced himself from
elements in his party calling for defunding the police, implementing a
single-payer health plan and banning hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
Sanders supports the latter two policies.
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Still, Sanders has worked hard to publicly support Biden, and Democrats
are eager to avoid the divide between the senator and Hillary Clinton
that hurt the party in 2016. On Saturday, Sanders is slated to host a
virtual town hall that is expected to express support for Biden.
But Sanders contends Democrats have the best chance of winning if they
stress economic populism, those close to him said, rather than if they
embrace a sole strategy of attacking Trump and avoiding hot-button issues.
Until now, there had been few outward signs of discord between Biden and
Sanders. Shortly after the senator ended his campaign in April,
hepromptly endorsed Biden
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sen-bernie-sanders-endorses-joe-biden/2020/04/13/6e754a62-7d92-11ea-8013-1b6da0e4a2b7_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_21>,
offering an unequivocal stamp of approval.
Associates of both men say they personally like each other, having been
Senate colleagues. After Biden emerged as the presumptive nominee, the
two formed a series of task forces, made up of allies of both men, that
crafted policy recommendations on health-care,climate change
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-energy-202/2020/07/15/the-energy-202-biden-pleases-some-once-leery-liberals-with-new-climate-plan/5f0e291188e0fa7b44f74888/?itid=lk_inline_manual_22>and
other topics.
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In some ways,Biden has moved closer to Sanders’s brand of populism
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bidens-vision-comes-into-view-and-its-much-more-liberal-than-it-was/2020/07/11/f260830a-c2f2-11ea-b178-bb7b05b94af1_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_24>as
left-leaning activism has surged inside and outside the Democratic
Party. He has talked of a Franklin D. Roosevelt-style presidency if he
wins and urged sweeping change to combat the novelcoronavirus
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/28/what-you-need-know-about-coronavirus/?itid=lk_inline_manual_24>,
racism and other issues.
But Sanders has come to worry about the Biden campaign’s prospects, even
as the Democratic nominee leads Trump in the national polls, associates
said. Surveys in some potentially pivotal states show a closer race
between Biden and Trump, stoking nervousness among Democrats still
traumatized by Clinton’s 2016 defeat.
The people familiar with Sanders’s private conversations said he has a
expressed a sentiment that the liberal, millennial slice of the party
has not received the attention its merits. As a candidate, Sanders drew
big crowds of hundreds — sometimes thousands — of young, enthusiastic
people with left-leaning views.
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Another Sanders concern, according to one of the people, is that the
Biden campaign has kept its distance from some of the marquee surrogates
who campaigned for Sanders and helped him attract a large following.
Ocasio-Cortez, for example, has not campaigned closely with Biden.
As a candidate, Sanders frequently emphasized his economic plans, which
were geared toward curtailing wealthy and powerful interests and
championing working-class people. Biden has recently been touting his
“Build Back Better” plan, which calls for immense new investments in
American jobs and industry.
And in questioning Biden’s outreach to Latino voters, among whom Sanders
showed strength in the Democratic primary, the senator is touching on a
topic that is increasingly on the minds of Democratic leaders.
Polls have shown Biden leading Trump among Latinos, but not as widely as
many Democrats hoped. As a result, fretful discussions are underway in
the party about Biden’s standing with Latino voters in battleground
states such as Florida, Arizona, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, where
Latinos could play a pivotal role in the outcome.
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