The campaign manager for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said in an interview published Wednesday that the campaign would be “willing to consider” Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton for vice president if she ends up losing to her rival.
“Look, she’d make a great vice president. We’re willing to give her more credit than Obama did,” Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said in an interview with Bloomberg Politics. “We’re willing to consider her for vice president. We’ll give her serious consideration. We’ll even interview her.”
Though Weaver’s comments were “at least half-joking,” according to Bloomberg’s John Heilemann, they represent a larger shift by the Sanders campaign to beat Clinton, who is leading polls nationally and in some early caucus and primary states.
“If we can make it about his message and his record versus her message and her record, we can beat her,” campaign chief strategist Tad Devine told Bloomberg. “We’d much rather win that way, because if we beat her and she collapses and we’re standing there, the whole institutional establishment party could rise up against us. That is a real possibility.”
