Report: Bernie Sanders Preferred Harris As Biden VP Pick

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) delivers a campaign update on March 11, 2020 in Burlington, Vermont. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is said to have preferred now-Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris as Joe Biden’s running mate from a list that initially included about a dozen potential candidates.

Bloomberg News reported Monday evening that a source familiar with the progressive lawmaker’s thinking believed that although Harris was not the most progressive of the pool, she was the party’s best shot at going up against President Donald Trump. 

The revelation comes as Sanders delivered remarks kicking off the first night of the Democratic National Convention anchored on a message of setting aside policy disagreements to unite in defeating Trump in the 2020 election.

Per Bloomberg News, Biden’s team had also worked with Sanders’ to form policy task forces to craft the convention platform, though it notably omits Medicare For All, which was a key agenda item for Sanders.

In remarks that seemed to directly call on his progressive base Monday night Sanders implored his followers to relinquish grudges and embrace Biden’s presidential bid.

“My friends, the price of failure is just too great to imagine,” he said.

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Notable Replies

  1. Sanders:

    ‘Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfs.’

    Captures Trump’s Murica well!

    Trump-Murica

  2. There is one sentence in the document that deals with medicare for all. It isn’t much but it is there. You all must have missed it.

    “Generations of Democrats have been united in the fight for universal health care. We are proud our party welcomes advocates who want to build on and strengthen the Affordable Care Act and those who support a Medicare for All approach; all are critical to ensuring that health care is a human right,”

    It was added this week.

  3. Last night Bernie was clear in telling his people to fall in line. He was enthusiastic. He was clear the progressives are not surrendering, just reorganizing to come back in force after the election. Same message as the Republicans in the Lincoln Project.

  4. Tactical thinking from a man whose most enthusiastic supporters so often forego it.

  5. “My friends, the price of failure is just too great to imagine.” – Senator Bernie Sanders

    What he said, but raised by two or three orders of magnitude.
    If you think it’s bad now, I guarantee that another four years will place you into “Hellscape Amerikkka.”
    Just as Trump envisaged during his inauguration speech.

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