Joe Biden Adopts Major Plans From Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren In Move To Win Over Progressives

Joe Biden is taking plans from some of his Democratic opponents, announcing on Sunday that his campaign would be adopting some of the major proposals from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

As The Hill reported, the more moderate Biden announced that he was taking on some progressive plans from his fellow candidates in what is seen as a move to win over some of their supporters. That included a bankruptcy plan put together by Warren, and a plan from Sanders to make public colleges and universities free for families making less than $125,000.

“Across the country, middle and working class families are being squeezed by debt,” he tweeted, via The Hill. “This is a massive problem, and one that we need all of the best ideas to solve. That’s why today, I’m adopting two plans from @BernieSanders and @ewarren to achieve this.”

In announcing his decision to take on the plans, Biden said he would be willing to consider all plans from other candidates and would be adopting them as part of his own platform if he believed they were a good idea for the U.S.

“This primary has brought out our party’s best ideas, and our nation is better for it,” Biden wrote. “If I’m President, I’ll continue to bring the best ideas from all corners of the country and fight to make them reality.”

After falling behind Sanders early in the Democratic primary with losses in each of the first three contests, Biden has surged back after a better-than-expected win in the South Carolina primary that was followed by a string of upset wins on Super Tuesday.

Biden announced that he would be adopting part of Sanders’s platform just hours before the two were set to debate in Washington, D.C. Sanders had been facing calls to drop out of the race after his path to victory became nearly impossible, but he said this week that he would be staying in and wanted to press Biden to address his plans to counter out-of-control medical costs for average Americans.

Biden appears to be shifting to a general election race, turning his focus to Trump and taking steps to address the greater voting public rather than just Democratic primary voters. This week he gave a major speech on the coronavirus crisis, outlining his proposal to make testing for the virus free and widely available and pushing back against misinformation.

“We lead by science,” Biden said, via The Hill. “Downplaying it, being overly dismissive, or spreading misinformation is only going to hurt us and further advantage the spread of the disease.”