Bernie Sanders Says He’s Confident His Supporters Will Back Joe Biden ‘At The End Of The Day’
With the sometimes-contentious primary behind him, Bernie Sanders has endorsed Joe Biden — and believes that his more reluctant supporters will eventually come around to doing the same.
Speaking to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Sanders said that he’s not worried about his supporters choosing not to vote for the former vice president in November. Sanders was asked about a memo from his former campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, warning that some of his supporters might not be willing to vote for Biden, but Sanders said he doesn’t think that will be the case.
“Look, I think at the end of the day, the vast majority of the people who voted for me, who supported me, will understand and do understand that Donald Trump is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country,” Sanders said in the interview on This Week. “And I think, at the end of day, they will be voting for Joe Biden.”
Sanders has been steadfast in saying that the top goal in November is defeating President Donald Trump, and said early in the campaign that he would back whoever became the nominee. But many of his supporters — and even some former top staff members — have been reluctant to back Biden. At times, they’ve launched attacks against the presumptive Democratic nominee for his failure to endorse some key parts of the Sanders campaign, including Medicare for All.
Biden has already taken steps to win over some of the more reluctant supporters of the Vermont senator, adopting a number of progressive proposals — including backing a tuition-free college for some students, a central plank of the Sanders campaign. Earlier this week, Biden and Sanders worked together to establish a series of joint task forces meant to create unity in the Democratic Party and establish the platform for November, Politico reported.
The report noted that there are a number of progressive figures on the task forces, including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a key supporter of Sanders. As the report added, Ocasio-Cortez had “all but formally endorsed Biden” but has still been pushing him to adopt a more progressive policy agenda. She has been open in calling for the party to move left in the upcoming election.
“There are very real, tangible areas where Democrats even fell short perhaps during the Obama administration that I think I would like for us to have a plan to improve,” AOC told Politico in an April interview.
