Bernie Sanders Denies Expressing Concerns Over Joe Biden’s Campaign

Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke to MSNBC’s Ali Velshi on Sunday and dismissed the Washington Post report that claimed he privately expressed concerns with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign, Politico reported.

“What I have said privately is what I have said publicly, and that is, I think Biden is in an excellent position to win this election, but I think we have got to do more as a campaign than just go after Trump,” he said.

The Washington Post cited three sources with knowledge of the conversations in which Sanders allegedly expressed concerns over Biden’s campaign. Notably, the Vermont senator reportedly pushed for the campaign to “focus on pocketbook issues and appeals to liberal voters.” In addition, Sanders has allegedly expressed concern with Biden’s “vaguer, more centrist approach,” which he reportedly believes could cause the former vice president to lose at the ballot box in November.

Sanders has also reportedly urged the Democratic nominee to conduct more outreach to grassroots Latino organizations. Although the Democrat is leading Donald Trump among the Latino demographic, the Washington Post noted that this gap is not as wide as the party had hoped.

Faiz Shakir, Sanders’ former campaign manager, responded to the report by highlighting Sanders’ confidence in Biden’s position in the race but did acknowledge the senator believes the campaign could improve. In particular, Sanders has been pressuring the candidate’s campaign to focus on issues like health care expansion, job creation, increased wages, and lowered prescription drug costs.

While speaking with Velshi on Sunday, Sanders also said he believed Biden’s campaign could sharpen its message.

“Trump is a disaster. I think most people know it. But we also have to give people a reason to vote for Joe Biden.”

Although Biden and Sanders both represented two wings of the Democratic Party on the presidential trail, the two have united to defeat the incumbent. While the Medicare for All advocate continues to campaign for the former vice president and urge voters to support him, he has also been open about his belief that the presidential nominee is not working hard enough to court progressive voters.

As The Inquisitr reported, the Vermont senator previously claimed that Biden’s agenda is the most progressive since former President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Others have noted that the candidate’s new platform is significantly more to the left of the political spectrum than Barack Obama, who suggested that his former vice president has similar goals as the progressive firebrand.

“If you look at Joe Biden’s goals and Bernie Sanders’s goals, they’re not that different, from a forty-thousand-foot level,” he said in an interview with New Yorker writer Evan Osnos last month.