In an interview with the Guardian from his home base in Burlington, Vermont, Sanders urged the Democratic president to inject more urgency into his bid for re-election. He said that unless the president was more direct in recognising the many crises faced by working-class families his Republican rival would win.

“We’ve got to see the White House move more aggressively on healthcare, on housing, on tax reform, on the high cost of prescription drugs,” Sanders said. “If we can get the president to move in that direction, he will win; if not, he’s going to lose.”

The US senator from Vermont added that he was in contact with the White House pressing that point. “We hope to make clear to the president and his team that they are not going to win this election unless they come up with a progressive agenda that speaks to the needs of the working class of this country.”

Sanders’ warning comes at a critical time in American politics. On Monday, Republicans in Iowa will gather for caucuses that mark the official start of the 2024 presidential election.

Biden faces no serious challenger in the Democratic primaries. But concern is mounting over how he would fare against Trump given a likely rematch between them in November.

  • BolexForSoup@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    I always feel compelled to bring up two things whenever Bernie’s campaign comes up.

    1. he drank his own Kool-Aid. There was never some secret hidden millions of young voters who were just going to show up out of nowhere. It’s equally as silly as the “shy trump voter” myth. I don’t know why he was convinced there was. He’s smarter than that, and it was always kind of baffling to me. Maybe he just kept seeing all these people show up to his events in person and got a false sense of his support or something.

    2. he ran the exact same campaign in 2020 and expected different results. There was no change up except he had a far less unpopular direct competitor. Again, I don’t know what he was thinking.

    I’m also not sure why he was so surprised the establishment was against him when he spent every single waking minute railing against the establishment. You don’t take pot shots at everyone in your party and then go “I don’t get why you’re not backing me up!”

    2016 also didn’t sit right with how much he was against the primary system and then as soon as it was clear he couldn’t win by conventional means he started saying “the way to the White House is paved with superdelegates” more or less.