A scant five days after suspending his own campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has endorsed former vice president Joe Biden, the last Democrat currently standing. Sanders announced the endorsement on Tuesday during a livestream hosted by Biden.
“Today, I am asking all Americans — I’m asking every Democrat, I’m asking every independent, I’m asking a lot of Republicans to come together in this campaign, to support your candidacy, which I endorse, to make certain that we defeat somebody who I believe — and I’m speaking just for myself now — is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country,” Sanders said.
Biden thanked Sanders telling him, “You’re endorsement means a great deal to me.”
“You’ve been the powerful voice for a fair and more just America,” Biden told the Vermont senator. “You don’t get enough credit, Bernie, for being the voice that forces us to take a hard look in the mirror.”
In a move designed to sway the committed apparatchiks who backed Sanders, Biden moved even farther left as the two discussed the creation of several “task forces” on issues such as climate change, healthcare, education, the economy, and immigration.
“I hope that these task forces will come together, utilizing the best minds and people in your campaign and in my campaign to work out real solutions to these very, very important problems,” Sanders told Biden.
The endorsement signals a coming together of the party’s far left and more moderate wings — at least at the very top. But there is still much to do in order to unite the fractious party, as evidenced by the reaction to Sanders’ endorsement by some of his supporters.
Former national press secretary for the Biden campaign, Briahna Joy Gray, who last week suggested that Democrats were looking to replace Biden, tweeted, “With the utmost respect for Bernie Sanders, who is an incredible human being and a genuine inspiration, I don’t endorse Joe Biden. I supported Bernie Sanders because he backed ideas like #Medicareforall, canceling ALL student debt and a wealth tax. Biden supports none of those.”
Race hustler Shaun King, another prominent Sanders supporter, also offered reasons not to support a Biden candidacy, among them the presumptive nominee’s sketchy relationship with the truth. “I’ve now counted at least 50 times that Joe Biden blatantly lied about his participation in the Civil Rights Movement from sit-ins he never participated in to marches he was not a part of, to being trained in Black churches as a boy,” King wrote in the online site The North Star. “He must apologize & explain this.”
While garnering Sanders’ endorsement is big for Biden, the former vice president still lacks a few vital endorsements from Democratic leaders. For instance, former opponent Elizabeth Warren, who lines up ideologically with Sanders is still silent on who she is backing. And many others on the extreme left of the party are still being cautious about endorsing the deeply flawed Biden.
Any traction Biden does gain with Sanders’ endorsement might all be undone by allegations brought against Biden by former staffer Tara Reade, who claims that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993. The mainstream media has been slow to mention the story at all but a New York Times piece finally at least addressed the issue on Sunday. That may open the floodgates.
Biden and his campaign have repeatedly denied Reade’s allegations.
All in all, it was a good day for the Biden campaign. His fiercest rival throughout the primary season has endorsed him, leaving the way completely clear for the former Delaware senator to snatch the nomination he’s been dreaming of since the 1980s.
Now, if he can just find the ability to stay out of his own way.
Image of Bernie Sanders: Screenshot from berniesanders.com
James Murphy is a freelance journalist who writes on a variety of subjects, with a primary focus on the ongoing anthropogenic climate-change hoax and cultural issues. He can be reached at [email protected]
