Bernie Sanders Endorses Biden For 2024, Says Defeating Trump Is ‘Top Priority’

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) endorsed President Joe Biden‘s reelection campaign, highlighting the need to stay unified against what he views as an increasingly more extreme Republican Party.

Bernie Sanders endorsed Biden's re-election bid, telling @chrislhayes, “what’s at stake is whether we have some right-wing demagogue running this country… or whether we reelect somebody who is a very decent human being who is trying to do the opposite.” https://t.co/IfE9lA7Qiy pic.twitter.com/VUsZQCa7NW

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 28, 2023

“The last thing this country needs is a Donald Trump or some other right-wing demagogue who is going to try to undermine American democracy or take away a woman’s right to choose, or not address the crisis of gun violence, or racism, sexism or homophobia,” Sanders told reporters after Biden announced that he will seek a second term.

Sanders is considered to the left of Biden – promoting policies like Medicare-for-All that Biden has promised to veto if passed through Congress.

Sanders, although technically an Independent, caucuses with the Democrats and has run for president multiple times in the Democratic primary.

He ran against Biden in 2020 for the Democratic nomination but was defeated when other centrist candidates South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) pulled out of the race and endorsed Biden.

When Sander’s loss became inevitable, partially due to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) refusing to drop out despite lacking a realistic path to the nomination, his campaign worked with Biden to create a “task-force” that would fuse certain aspects of his platform into Biden’s agenda.

To the surprise of many on the left, Biden has pushed for a lot of the policies recommended by the task force such as social spending and climate action.

Biden’s failure to pass more of Sanders’ proposed legislation has largely been beyond his control and has been the fault of other centrists like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) and once Democrat Sen. Krysten Sinema (I-Arizona). Their votes as the 49th and 50th Democratic senators, before Republicans re-took over the House in November, could have allowed Democrats to drastically shape the federal budget with the proposed Build Back Better bill.

Sanders has not taken the opportunity to endorse self-help author Marianne Williamson, an announced candidate who holds more similar views to his own.

To the dismay of several prominent former Sanders supporters, like his former press secretary Briahna Joy Gray and left-wing political commentator Kyle Kulinski, the senator has opted to continue pushing Biden left as a close ally instead of an opponent.

There's a world in which an independent leftist Senator would withhold his endorsement for a presidential candidate in exchange for some meaningful concessions. Perhaps a Democratic party debate. I wish we lived in that world.

— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) April 25, 2023

Sanders justified this decision. “I think Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee,” he said. “And my job, and I think the progressive movement’s job, is to make certain that he stands up and fights for the working class of this country and does not take anything for granted.”

Biden is likely to win the Democratic nomination, where he will then go on to run against his Republican challenger—which is likely to be Trump again.