In an interview with Vermont Public this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders said he supports Vice President Kamala Harris in her presidential bid. He said he'll be campaigning to make her the next president of the United States.
Sanders said Harris' best path to victory against Republican candidate Donald Trump is to advocate for a "progressive" agenda to address the concerns of working class people.
Vermont Public's Bob Kinzel spoke with Sen. Sanders this week. This interview was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Bob Kinzel: Senator, let's take a look at our very unusual political situation right now with the Democrats coming to their convention in a couple of weeks. You know, a couple of weeks ago, when many of your colleagues were calling on President Biden to withdraw from the race, you remained very strongly behind him. Why did you think it was so important to stick with Biden at that time?
Bernie Sanders: Well, because, the truth is that President Biden, in terms of the needs of working people, Bob, has been probably the most progressive president in our country since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s. I mean, Biden is the first president to have ever walked on a picket line, supporting striking workers, very strongly pro labor.
Biden, after years and years of talk, we finally managed to put a lot of money into rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, put money into climate change. We provided — at least for three years — significant amounts of money for child tax credits to lower childhood poverty by 40%. We've taken on the pharmaceutical industry in an unprecedented way — not enough, but we're making some progress.
So I like what he has done. And I was confident that in the next four years, he would go even further. So that's why I strongly supported President Biden, but he is out. He made the decision to drop out, and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that Kamala Harris is the next president of the United States. Just last weekend, as it happens, I was, did some rallies and town meetings in New Hampshire and Maine, and I'll be going around the country to try to rally support for the vice president.
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Bob Kinzel: Senator, I wonder if you could clarify something for me. As you mentioned, last week, and you were campaigning in New Hampshire and Maine, you told the crowds that you supported Harris, but this was not a formal endorsement.
Bernie Sanders: I was there to make sure that we got as much support as possible. What I want to see — it's not a complicated issue. Of course I support the vice president. Of course I'm going to do everything I can to defeat Donald Trump. But what I also want to see coming from the Harris campaign is some specific ideas about how we're going to deal with the crises facing working families in this country.
We got half of our elderly people living on $30,000 a year or less. We have to expand and extend Social Security. The American people want us to extend and expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision. I mentioned the Child Tax Credit, I want to see us not be a country that has one of the highest rates of childhood poverty of any major country on Earth. We've gotta raise the minimum wage to a living wage. We need real tax reform so that billionaires start paying their fair share of taxes. We got to deal with a housing crisis, which is so serious in Vermont, and around this country.
So, of course, I'm going to do everything I can to see that the vice president is elected. But I hope to work with her to make sure that there is an agenda that addresses the fact that 60% — 60% of our people — are living paycheck to paycheck, and we have more income and wealth inequality today than we've ever had before.
"Of course I support the vice president. ... But what I also want to see coming from the Harris campaign is some specific ideas about how we're going to deal with the crises facing working families in this country."Sen. Bernie Sanders
Bob Kinzel: So is there a difference between supporting her and endorsing her?
Bernie Sanders: You know, this is, I think, a media creation here. I'm doing everything I can to see that she gets elected. But I think it's very important for this country that we start focusing on the issues that are impacting the working class.
Bob Kinzel: Senator, there are some Democrats who think that Harris should try to appeal to the moderate, undecided voters across the country. You're advocating a very different approach. Why do you think your approach is the winning strategy?
Bernie Sanders: Well, everything I have told you, Bob, is not just good policy, it is good politics. Go out on the street and ask the people whether or not we should lift the cap on taxable income coming into Social Security so that we can expand benefits by $2,400 and make social security solvent by 75 years by having the wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes. You know what, my guess is 80% of the people — Democrats, Republicans, independents — who will tell you "Yes."
Ask people — and I do — whether or not we should expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing and vision, overwhelming support for that. Ask people whether we should raise the minimum wage to a living wage. Ask people whether we should build the kind of affordable housing and low-income housing and senior citizen housing that we desperately need.
So all that I'm saying is that it is important to respond to the needs of working class people who are hurting. And that is the right thing to do from a moral perspective, but it is also good politics. That is my view.
"It is important to respond to the needs of working class people who are hurting. And that is the right thing to do from a moral perspective, but it is also good politics."Sen. Bernie Sanders
Bob Kinzel: In the near future, Harris will select a running mate. Earlier this week a group of progressive leaders urged her to select either Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz or Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. Do you agree that either one of those two would be a good choice?
Bernie Sanders: I really — I just spoke to Gov. Walz the other day of for the first time, I think. And I met Andy Beshear probably 10 years ago, so I don't know much about either one of them. But I would hope whatever her choice is that she will choose a candidate who will speak to the needs of working families and have the courage to work with her to stand up the powerful special interests who today have just so much influence over the political and economic life of our country.
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