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The stories that matter on money and politics in the race for the White House
Bernie Sanders, the veteran leftwing senator from Vermont, said he was fully backing Joe Biden’s re-election bid, offering the besieged Democratic president critical help as he tries to keep his campaign alive.
The support from Sanders is the latest sign that Biden’s staunchest defenders as he tries to prevent a Democratic rebellion against his candidacy in the election against Donald Trump are on the progressive flank of the party.
The president was expected to join a virtual meeting of the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Saturday afternoon to discuss the 2024 election, the White House said.
He was otherwise huddling at his Delaware beach home after a dramatic week in which a string of lawmakers from his own party called on him to quit the presidential race in the wake of his disastrous performance in a debate against Trump last month.
But in an opinion piece published in the New York Times, Sanders wrote that he would do “all that I can to see that President Biden is re-elected”.
“With an effective campaign that speaks to the needs of working families, he will not only defeat Mr. Trump but beat him badly,” Sanders wrote.
Sanders was Biden’s rival during the 2020 Democratic primary and also challenged Hillary Clinton for the party’s presidential nomination in 2016. Aged 82, he remains one of the most influential leftwing politicians in the country.
His comments come as many other mainstream Democrats and party elders have been quiet or equivocal about Biden’s political future, including Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama.
Democratic congressional leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have also failed to issue any lengthy or clear endorsements of Biden amid the turmoil, as they huddle with lawmakers concerned about the president’s ability to govern and campaign against Trump given the lapses at the debate.
Biden sought to brush away doubts about his candidacy during a high-stakes press conference after the Nato summit on Thursday, though his performance was mixed and failed to deter additional Democratic defections. On Friday, Biden travelled to Michigan where he gave a defiant, energetic speech in Detroit, casting himself as the victim of unfair criticism from the party elites.
“You made me the nominee, no one else — not the press, not the pundits, not the insiders, not donors,” Biden told the crowd in Detroit. “You, the voters. You decided. No one else. And I’m not going anywhere,” he said.
Biden’s comments in the Michigan city famous for being the hub of the US car industry also included a populist message on economics — including measures to limit medical debt — that aligns with many of Sanders’ preferred policies.
“My first hundred days in a second term will continue to be all about the working people,” Biden said.
As the Republican convention to formally nominate Trump opens in Wisconsin on Monday, Biden has planned an interview with NBC that will also be closely watched by Democrats for signs of his determination to stay in the race as well as his mental acuity.
Sanders’ move to back Biden comes after younger progressives such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar have also rushed to back the president, despite their own misgivings about the president, including fierce criticism of his handling of Israel’s war in Gaza.
The opposition to Biden’s campaign has been concentrated among moderate Democrats in battleground districts, as well as lawmakers with national security expertise, such as Adam Smith and Jim Himes, the party’s top members of the House armed services and intelligence committees respectively.
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