Sanders says he’s worried Biden could lose election over Gaza war

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Wednesday he is concerned President Biden’s handling of the ongoing war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas could cost him the election.

When asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins if Biden could lose in November, especially with young, progressive voters, Sanders said, “Well, that’s what I worry about.”

“Look, I think Biden has a lot of accomplishments. And the point that I would make, and have made before, Joe Biden is not running against God,” Sanders continued. “He’s not running against the perfect candidate. He’s running against the guy, named Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in the history of this country.”

Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, has been a staunch critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and continued U.S. aid to Israel in the wake of the climbing death toll in Gaza. More than 34,700 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks that triggered the ongoing war, according to local health officials.

Shortly before Wednesday’s interview, Biden warned that he would halt supplying Israel with offensive weapons should Israeli forces launch an invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, angering many conservatives. The White House has repeatedly warned against a full-scale invasion of Rafah, where more than 1 million civilians are seeking refuge after being forced to evacuate other parts of the region.

Sanders touted the pause as a step forward, but said he wants to see “even more” from the president.

“Well, I think it’s a good step forward. I think we’ve got to do even more,” Sanders said. “The bottom line is, Kaitlan, is what Netanyahu has done in Gaza is unconscionable.”

Tensions over Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war were reflected in some of this year’s early primaries, including in Michigan, when 13 percent of primary voters cast a protest ballot for “uncommitted.”

However, in many states that had a undecided option in primaries, the share of uncommitted votes was less than 2012 levels, the last time an incumbent Democrat was on the ballot, per The Washington Post.

Last week, Sanders suggested the pro-Palestinian protests that have sprouted on college campuses across the U.S. in aversion to the war in Gaza could be Biden’s Vietnam War, in reference to the anti-war protests that roiled schools in the 1960s.

Sanders sought to clarify his remarks in Wednesday’s interview, telling Collins, “Of course, this is not Vietnam.  Of course, tens of thousands of American soldiers are not dying in this war.”

“The point was a political point. And that is that Lyndon Johnson, in many ways, was a very, very good president,” he said, adding later, “He chose, despite all of those accomplishments, he chose not to run for reelection in 1968, because of his support for the war, and the opposition, grassroots opposition to the war in Vietnam. That’s the point to be made. It’s a political question.”

Updated: 3:42 p.m.