The Intercept’s Washington, D.C., Bureau Chief Ryan Grim on Thursday said that he thinks supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) can convince former Vice President Joe Biden to move farther to the left in the 2020 White House race.
“They said now’s the time of maximum leverage to pressure Biden to make not just policy commitments, which are nice but easy to go back on, but to make personnel commitment right now,” Grim said in an appearance on Hill.TV’s “Rising.”
On Wednesday, after Sanders dropped out of the race for the Oval Office, eight progressive youth groups issued a list of demands that they want to see Biden adopt ahead of the general election, which Grim said had been in the works for weeks.
The organizations asked for policy commitments and for the Biden campaign to bring in staff and campaign chairs from the Sanders campaign.
Grim said these groups are entering negotiations with the party’s moderate base by making high demands in the hopes that at least some of their more progressive ideas will be adopted.
They believe they go too big with what they ask for and then hopefully that will get whittled down in talks and they’ll come away with what they actually wanted and expected they could get to begin with,” Grim said. “… They do really believe that the Biden administration can be influenced, they don’t think Biden has much political capital.”
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