Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday doubled down on his support for Vice President Harris, stating he will “do everything” he can to help her win in November.
“I think the vice president now has a very good chance to win it. She’s certainly going to win the popular vote by millions of votes, and I think she has a great chance to win many of the battleground states. And I intend to do everything that I can to see that she wins,” Sanders said on ABC News’s “This Week.”
Sanders, reflecting on what he described as the “very high” energy at last week’s Democratic National Convention, said he believes people are growing “tired and fatigued” with former President Trump, the GOP presidential nominee.
The independent senator, who caucuses with Democrats, was a longtime supporter of President Biden and continued to back him amid growing calls from Democratic lawmakers to step down earlier this summer.
Sanders had not initially endorsed Harris for president, stating he wanted first to see more specific commitments from her on issues important to the working class. The Hill reported at the time that Sanders was looking to shape Harris’s campaign and had held off on an endorsement in part to exert some pressure on the vice president to adopt some of his priorities.
He has since thrown his support behind Harris and lauded her recently unveiled economic plan as “strong” and “progressive.”
When asked Sunday if there is “any daylight between” Biden and Harris’s views in a discussion on the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Sanders said, “Well, I hope so.”
“My views in this area are very different from President Biden’s views. I happen to think that we should not be giving another nickel to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s right-wing, extremist government,” he said.
“I think, you know, in all fairness to the vice president, you know, she’s been the candidate for all of one month. And it’s been a hell of a month,” he added. “You have to organize the convention, select a vice presidential [running mate], get out on the campaign trail. So, they are still working through their policies.”
“But I think, at the end of the day, I hope very much that the conclusion that will be reached is that Netanyahu, and his right-wing extremist government, which has received tens of billions of dollars of aid from the U.S., should not continue to receive that aid unless there is a radical change in their policies to the people — to the Palestinian people in Gaza, and in the West Bank, by the way,” he continued.
The remarks came after Harris said last week at the convention that she would “ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.”
“I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself. And I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself,” she said last week. “I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists.”
Stating he agrees with the vice president that the U.S. wants the “strongest defense in the world,” Sanders noted he thinks “enough is enough.”
“You’re seeing military contractors’ profits soaring, and I think we can have the strongest defense in the world without spending a trillion dollars a year,” he said.