NY Times editorial board’s Gay: Biden’s platform ‘far more liberal’ than Obama’s in 2008

New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay told MSNBC on Tuesday that Joe Biden’s platform is “far more liberal than Barack Obama’s was years ago,” adding that it was “more similar” to Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) platform.

“I think what’s funny, Biden’s platform is far more liberal than Barack Obama’s was years ago, and so when we looked at that as an editorial board, we were kind of blown away about how much more similar it is it Bernie Sanders’s platform in some ways than Barack Obama in 2008,” Gay told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace.

Biden defeated Sanders and other progressive politicians in the Democratic primary, and has since faced pressure to move further to the left. Officials from the Sanders and Biden campaigns worked together in groups in advance of the Democratic platform.

While the platform does not endorse the Green New Deal initiative or “Medicare for All,” both high priorities for Sanders, it does endorse a public option for health care that was set aside during the ObamaCare debate as too ambitious.

The Trump campaign as part of its reelection message is arguing that Biden would take the country too far to the left. 

An August poll from Hill-HarrisX shows voters see Biden as more moderate than President Trump, with 33 percent of registered voters saying Biden is moderate, compared to 20 percent who say the same of Trump.

The survey also found that more voters view Trump as conservative than view Biden as liberal.

Sixty-nine percent of Republicans view Trump as “somewhat” or “very” conservative, compared to 41 percent of Democrats who view Biden as “somewhat” or “very” liberal.