Sanders: Biden a more progressive president than he was as senator

President Biden is much more progressive as commander in chief than he was as a senator, according to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), with the left-wing lawmaker saying on Sunday he would support Biden if he runs for reelection in 2024.

“I think he is a much more progressive president than he was a United States senator,” Sanders said in an interview with CBS’s “Face The Nation.”

Sanders, who challenged Biden for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, praised Biden for sitting down with Sanders and his team after the primary to put together a platform.

“I think as a result of the campaign and the task forces we did together, you recall, we had task forces during his campaign and my campaign,” Sanders said. “I think we came up with an agenda that was progressive.”

Sanders said that some of the early goals that the Biden administration and a Democratic Congress were able to accomplish in the first two years of Biden’s presidency were progressive victories, including the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.

“I think the American Rescue Plan that we passed early in his agenda, in the midst of the terrible pandemic, the economic collapse, was, in fact, one of the most significant pieces of legislation for the working class in this country, in the modern history of America,” Sanders said. 

Sanders also said that the Build Back Better plan, which failed to get enough Democratic support, would have been “transformational.”

“Build Back Better would have been transformational,” Sanders said. “It would have finally addressed the crises that the working class of this country has faced for decades: revolutionized child care, revolutionized health care, dealt boldly with climate change, raised wages, and it would have done a whole lot. We got zero Republican support, and two Democrats decided not to support it.”

Sanders said he would support Biden if he ran for reelection in 2024, adding that he has done “a good job,” but said he wouldn’t speculate whether other Democrats would challenge the incumbent president.

“I think there’s a general consensus right now that President Biden has done, not everything we would like, he has done a good job,” Sanders said. “And again, I can’t speak for anybody else. But what I have said is, if he runs, announces that he is going to run, I will support him.”