Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) expressed confidence in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party even with former Vice President Joe Biden at the top of its presidential ticket, saying Sunday that the party’s progressives are “making enormous progress.”
“The progressive movement has been making enormous progress, not only in electing candidates to congress, not only in electing candidates to state legislatures, but also in electing candidates for district attorney who are transforming criminal justice in America,” Sanders said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“On all of the ideas that we have been campaigning on, the understanding that health care is a human right, the need to raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour, to understand that climate change is an existential threat… we have made enormous progress in bringing the American people in our direction, especially the younger generation,” he added.
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Sanders about dissatisfaction in some progressive quarters with Biden’s selection of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his running mate due to her career as a prosecutor.
Sanders was complimentary of his colleague, saying: “I believe that Kamala is incredibly smart, incredibly tough and I would not like to be Vice President Pence in a debate with her … I think she’s going to be an asset to the campaign.”
The Vermont senator and self-identified democratic socialist acknowledged many of his supporters were not enthusiastic about the Biden campaign, but said that he thinks that “there’s overwhelming understanding that Donald Trump must be defeated, Joe Biden must be elected, and the day after he’s elected we’re going to do everything we can to create a government that works for all of us and not just the 1 percent.”