The Vermont senator and top progressive said it's fine if Biden "can't put three sentences together" as long as he has a working-class agenda.
Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who remains a key progressive power player in the Democratic Party, is sticking firmly behind President Joe Biden amid questions about his viability.
That's even as he acknowledges that Biden has issues effectively delivering his own message.
"I'm not aware that anyone thinks that Joe Biden is the best candidate in the history of the world, or that he's an ideal candidate," Sanders told The New Yorker. "Sometimes he gets confused about names. You're right — sometimes he doesn't put three sentences together."
But the Vermont senator said he remained the best candidate Democrats have and that "trying, in an unprecedented way, to take him off the ticket would do a lot more harm than good."
In the interview, Sanders said Biden had the "strongest record of any president in modern American history" and that both the media and his Democratic colleagues — 20 of whom have publicly called on Biden to drop out — were not focused enough on the substance of the president's achievements.
"I would much prefer to have somebody who can't put three sentences together who is setting forth an agenda that speaks to the needs of working-class people," Sanders said. "Given these really horrific several weeks that Biden has had since the debate, where Democrats are busy attacking him, the media is busy attacking him, if he's not any worse off today than he was before the debate, I think that he has a very good chance to win."
Sanders' approach in the wake of Biden's disastrous debate performance has differed significantly from that of his fellow Vermont lawmakers.
Sen. Peter Welch, the other Vermont senator, is the sole Democratic senator who has called on Biden to drop out.
Rep. Becca Balint, the state's only House member, told VTDigger that her constituents "overwhelmingly" wanted Biden to drop out, though she stopped short of calling for it herself.
