Senator Bernie Sanders basically admitted that President Biden is declining, but said he will support him anyway.
In an interview with The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner, the Vermont senior senator confessed Biden “sometimes [gets] confused about names.”
“You’re right—sometimes he doesn’t put three sentences together. It is true,” Sanders told Chotiner, before adding a big caveat.
“But the reality of the moment is, in my view, he is the best candidate the Democrats have for a variety of reasons, and trying, in an unprecedented way, to take him off the ticket would do a lot more harm than good,” Sanders added.
Sanders spoke about how impressed he has been with Biden’s record in office, but didn’t entirely dismiss the question over whether Biden could serve as president for another four years.
“Look, I have concerns about everything, you know? And everybody should have concerns about everything. As a nation, we do a very poor job, both in Congress and in the media, of focusing on issues that impact the working class,” Sanders said, dodging the question. “So 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.”
When Chotiner described Biden as having “trouble completing a single sentence,” Sanders replied simply, “He does.”
Still, Sanders said that he’d prefer Biden stay despite showing signs of decline. It is a candid description of Biden that one would not hear from any of the president’s other supporters, and that is probably because of Sanders’s outsider reputation as an avowed socialist and independent in the Senate.
Unlike Biden’s other supporters, Sanders isn’t just offering warnings about the dangers of convicted felon Donald Trump returning to the White House, with Project 2025 in tow. He is steadfastly defending Biden’s record over his nearly four years as president, with some criticisms.
“My supporters are very upset, and justifiably so, at the President for his position on the war in Gaza. And I pointed that out in my op-ed. I think what’s going on there is a humanitarian horror show. I think Netanyahu should not get another nickel, but that is not the White House’s position,” Sanders said.
As the standard-bearer of the Democratic Party’s left wing, Sanders’s opinions likely are the same as many other progressives who profess their support for Biden staying on, including some members of the “Squad.” But they are being outflanked by a growing number of Democrats to their right who are calling for Biden to step down, who have renewed their efforts in recent days. While intraparty tension is often a cliché, the fact is that in order for the Democrats to present a unified front against Trump and the Republicans, these tensions will have to be resolved and fast, with or without Biden.
