Bernie Sanders: Biden Is a ‘Much More Progressive President than He Was a United States Senator’
Vermont senator backs president's reelection
President Biden has the endorsement of one-time presidential rival, Sen Bernie Sanders, of Vermont.
Running his second race for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, Sanders was among the candidates who lost the nod to Biden.
Sanders said Sunday that he has been pleased with legislation which Biden has supported since taking office.
“Well, I think the American Rescue Plan was, in fact, one of the most significant pieces of legislation for the working class in this country in the modern history of America,” the left-leaning independent said of the majority recovery package approved early in Biden's term, to move the nation beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. “Build Back Better would have been transformational. It would have finally addressed the crises that the working class of this country has faced for decades, revolutionized childcare, revolutionized health care, dealt boldly with climate change, raised wages. I mean, it would have done a whole lot.”
Build Back Better was a second, massive spending package aimed at establishing, or bolstering, a number of longstanding Democratic priorities.
Who that legislation stalled in the Senate due to the opposition of Sens Joe Manchin (D-WVa) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz), a much scaled-back version was passed last year as the Inflation Reduction Act.
Biden's efforts have won Sanders' continued support.
“I think he is a much more progressive president than he was a United States senator,” Sanders said, adding, “I can't speak for other people. 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. If he runs, announces that he is going to run, I will support him.”
Biden represented Delaware in the US Senate for some 35 years before he was elected vice president in 2008.
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