Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday declined to say whether former President Biden should have withdrawn from the 2024 election sooner, saying the Democratic Party’s larger problems have “nothing to do” with that decision.
“Bret, I’m not going back a year,” Sanders told Fox News’s Bret Baier in an interview on “Special Report” when asked whether Biden should have “gotten out of that race earlier.”
Sanders said he doesn’t want to relitigate the issue.
“But isn’t that a big part of where the Democratic Party is?” Baier responded.
“No, no, it’s not,” Sanders said. “It’s nothing to do with Biden right now or [former Vice President and 2024 Democratic nominee] Kamala Harris.”
Sanders said the fundamental problem Democrats face is appearing not to stand with working class Americans.
“The question is, what is the fundamental issue in politics? Which side are you on?” he continued. “So, right now, you have massive income and wealth inequality. You have the rich getting richer. Wealthiest people, large corporations control our economy. Billionaires control our political system.”
“The question is, do you stand with the working class, with the elderly, with the kids, or do you stand with big money?” the two-time former presidential candidate asked.
The line of questioning came after Baier played a clip from Biden’s Monday BBC interview, when the former president said he doesn’t think bowing out of the 2024 race earlier would have changed the outcome of the election.
“I don’t think it would have mattered,” Biden said in the interview.
“We left at a time when we had a good candidate. She was fully funded,” Biden said, referring to Harris, who was elevated to the top of the ticket when he stepped aside and inherited the massive Biden-Harris campaign fund.
Since the 2024 election, Sanders has been vocal in his criticism of both parties and has drawn large crowds with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, which has focused on highlighting wealth inequality and corruption in the Trump administration.
