Bernie Sanders’ NY Occasions column urges Dems to rally round Biden

Because the refrain calling for President Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 race will get louder, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is chiming in, urging Democrats to “cease the bickering and nit-picking.”

The 2-time presidential candidate wrote in a brand new New York Occasions opinion piece Democrats must rally across the 81-year-old Biden, calling him “the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump.”

Whereas “Mr. Biden is previous, is liable to gaffes, walks stiffly and had a disastrous debate with Mr. Trump,” the unbiased wrote “a presidential election isn’t an leisure contest. It doesn’t start or finish with a 90-minute debate.”

Acknowledging he disagrees with Biden on a variety of key points, Sanders, 82, stated the president has “a report of actual accomplishment,” whereas calling Trump “a demagogue and pathological liar.”

“Sufficient!” Sanders wrote. “Mr. Biden is probably not the perfect candidate, however he would be the candidate and must be the candidate. And with an efficient marketing campaign that speaks to the wants of working households, he won’t solely defeat Mr. Trump however beat him badly.”

A number of Home Democrats, together with Reps. Hillary Scholten, of Michigan, Brad Schneider, of Illinois, Ed Case, of Hawaii, and Greg Stanton, of Arizona, have urged Biden to step apart so {that a} stronger candidate can emerge.

Sanders stated he can see why “some Democrats get nervous about having to clarify the president’s gaffes and misspeaking names,” however believes that beats the choice.

“Not like the Republicans, [Dems] would not have to clarify away a candidate who now has 34 felony convictions and faces expenses that would result in dozens of extra convictions, who has been hit with a $5 million judgment after he was discovered liable in a sexual abuse case, who has been concerned in additional than 4,000 lawsuits, who has repeatedly gone bankrupt and who has informed hundreds of documented lies and falsehoods,” wrote Sanders.

Sanders, whose final presidential bid was deliberately derailed by officers throughout the Democratic Nationwide Committee, stated Biden “respects democracy” whereas Trump “assaults it.”

“This election gives a stark alternative on challenge after challenge,” added Sanders. “If Mr. Biden and his supporters give attention to these points — and refuse to be divided and distracted — the president will rally working households to his aspect within the industrial Midwest swing states and elsewhere and win the November election. And let me say this as emphatically as I can: For the sake of our children and future generations, he should win.”