Bernie Sanders Withholds Harris Endorsement

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in a Friday interview with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi explained why he has yet to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president, suggesting he wants first to see more specific commitments from her on issues important to the working class.

The Hill reported this week that Sanders is looking to shape Harris’s campaign, and that he had held off on an endorsement in part to exert some pressure on the vice president to adopt some of his priorities.

Sanders in the interview made it clear he will work to elect Harris, noting he is taking part in events in Maine to do so. He said he wanted to do everything he could to defeat former President Trump and to make Harris the next president.

But he said he wanted to get more specific commitments from Harris on issues such as expanding Medicare and Social Security before providing an official endorsement.

“I think it’s important for some of us to say look, we know that there’s a lot of big money in the Democratic Party,” Sanders told Valshi. “We want to make sure that the vice president is listening to the working class of this country, to the progressives as well.

“These are not radical ideas and I would hope very much we get specificity,” he added.