by Hans Izaak Kriek*
At a virtual town hall on Wednesday, just hours after Bernie Sanders dropped out of the presidential race, Joe Biden assumed the mantle of his party’s presumptive nominee, and, at a separate virtual fundraiser, the former vice president suggested that one-time rival Kamala Harris may play a big role in his campaign going forward.
Streaming live to some 1,621 viewers on YouTube, Biden praised Sanders during the town hall for being a persistent and "passionate voice for progress," and also lauded the Vermont senator for ‘energizing millions of supporters’.
"Earlier today my good friend Bernie Sanders announced he was suspending his campaign," Biden, whose comments were sometimes muddled, said at one point. "He didn’t just run a political campaign. He created a movement."
Biden also said that coronavirus had ‘magnified some of our worst systemic inequities’, and that black and Hispanic communities are suffering higher infection and death rates than white communities.
"That’s unconscionable," he said. "We need more data on how Latinos and other communities of color are impacted, so we know exactly what has to be done." Biden said that infection rates in black communities were "three times" that of white communities, with death rates "nearly six times higher."
“It’s sick, it’s troubling, it’s wrong, and we’re going to fight back with everything we’ve got," Biden promised.
At the virtual fundraiser earlier in the day, Harris appeared on video from Washington, blasting President Trump as a ‘complete failure’ and, in an effusive introduction, asserting that Biden would be the right president at a time when people ‘need to have hope, need to have faith’.
The former vice president responded in kind, praising Harris for running a ‘helluva race’ and reminding attendees that “we go back a long way,” a reference to Harris’ friendship with Biden’s late son, Beau. Harris was California’s attorney general at the same time that Beau Biden held the post in Delaware.
Seemingly teasing the running mate chatter, Biden added: “I’m so lucky to have you be a part of this partnership going forward. Working together, we can make a great deal of progress. I’m coming for you, kid.”
Biden briefly talked about his vice president selection process explicitly and mentioned reaching out to former President Barack Obama for advice, saying that in the ‘coming weeks’ his team is going to ‘start looking at candidates’, adding that he is ’looking for someone who will be a partner in this progress’.
Sources within the Democratic Party say that Biden’s team has a list of nine potential running mates they are considering, with the two top contenders for the nod being Senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Harris.
Of the up-and-coming stars of the Democratic Party who Biden could choose, arguably no one is getting more national media attention right now than Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Biden has said he will pick a woman as his running mate.
Bernie Sanders said in his announcement that he’ll keep his name on the ballot in upcoming Democratic presidential primary contests in the hope of amassing more delegates.
An anchor from Fox News said: "I’m not impressed with how he handled it because he’s already pulled the party so far to the left that they had to reject him at the ballot box in the latter half of those primaries.”
"And I think the Democrats would take a look at this and say, ’Just remember, Bernie Sanders was never actually a Democrat.’ He had hijacked the party. And now he wants to do even more damage. He wants to keep getting more delegates so he can go to the convention and pull former Vice President Joe Biden even further to the left, almost guaranteeing that he can’t possibly win against President Trump."
Sanders acknowledged Wednesday that the former vice president would be the Democratic nominee but also made it clear the he wanted to have influence over the party’s platform.
"We must continue working to assemble as many delegates as possible at the Democratic convention where we will be able to exert significant influence over the party platform and other functions," he said.
President Trump said in a reaction ‘I’m astounded that Obama has not endorsed Biden’.
"I don’t know why President Obama hasn’t supported Joe Biden a long time ago," Trump told reporters in response to a question at his daily coronavirus briefing. "He feels something is wrong. It does amaze me that President Obama hasn’t supported Sleepy Joe. It just hasn’t happened. When’s it gonna happen? Why isn’t he? He knows something that you don’t know, that I think I know, that you don’t know."
Trump later added that Obama has to ‘come out at some point," because "he certainly does not want to see me for four more years’. Obama previously said he would not endorse a candidate until a nominee was chosen.
Trump did not say what it is he knows that the media does not, but the president has interjected his opinion on the 2020 Democratic primary field before. He also questioned why Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., dropped out of the race but is keeping his delegates, calling it "a weird deal."
In a tweet Wednesday, he blamed Sanders’ primary loss on Senator Elizabeth Warren, arguing that Sanders would have swept Super Tuesday had Warren dropped out earlier.
"Bernie Sanders is OUT!" Trump tweeted minutes after Sanders announced that he would suspend his campaign. "Thank you to Elizabeth Warren. If not for her, Bernie would have won almost every state on Super Tuesday!"
Trump also urged Sanders’ supporters to flip to support the GOP. "The Bernie people should come to the Republican Party, TRADE!" he tweeted.
Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager, also encouraged Sanders’ supporters to vote for Trump. "President Trump is still disrupting Washington DC, while Biden represents the old, tired way and continuing to coddle the communist regime in China. Democrat elites shoved Bernie Sanders to the side for a second time, leaving many of his supporters looking for a new home," Parscale said in a statement.
Left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders (78) has left the race with the Democrats for the presidency of the United States. He announced that in a video statement congratulating Joe Biden on the victory. “I wish him the best of luck. We must defeat the most dangerous president in modern American history.”
Sanders, 78, who calls himself a democratic socialist and advocated in his campaign for universal health care and additional taxes for the very wealthy, would be too radical for most Americans. He also drew a short straw in the candidate battle with Hillary Clinton with the Democrats four years ago.
The Democrats are supposed to officially nominate Biden as a candidate at a party conference in August. This convention was actually scheduled for July, but has been postponed due to the corona crisis. Due to the pandemic, the question is how Trump and Biden will shape their campaign in the coming months.
Sanders does not completely withdraw from the primaries. He wants to influence the party with as many people behind him at the conference as possible. Sanders wants to work intensively with Biden to serve ‘our progressive ideas’. Biden is open to this and has called for unity among Democrats as a surviving candidate for Democratic Party presidency.
And to Bernie’s supporters: “I know that I need to earn your votes. Ans I know that might take time. But I want you know that I see you. I hear you, and I understand the urgency of this moment. I hope you’ll join us. You’re more than welcome, you’re needed.”
The presidential elections are scheduled for Tuesday, November 3.
*International political commentator for European Business Review and editor-in-chief at Kriek Media International
By: N. Peter Kramer
