Bernie Sanders Endorses Joe Biden, Setting Aside Rancor of Primary
- Nod comes less than week after Sanders ended campaign
- Sanders, Biden staffs teaming up to work on six policy issues
Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden
Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images
Bernie Sanders endorsed Joe Biden on Monday in an effort to persuade his loyal supporters to support the presumptive Democratic nominee, saying that Americans of all political affiliations should back the former vice president to defeat President Donald Trump.
“Today I’m asking all Americans, I’m asking every Democrat, I’m asking every independent, I’m asking a lot of Republicans to come together in this campaign to support your candidacy,” Sanders said on a livestream organized by Biden’s campaign, which had been billed as an update on the candidate’s plans to tackle the coronavirus crisis.
“We’ve got to make Trump a one-term president and we need you in the White House,” Sanders told his former opponent, side-by-side on a split screen from their homes in Burlington, Vermont, and Wilmington, Delaware. “I will do all that I can to see that that happens.”
The surprise announcement came less than a week after Sanders dropped out of the presidential race, a reflection of the urgency that many Democrats feel to begin the general-election fight against Trump and of the goodwill that he shared toward his longtime Capitol Hill colleague Biden.