Bernie Sanders endorses Joe Biden in a joint appearance (updated)

So this finally happened today. Buzzfeed News reports, Bernie Sanders Endorsed Joe Biden And Previewed A Big Role In His Campaign:

If their joint livestream endorsement special was any indication Monday, Bernie Sanders will have a substantial and substantive role in Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.

Sanders, who suspended his own White House bid less than a week ago, formally backed Biden in a surprise afternoon webcast. Biden, like Sanders before he dropped out, has been using online video to speak to voters over the last month of the coronavirus quarantines.

“Today,” Sanders said via split screen with Biden, stationed in his Delaware basement, “I am 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, which I endorse, to make certain that we defeat somebody who I believe — and I’m speaking just for myself now — is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country.”

As Sanders delivered the endorsement, Biden expressed what sounded and looked like a mix of surprise and relief, though the rest of their conversation suggested this was a coordinated moment. The former rivals said their teams would work together in specific policy areas.

“I have been very pleased that your staff and my staff have been working together over the last several weeks [to come] up with a number of task forces,” Sanders said. “These are task forces that will look at some of the most important issues facing this country,” among them the economy, education, immigration, criminal justice, climate change, and health care.

The Democratic primary between Biden and Sanders — and, for a while, many other candidates — often centered on a clash between the ideas put forth by Sanders and others on the progressive left and the more moderate incrementalism favored by Biden. But Biden signaled Monday that Sanders could have an influential role akin to policy adviser in the general election campaign.

“I think that your endorsement means a great deal, it means a great deal to me,” Biden said before turning deferential. “I think people are going to be surprised that we are apart on some issues but we’re awfully close on a whole bunch of others. If I am the nominee, which it looks like now you just made me, I’m going to need you, not just to campaign, but to govern.”

Then, in what struck as a more rehearsed moment, Biden asked if Sanders had any questions for him, ostensibly an opportunity for Sanders to extract some significant promise. Instead, Sanders asked if he could count on Biden’s support for a $15-an-hour minimum wage. Biden, who has been endorsing such a policy since launching his candidacy last year, quickly acquiesced. “Bernie,” the former vice president replied, “I am extremely supportive of that.”

Their livestream continued on for a bit longer, with Sanders expressing confidence that Biden’s campaign would be “inclusive.” (Since his strong performance in last month’s Super Tuesday primaries, Biden has made several public overtures for Sanders’ supporters.)

And Biden, who took some hits from Sanders even though they always maintained their friendship as rivals, was eager to hear more from him.

“Anything you want to do, anything at all,” Biden said, offering Sanders a closing statement.

Bernie Sanders did the right thing, as I always knew he would. Some of his supporters, however, remain in doubt.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll at the end of March found 15% of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ supporters will vote for President Donald Trump’s reelection if Joe Biden is the Democratic Party nominee. If accurate, this would represent a slightly larger defection than occurred after the bitter battle between Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, when 12% of Sanders voters voted for Trump in the general election.

The coordinated messaging campaign from the Trump campaign/Russian Intel propaganda last week sought to capitalize on Bernie Sanders dropping out of the Democratic primary by sowing divisions among Sanders’ supporters, as they did so successfully in 2016. Trump urges Sanders supporters to join GOP after senator suspends campaign:

President Trump on Wednesday urged Sen. Bernie Sanders’s supporters to join the Republican Party after the independent Vermont senator announced he was suspending his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Trump also thanked Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), reiterating his belief that she may have taken away enough votes from Sanders on Super Tuesday last month to cost him states. Warren finished third or in some cases a distant fourth in each state Joe Biden won on Super Tuesday.

The president has sought for months to stoke tensions within the Democratic Party around Sanders’s candidacy. He has repeatedly suggested the party establishment was attempting to “steal” the nomination from the progressive senator, though Wednesday’s tweet marked his most explicit outreach to potentially disaffected Sanders supporters.

Trump continued to tweet as Sanders delivered remarks about his decision. The president questioned the senator’s decision to remain on the ballot to collect delegates and exert influence over the Democratic platform, and he later suggested some of Sanders’s most progressive allies would not back Biden.

Just to be clear, Bernie Sanders has been among the harshest critics of Trump’s presidency, unabashedly labeling him a racist and a liar and “the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country.” So that’s a Bernie middle finger to you, Mad King Donald.

Tim Young at the right-wing Washington Times (aka Moonie Times) today amplifies this coordinated messaging campaign from the Trump campaign/Russian Intel propaganda in the right-wing media, which will continue to November. Bernie Sanders’ supporters will not fall in line with Joe Biden. (Read it for yourself, I will not quote this propagandist).

Realize that these right-wing propagandists are playing on your emotions and trying to manipulate you. As The Who sang in their classic song, We Won’t Get Fooled Again. Don’t fall for this shit again this year.

The smartest thing everyone can do in 2020 is to vote Donald Trump and every one of his sycophant Republican enablers out of office, from president on down to your local school district. Then we can get to work on building a better America.

UPDATE: In an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday, Sanders says opposing Biden is ‘irresponsible’:

Bernie Sanders said Tuesday that it would be “irresponsible” for his loyalists not to support Joe Biden, warning that progressives who “sit on their hands” in the months ahead would simply enable President Donald Trump’s reelection.

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Sanders said his supporters have a simple choice now that Biden has emerged as the presumptive nominee: “Do we be as active as we can in electing Joe Biden and doing everything we can to move Joe and his campaign in a more progressive direction? Or do we choose to sit it out and allow the most dangerous president in modern American history to get reelected?”

He continued: “I believe that it’s irresponsible for anybody to say, ‘Well, I disagree with Joe Biden — I disagree with Joe Biden! — and therefore I’m not going to be involved.’”

Sanders said he would not actively campaign or spend money on advertising in the primary contests that are still on the calendar in the coming months. But he still encouraged Democrats in those states to vote for him, hoping to amass as many delegates as possible for leverage to shape the party platform and the direction of Biden’s campaign.

He also vowed to continue fighting for progressive priorities such as his signature “Medicare for All” as a senator, even though Biden has refused to embrace the government-backed single-payer health care system.

“If people want to vote for me, we’d appreciate it,” Sanders said of the roughly 20 primary contests that remain where his name will appear on the ballot. He later added, “I think you’re going to see significant movement on the part of the Biden campaign into a more progressive direction on a whole lot of issues.”

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Sanders brushed away questions about why he was willing to back Biden so much sooner than he did Clinton, whom he waited until June to endorse. He said recent conversations with former President Barack Obama did not influence his decision. It came down to simple math, he said.

l“What would be the sense of staying in, of spending a whole lot of money, of attacking the vice president, giving fodder for Trump — what’s the sense of doing that when you can’t win?” he asked.

“I will do everything I can to help elect Joe,” Sanders continued. “We had a contentious campaign. We disagree on issues. But my job now is to not only rally my supporters, but to do everything I can to bring the party together to see that (Trump) is not elected president.”