In his first interview since announcing the suspension of his presidential campaign, Bernie Sanders spoke exclusively with The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert about why he decided to end his bid now, saying the coronavirus crisis obviously played a part:
“I think the mathematics is pretty clear they can’t win. and while you can make the argument that you should run a campaign, fight for your ideas, bring people together, even if you can’t win, I think the pandemic that we are experiencing right now makes even that virtually impossible. We don’t hold rallies. People can’t knock on doors. And I think by ending the campaign now, by focusing on my job as a United States Senate to help deal with this pandemic, deal with the economic collapse that we’re experiencing, I think it’s a better use of my time. And I think that makes the most sense to me right now.”
As for whether he will go “full-throttle” in his support for Joe Biden, Sanders said:
“What I would say to people is that Joe is a very decent human being. I know his wife, Jill, as well, as a wonderful person. And that I hope to be able to work with Joe to move him in a more progressive direction. And I think Joe is a good politician. And he understands that in order to defeat the president, that in order to defeat Trump, he’s going to have to bring new people into his political world, and that he’s going to have to listen to their needs– young people, working people– and maybe start moving in a different direction to some degree than he has in the past.”
And he still makes it clear his priority is still to get Donald Trump out of office in November:
“I said from the first day that I announced my intention to run for president, I will do everything that I can to make sure that Donald Trump is not re-elected. Because I believe Trump has been the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country, and we’re seeing his narcissism, his ignorance playing out in terms of the pandemic we’re experiencing right now. So I will do everything I can.”
Watch more above.
