Bernie Sanders supports Joe Biden’s candidacy: “Stop the bickering”

Senator Bernie Sanders, a prominent figure on the U.S. political left, on Saturday endorsed Joe Biden’s campaign for the White House and rejected calls for the president to withdraw from the race for health reasons.

“Enough is enough! Mr. Biden may not be the ideal candidate, but he will be the candidate and should be the candidate,” wrote independent Senator Sanders in a New York Times column, adding: “It’s time for Democrats to stop bickering and splitting hairs.”

Sanders’ column comes amid growing calls from Democratic politicians and donors for Biden, 81, to withdraw after his disastrous performance in the debate with former President Donald Trump on June 27. So far, about 20 members of Congress have called on him to drop out of the race.

Most polls since the debate show Trump holding a lead over Biden nationally, albeit within the margin of error. They also show some key swing states, including Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, trending in Republican favor.

And a majority of Americans – including Democrats – believe Biden is too old to run for office again, according to a recent poll.

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US President Biden confuses Harris with Trump and Zelensky with Putin

US President Biden confuses Harris with Trump and Zelensky with Putin

And it was no progress for his own cause when the president mistakenly introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as his opponent Vladimir Putin at a summit in Washington earlier this week, but then quickly corrected himself.

However, Biden insisted during an appearance on Friday that he is and will remain the standard-bearer of his party.

“I’m running and we’re going to win,” he told an enthusiastic crowd in Detroit that heard chants of “Don’t give up.”

Sanders noted in his commentary that there are significant differences of opinion with Biden on some issues. Like many of his young supporters, Sanders vehemently opposes “US support for Israel’s horrific war against the Palestinian people” in Gaza.

Sanders, who is running for re-election to the Senate in November at the age of 82, acknowledged the signs of the president’s aging.

But given Biden’s record – and Trump’s record of “committing 34 serious crimes and … telling thousands of documented lies” – the senator brushed aside Biden’s failings.

“Yes, I know,” he wrote. “Mr. Biden is old, prone to gaffes, walks stiffly, and had a disastrous debate with Mr. Trump. But I also know this: A presidential election is not an entertainment contest. It does not begin and end with a 90-minute debate.”

He blamed the outbreak of anti-Biden rhetoric in part on “the establishment media, which has obsessively focused on the June presidential debate and the cognitive abilities of a man who has perhaps the most difficult and stressful job in the world.”

Sanders also blamed those Democrats who, in his words, had “joined this circular firing squad.”

He called on the president to do more – namely, to “propose and fight for a bold agenda” that would help working families “who have been disadvantaged for far too long.”

Biden, however, he concluded, is “a good and decent Democratic president with a track record” that includes helping to rebuild the U.S. economy and rescue the country’s crumbling infrastructure.

“In the interests of our children and future generations, he must win.”