President-elect Joe Biden has received much praise from those on the left for the diversity among his cabinet picks to date, but Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said there is something that is “more important.”
Sanders acknowledged that “diversity is a very big word,” but said he would prefer a cabinet “that stands up and fights for working people.”
“To me, diversity is a very big word in the sense that you certainly want a cabinet to look like America in terms of representation for African-Americans and Latinos and every other group in America,” Sanders told host Andrea Mitchell. “You know, when people turn on the TV and they see that cabinet room, they should say, ‘Hey, that looks like me,’ and that’s right. But equally important — or more important — is having a cabinet that stands up and fights for working people at a time when wages have been stagnant for 45 years, at a time when 92 million Americans have no health insurance or are underinsured at a time when working-class kids can’t afford to go to college and people are working for starvation wages and we’ve got to deal with climate change. So, I want diversity in the cabinet, I want it to look like America, but I also want it to be a cabinet that has the guts to take on powerful special interests and fight for working families.”
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