Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) took a soft jab at frontrunner Joe Biden (D) during an interview in New Hampshire Tuesday, telling the local news station WKXL that defeating President Trump in 2020 is “not enough.”
Sanders spoke to reporters about Biden – the reigning frontrunner – Tuesday and agreed that beating Trump is important but argued that more needs to be done.
“I will do everything I can to defeat Donald Trump, and Biden is right. That’s what we’ve got to do,” Sanders said.
“I think that’s not enough. And I think certainly what our campaign is about is speaking to the pain that working families in New Hampshire and in Vermont have all over this country,” he continued:
“Joe might be listening,” Sanders said. “I don’t want to give him great advice here. He’ll take it. He’s doing well enough, you know.”
“You’ve got to beat Trump, but that’s not enough. We have to transform this country and create a government and an economy that works for all of us and not just the one percent,” the Vermont senator said, alluding to his own radical proposals to transform the country, including his proposal to erase $81 billion in past medical debt:
It is likely that Sanders is alluding to remarks Biden made following a recent campaign stop in Prole, Iowa, where he told reporters that it is “really, really, really important that Donald Trump not be re-elected.”
“Could I die happily not having heard ‘Hail to the Chief’ play for me?” Biden said. “Yeah, I could.”
“That’s not why I’m running,” he added.
Sanders has been neck and neck with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), battling it out for the second place position in recent polls. The ideological allies will face off with Biden on stage for the first time in Houston, Texas, September 12.