>> Now, he did so in a video that was posted
this week.
Let's take a quick look at what he had to
say.
>> So today 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.
A president, and you made this point, who
downplayed this pandemic, who ignored the
advice that some of his people were giving
him.
>> So he went on and later he had an interview
with The Associated Press where he had a pretty
aggressive message for some of his supporters.
We'll get to that in just a second, but I
wanted to get your reaction, John.
>> To the endorsement in general?
>> Mm-hm.
>> Yeah, look he said he was going to.
He said over, and over, and over again, because
reporters would never accept that he had already
made clear what he was going to do.
So they kept asking at every debate and every
interview are you gonna eventually endorse
the eventual candidate regardless who it is,
and he said over and over that he would.
And so, he's consistent, that's one of the
best characteristics of Bernie Sanders is
that he is unlike other politicians, not a
giant liar.
And so honestly, if you're very surprised
that he's doing this, you must have sort of
assumed along the way that he had been lying
or that he would find some way to weasel out
of it.
But Bernie Sanders is not a weasel, and so
he's doing what he said he was gonna do.
>> Yeah, I mean I was not surprised, I knew
it was eventually gonna happen.
>> And I also had a feeling he was eventually
gonna drop out, but it didn't stop me from
catching feelings on the day where he did
drop out.
>> In fact, that was last-
>> 100%
>> Week and we did the show together, and
it was it was incredibly hard to stomach it.
But that's where we're at.
And so, you're right, he did say repeatedly
that he was going to not only endorse whoever
the Democratic nominee would be, and in this
case, it's Biden, but that he would do everything
in his power to help defeat Donald Trump.
So, the one thing that I wanted to just comment
on in that video was just how ridiculous it
is for Biden to pretend like he's surprised
that-
>> That, Bernie's about that Bernie just endorsed
him.
He's like.
>> Never in my wildest fantasies.
>> Exaggerating, like [LAUGH.
>> Yeah, you guys were just chatting it up.
It was just a random conversation.
>> I thought you wanted to-
>> And he surprised you.
>> I just thought you want to talk about the
latest episode of Westworld, Bernie.
I didn't know you were going to do this.
>> It's so ridiculous.
But following that endorsement, there were
a number of people including, the Democratic
Socialists of America and his national press
secretary or former national press secretary,
Briahna Joy Gray, saying that they do not
endorse Joe Biden.
And so, Bernie was asked about that in an
interview with the Associated Press, and he
said the following, I wanna give you his statement.
He said, 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?
I believe, and this is the controversial statement
that was released ahead of the full article
being published, I believe that it is 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.
And then Sanders said he would not actively
campaign or spend money on advertising in
the primary contest 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.
So he's hoping that he can have some leverage
with the number of delegates he has, so he
can push Biden in a more progressive direction.
I want to be quick, just quickly be clear
about how I'm not ever gonna buy that Biden's
gonna follow through on anything substantively
progressive, right?
I think that Biden is gonna be better than
Trump on a lot of things, including maybe
avoiding war with Iran.
I think that Biden will be better when it
comes to maybe re-implementing Obama Era environmental
policies.
But I don't think that he's actually gonna
take on the fight for Medicare for all.
So he might use that rhetoric during the election,
I just don't trust that he's actually gonna
follow through on it once he does get elected.
But, a lot of Bernie supporters are now angry
with him on social media, and I'm not really
sure that makes sense either.
I think that there are things that you could
critique Bernie on.
He could have been a little more aggressive
in fighting against the massive bailouts for
these corporations and big banks, for instance.
That's a recent example I can give you.
But how are you gonna be mad at him for doing
what he literally said he was gonna do over,
and over, and over again?
>> Yeah, or well, at least you should have
been mad at him about it the whole time I
guess.
Look, you can disagree with him.
I think that a couple of his quotes there
were probably oversimplifications of some
people's position that he was setting up dichotomies
that are actually sort of a spectrum of different
activities that you can take part in.
There's a number of different ways that you
can work towards a goal, I think, and so,
look and he'll expand on it, but those quotes
are probably oversimplifications.
But that said, look, if anyone gets to have
a position, advocate for it, based on the
amount of work that they've done to almost
singlehandedly push the country in the direction
it needs to go.
I think he's earned a lot of goodwill in that
area, so I'm gonna extend that to him.
But look, in terms of the endorsement stuff,
he was gonna do it, we know that.
He hypothetically could have waited a little
while, again as leverage, cuz he is interested
in leverage, he said that in terms of getting
the delegates.
I hope that he doesn't take the bait on people,
like Briahna for instance, she's a private
citizen, she doesn't work for him anymore.
She's back in journalism, she gets to do,
or say, or support, or endorse or not whoever
she wants.
And when statements from people, like Briahna,
are brought up to him, to try to get him to
denounce her.
It's not like there's anything he can say
that's gonna get these people to give him
an ounce of credit.
It is just used as a weapon to bludgeon him
and people who are affiliated with him.
So he should not take the bait on that.
>> 100%.
>> Not everybody is gonna endorse him.
>> 100%.
>> And don't have to.
That doesn't mean that they're rooting for
Trump.
But as long as they're very clear what the
worst case scenario is here, a lot of these
concerns are not honest that are gonna be
handed to Bernie to answer for.
Bernie is doing everything that he said he's
gonna do and he has been consistent.
He's been saying that Donald Trump is the
most dangerous president in the history of
modern America.
He's said that a million times.
He is working to get him defeated, but that
is never gonna be enough for some people and
so I hope that he doesn't take the bait sometimes.
>> You know what, it's not gonna be enough
for some people, because I think that there's
this issue with lack of responsibility when
it comes to Biden's campaign and his supporters.
So let me just explain what I mean.
Look, there's been all this emphasis on shaming
Bernie Sanders' supporters who refuse to endorse
Joe Biden.
But I think some of that energy, a significant
amount of that energy, actually, needs to
be applied to the Biden campaign to do better.
Because right now, based on what we're seeing
from Trump, including putting his name on
those stimulus checks, I don't agree with
it.
I think it's narcissistic and I think that
it's a political game he's playing, but unfortunately
it'll work, it'll work.
He understands marketing and he understands
how to pretend to come from the left.
When he is criticizing his political opponents
in a general election.
He did that with Hillary.
He's certainly going to do that with Biden.
So what are Democrats doing right now to prepare
for that?
The onus can't 100% be on Bernie Sanders'
supporters, that's ridiculous, right?
So, there needs to be a moment of clarity
for the Democratic Party, because right now,
Donald Trump is approving billions, billions
of dollars toward healthcare providers.
So he can literally like provide the funding
necessary for people to get COVID-19 treatments
paid for, right?
That's the kind of stuff he's going to cite
when he's on a debate stage with Joe Biden.
That's important to fight back against, like
fight back against that messaging and provide
something even more robust than what we're
seeing from Donald Trump.
So my point is I get that Democrats are super
concerned about getting Bernie Sanders' supporters
to unify with the party.
But they also need to have a moment of self
reflection and see where they're falling short,
because I think they're refusing to do that,
and that's a huge mistake.
>> Yeah, and I'll try to be fast.
So not endorsing someone is not the same thing
as hoping that they lose, or not voting for
them, or not working toward, whatever.
I've voted for hundreds of politicians through
my life at various levels.
How many have I endorsed?
Like three?
Endorsing is a special thing that goes up
above and beyond.
It's basically you saying, I wanna use my
influence in the most obvious way possible
to push for this person.
In fact, I want who I am to be tied with the
possibility of them succeeding.
But I've voted for tons of people that I've
never endorsed and won't endorse.
And so trying to conflate those two things
as being the exact opposite just doesn't make
any sense to me.
And again, part of the pressure that you're
talking about that's being put on Bernie Sanders'
supporters, a little bit of it, I think, is
genuine concern.
Are they going to support him?
Is it going to be the thing that loses?
But a lot of it is just they have loved for
years attacking Bernie Sanders' supporters,
and if they think they have a way to do it,
they will continue to do so.
Even though, what is going to end up happening?
The vast, vast majority of the people that
supported Bernie Sanders are going to end
up supporting the Democratic nominee.
There are always going to be some people that
don't, that's been the case with literally
every nominee throughout history.
They're just choosing to focus now on it to
tar the entire movement, okay?
And by the way, and if they're being honest,
if they wanna move those people, attacking
them viciously, how is that possibly going
to work?
>> 100%
>> It's pointless.
It's offensive and pointless.
It's wrong in every way that it could be wrong.
And so, either have your fun while you can
if you're being fake.
And if you're being honest, you really need
to strategize, cuz this is a horrible way
to go about it.
>> Yeah, I totally agree with you.
It's just so counterproductive for what Biden
supporters claim they want.
But on the other side I also just want to
note, look, I think that people should vote
their conscience, okay.
And so I've never been a huge fan of vote
shaming.
Except I did take the bait on election night
when I vote shamed white women who voted for
Trump-
>> But that wasn't the right way to go, I've
admitted that.
I just don't like it, I don't agree with it,
and we should think about why are people voting
this way.
And I think that same standard should apply
for some of the Bernie supporters that I'm
seeing on these social media outlets, or social
media platforms, I should say.
Who are like kind of viciously going after
other Bernie supporters who have decided okay,
well I'm gonna vote for Biden, right?
Because, look, your life might not be significantly
negatively impacted by Trump.
I mean I can't imagine that a lot of those
people who exist, but there are people who
have undocumented immigrants in their families.
There are people who have seen a significant
decline in their quality of life because of
the Trump Administration.
I don't agree with vote shaming them, if they've
decided to support Biden.
I think that it's important to again, vote
your conscience.
And for the Democratic Party, if you guys
really believe that beating Donald Trump is
your top priority, you need to act like it.
And that doesn't mean you go around harassing
Bernie supporters.
It means that you have that moment of self
reflection, see where your flaws are, and
think about what Donald Trump's marketing
and messaging is gonna be in this general
election.
Cuz I don't think that there's been enough
thought in that at all.
And I haven't seen much from Biden at all,
which is mind blowing
to me.
