Speaking to The Atlantic about the upcoming presidential election and the choice between voting for President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, Nina Turner, the co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) 2020 presidential campaign, snapped, “It’s like saying to somebody, ‘You have a bowl of sh*t in front of you, and all you’ve got to do is eat half of it instead of the whole thing. It’s still sh*t.”
Turner was not the only Sanders devotee who eviscerated Biden in the article. Harvard professor Cornel West asserted, “We have to be true to ourselves and acknowledge that Biden is a mediocre, milquetoast, neoliberal centrist that we’ve been fighting against in the Democratic establishment.”
Some Sanders supporters have demanded that Biden select either Sanders or Turner as his running mate. A petition on Change.org titled, “Joe Biden must choose Nina Turner or Bernie Sanders for VP,” stated:
The progressive wing of the Democratic Party is sick and tired of being ignored. We will only unite behind Joe Biden if we are absolutely certain he is willing to work with us. The only way he can earn that trust is to pick a true progressive for VP. Specifically, Bernie Sanders or Nina Turner. We will gladly unite behind Joe Biden if he makes this compromise. If not, we won’t vote in November or we will just vote 3rd party.
On July 20, an open letter to Biden from California delegates committed to Sanders also included Turner among a short list of candidates they said were acceptable as vice presidential picks:
In order to meet this historic moment, Democrats must select an exceptional progressive Vice Presidential candidate who will both inspire the 90 million Americans who did not vote in 2016 to cast a ballot this November and lead America into a new era of equality, compassion, and economic justice. As 2020 DNC delegates representing progressives of California, the state with the largest delegation to the presidential nominating convention, we enthusiastically recommend as nominees for Vice President: Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA), former State Senator Nina Turner (D-OH), Representative Karen Bass (D-CA).
In January, Turner wrote, “In choosing between the two Democratic Party candidates atop the polls, African American voters have a consequential decision to make: Will our community side with former Vice President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly betrayed black voters to side with Republican lawmakers and undermine our progress? Or will we stand with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and a movement that has been fighting for racial and economic justice since the civil rights era?”
“As a recent NBC News headline said of Biden’s time in the Senate: ‘Biden didn’t just compromise with segregationists. He fought for their cause,’” she continued. “The NBC report quoted the NAACP’s legal director saying that one Biden-backed measure ‘heaves a brick through the window of school integration.’”
In February, appearing on CNN’s “Newsroom,” Turner claimed, “So, for all of the people trying to make hay over the word, Senator Sanders is not talking about socialism in a traditional sense, in terms of what happens in Europe. He never once said that the government should take over the production of all goods and services in this country.”
As The Daily Wire pointed out:
Sanders has repeatedly advocated for nationalization ranging from the 1970s – when he “urged the nationalization of most major industries,” according to CNN – to his current socialist campaign for president, where is he advocating for forcing everyone off of their private health insurance plans and onto a government run health care system, according to The New York Times.