In another sign of the internecine warfare running rampant through the Democratic presidential field that bodes well for President Trump in the 2020 election, on Tuesday former Vice President Joe Biden stated that he wasn’t sure Bernie Sanders could unite the party if Sanders wins the Democratic presidential nomination.
According to the Associated Press, Biden was speaking to reporters in Muscatine, Iowa. Biden stated, “I’m not going to make judgments now. I just think that it depends upon how we treat one another between now and the time we have a nominee.”
AP noted, “Biden had previously promised to support the Democratic nominee, ‘regardless’ of who it is. At some stops along the campaign trail, Biden has even pledged to ‘work like hell’ to help any of his rivals defeat President Donald Trump.”
The nastiness between the Biden and Sanders camps has grown recently; Zephyr Teachout, an associate professor at Fordham University who supports Sanders, penned an op-ed in The Guardian in which she stated, “Biden has a big corruption problem and it makes him a weak candidate … It looks like ‘Middle Class’ Joe has perfected the art of taking big contributions, then representing his corporate donors at the cost of middle- and working-class Americans … Whether or not Biden is making choices to please donors, there is no doubt his record represents the transactional, grossly corrupt culture in Washington that long precedes Trump.”
The New York Times reported that Sanders’ campaign circulated the article. The Biden campaign used the article to raise funds, writing, “Bernie Sanders’ campaign has unleashed a barrage of negative attacks, lying about and distorting Joe’s record.”
Last week, the Biden camp released a video stating the Sanders campaign was engaging in “dishonest attacks.” The video stated, “Bernie’s negative attacks won’t change the truth: Joe Biden is still the strongest Democrat to beat Donald Trump.” Sanders’ campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, referring to the video as the “first negative ad of the 2020 Democratic primary,” added, “Let’s be clear about why: He’s trying to distort his decades-long record of proposing and voting for cuts to Social Security benefits for millions of people. Joe Biden is no defender of Social Security, and a negative ad won’t help him outrun his record.”
In December, Sanders told the Los Angeles Times’ editorial board, “Joe Biden is a personal friend of mine, so I’m not here to, you know, to attack him … But my God, if you are, if you’re a Donald Trump and you got Biden having voted for the war in Iraq, Biden having voted for these terrible, in my view, trade agreements, Biden having voted for the bankruptcy bill. Trump will eat his lunch,” as The Hill reported.
Brad Bannon, a Democratic strategist, told The Hill, “They’re not fighting to eat into each other’s bases, but there are a lot of voters out there who don’t have a firm commitment to any candidate. There’s still a lot of fluidity. They’re going after the undecided voters, your swing voters.”