Sanders: Biden, Harris must be elected in November

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the chief rival to Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination, said Sunday he would unequivocally support the ticket of Biden for president and Sen. Kamala Harris of California for vice president.

Sanders, who is expected to speak Monday at the Democratic National Convention, said he understood that many of his supporters may not be fully behind Biden.

"A lot of my supporters are not enthusiastic about Joe Biden, you know why? I ran against Joe Biden," Sanders told ABC's "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos. "But I think there is overwhelming understanding that Donald Trump must be defeated, Biden must be elected, and that the day after he is elected we're going to do everything we can to create a government that works for all of us and not just the 1% and wealthy campaign contributors."

Harris, he said, is "incredibly smart, incredibly tough" and would do well against Vice President Mike Pence in a debate. "And I would not like to be Vice President Pence in a debate with her. I think she's an asset for the Biden campaign, and I think she's going to do great on the campaign trail."

On CNN, Sanders said the progressive movement "has real momentum. And we are doing just fine."

Acknowledging disagreements in policy with Biden and Harris, Sanders told "State of the Union" host Jake Tapper: "Yes, of course we do. I ran against Biden." He explained to Tapper that his message to supporters is, "we have got to do everything that we can ... to defeat Donald Trump ... And then what we have to do the day after we elect Joe Biden as president, we've got to rally our people to stand up and fight for an agenda that works for all, and not just a few. And that absolutely includes Medicare for all.”

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.