Bernie Sanders rules out a unity ticket with Biden: '1 old white guy is probably one too many for some'


MSNBC's Rachel Maddow sat down with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday, after his disappointing Super Tuesday, and she wasn't lobbing softballs. "I feel like your argument for your electability is flawless," she said. But actually "expanding the electorate" and "trying to reach a diverse coalition" is "not happening in your campaign, and it's not happening in your campaign more so in your campaign now than it did in 2016. And I want to know if you have any analysis yourself of why that's not improving?"
"We're trying to transform this country, not win an election, not just beat Trump," Sanders said. "So it's a different type of campaign, and we're doing quite well within that context."
Maddow pressed Sanders on his persistent weakness among black voters, especially in the South. Sanders said that he won about 39 percent of people of color — Latinos, Asian-Americans, and black voters — in California, but Maddow pointed out that even in California, Sanders is "being well outpaced by Joe Biden among black voters."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Well, we're running against somebody who has touted his relationship with Barack Obama for eight years," Sanders said. "Barack Obama is enormously popular in this country in general, and in the African American community. Running against Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton was enormously popular." Some polls have him beating Biden among black voters, he said, so "it's not that I'm not popular," but Biden's ties to Obama are "working well" for him.
Sanders told Maddow that "if Biden walks into the convention, or at the end of the process, has more votes than me, he's the winner." Maddow asked if it's "100 percent impossible to imagine a unity ticket" with Biden. "You mean two old white guys on the ticket?" Sanders asked. "Well, probably not. ... One old white guy is probably one too many for some. I think we need a little more diversity than that."
How about Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as his running mate? "It's too early to talk about that, but certainly I have a lot of respect for Sen. Warren and would love to sit down and talk with her about what kind of role she could play in our administration," he said. When asked, Sanders said he is "absolutely aghast and disgusted with any kind of vitriol online" directed at Warren by his supporters. "I condemn that, you know, it's ugly stuff." Peter Weber
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
'Spending is what card issuers are hoping you will do'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
A potential railway megamerger raises monopoly questions
The Explainer Union-Pacific and Norfolk Southern would create the country's largest railway operator
-
Trump executive order targets homeless
Speed Read It will now be easier for states and cities to remove homeless people from the streets
-
Columbia pays $200M to settle with White House
Speed Read The Trump administration accused the school of failing to protect its Jewish students amid pro-Palestinian protests
-
Florida judge and DOJ make Epstein trouble for Trump
Speed Read The Trump administration's request to release grand jury transcripts from the Epstein investigation was denied
-
Trump attacks Obama as Epstein furor mounts
Speed Read The Trump administration accused the Obama administration of 'treasonous' behavior during the 2016 election
-
Trump administration releases MLK files
Speed Read Newly released documents on the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did not hold any new revelations, King historians said
-
Japan's prime minister feels pressure after election losses
Speed Read Shigeru Ishiba has vowed to remain in office
-
President diagnosed with 'chronic venous insufficiency'
Speed Read The vein disorder has given Trump swollen ankles and visible bruising on his hands
-
'Bawdy' Trump letter supercharges Epstein scandal
Speed Read The Wall Street Journal published details of Trump's alleged birthday letter to Epstein