Bernie Sanders predicts Biden to be 'most progressive president' since FDR

Bernie Sanders, the Vermont socialist senator and the twice failed presidential candidate, declared Sunday that presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden will be America's most liberal president in nearly a century and is already setting up task forces to develop policy ideas key to progressives.

"You know what, Joe Biden will become the most progressive president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And that, in this moment, is what we need," Sanders told Meet the Press host Chuck Todd.

Sanders' campaign 2020 primary campaign was fueled by his pledge to build a Medicare for All program to replace private health insurance, and Biden has not embraced the idea.

But Sanders said the new policy task forces open the door for progressive Sanders supporters to get much of what they want in a Biden administration if the Democrats win in November.

"Well, Chuck, as you may be aware, I am not the candidate, so my views are not the dominant views," Sanders said. "But what I will credit strongly the Biden campaign for is that Joe and I talked about this and he and I agreed that we should have task forces dealing with some of the major issues facing this country, including the economy and healthcare, climate change, immigration, education, et cetera. And the people on those task forces worked very, very hard."

Sanders' effort to portray Biden as a far-left progressive comes after several days of the Biden campaign running a carefully orchestrated campaign to portray vice presidential pick Sen. Kamala Harris as a moderate.

The Democrats open their nominating convention for Biden on Monday.