Bernie Sanders steps up to endorse Biden staying in the race in NYT 'guest essay'

Left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., has endorsed Joe Biden’s insistence on staying on as the Democratic candidate to run against Donald Trump for president in November.

While nearly two dozen members of the House of Representatives and one Democratic senator, Peter Welch, the other Vermont senator, have called on Biden to step down, Sanders has written a “guest essay” for the opinion section of The New York Times.

After citing several areas of disagreement he has with Biden, such as Biden’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas and his support for the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), he then makes his case for Biden to stay on, while criticizing the Democrats’ “circular firing squad”:

But for over two weeks now, the corporate media has obsessively focused on the June presidential debate and the cognitive capabilities of a man who has, perhaps, the most difficult and stressful job in the world. The media has frantically searched for every living human being who no longer supports the president or any neurologist who wants to appear on TV. Unfortunately, too many Democrats have joined that circular firing squad.

Yes. I know: Mr. Biden is old, is prone to gaffes, walks stiffly and had a disastrous debate with Mr. Trump. But this I also know: A presidential election is not an entertainment contest. It does not begin or end with a 90-minute debate.

Enough! Mr. Biden may not be the ideal candidate, but he will be the candidate and should be the candidate. And with an effective campaign that speaks to the needs of working families, he will not only defeat Mr. Trump but beat him badly. It’s time for Democrats to stop the bickering and nit-picking.

The New York Times was the first major publication to call on Biden to step down after his widely-panned debate performance. And since then, many of their opinion columnists have made their own individual appeals to the president. Actor George Clooney’s opinion piece ran in The Times as well.

Bernie Sanders appeared to have a real shot at winning the Democratic nomination in 2020 when Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., endorsed Biden just before the primary in South Carolina, launching Biden toward eventually winning the nomination.