Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders announced that he is launching another bid for the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday.
Sanders, who finished second in the Democratic primaries in 2016, winning 23 states to Hillary Clinton’s 34, announced his run in an email to his extensive supporter list.
“Let me give you some very good news,” Sanders said. “Three years ago, during our 2016 campaign, when we brought forth our progressive agenda we were told that our ideas were ‘radical’ and ‘extreme.’ We were told that Medicare for All, a $15 an hour minimum wage, free tuition at public colleges and universities, aggressively combating climate change, demanding that the wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes, were all concepts that the American people would never accept.”
Sanders, 77, also ripped into President Trump in his announcement.
Sanders said the president is “a pathological liar, a fraud, a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe and someone who is undermining American democracy as he leads us in an authoritarian direction” adding that Trump is “the most dangerous president in modern American history.”
Asked in an interview with CBS News what will be different about his 2020 campaign, Sanders replied, “we’re gonna win.”
Bernie hopes to push Democrats further left:
With many of the other Democratic hopefuls embracing Sanders-esque ideas like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, Sanders told his supporters that if progressives want those policies to win they should vote for the person who introduced them.
“Together, you and I and our 2016 campaign began the political revolution,” he wrote. “Now, it is time to complete that revolution and implement the vision that we fought for.”
Along with Medicare for All and a Green New Deal, Sanders will continue to campaign for a $15 minimum wage, free four-year college, paid leave, gender pay equity, criminal justice and financial reform, the DREAM Act, and an expansion of Social Security.
Sanders 2020 very different from Sanders 2016:
“The second Sanders campaign will take place in a dramatically different political environment. At the outset of the 2016 campaign, Sanders was seen as a protest candidate — a fringe figure in the race to push the eventual nominee, Hillary Clinton, to the left. He garnered little attention at the outset, giving him room to ramp up a message and grassroots momentum without a lot of media scrutiny,” wrote Vice News’ Evan McMorris-Santoro. “The Democratic field is wide open. Voters have many options, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA) — who many progressives were urging to run in 2016 before Sanders got in — and Kamala Harris (CA), who has impressed many political observers with her rollout. Still more are debating entering the race, including former vice president Joe Biden and even another independent if former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg throws in his hat. No clear front-runner has emerged.”
Trump campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement that “Bernie Sanders has already won the debate in the Democrat primary, because every candidate is embracing his brand of socialism.”
“But the American people will reject an agenda of sky-high tax rates, government-run health care and coddling dictators like those in Venezuela. Only President Trump will keep America free, prosperous and safe,” she said.
