Sanders is clearly pissed at Biden and the "establishment." Will he run as an independent?

[Doodley]

[TwilightZone]

1. No.

[RandySF]

2. No

[trueblue2007]

3. he better not.

[NurseJackie]

4. I believe so. Yes.

Which states have "sore-loser" laws? Would that apply in this situation?

[customerserviceguy]

10. I tend to agree

This is his very last shot at it, and he knows it. If his campaign staffers can convince him that he's been railroaded a second time, he just might go for it.

A lot of people this election cycle have bet the farm on the collapse of Joe Biden. It wouldn't surprise me if there was one additional effort to do so.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. No.

It would be a highly unsuccessful campaign. Bernie's numbers are plummeting by the week.

[still_one]

6. No. The question is if Joe Biden wins the nomination, will Sanders urge his supporters to vote for

Biden

[Doodley]

7. With as much speed and passion as he did Hillary Clinton.

[comradebillyboy]

20. The best you can hope for is a lukewarm endorsement

from BS.

[Talitha]

45. Didn't all of our candidates make an agreement on that a long time ago?

I remember something to the effect that they'd back our Nominee no matter who it turned out to be.

[Colo indy]

8. He didn't last time

He didn't run as an independent last time. In fact Bernie went out and campaigned for Hillary. He was all in for Hillary.

[we can do it]

9. 😂right

[Doodley]

12. He is giving reasons not to vote for Biden -- there's been a fix, candidates were pressured, etc.

[TexasTowelie]

15. After taking off the entire month of August to write a book.

I wouldn't call that "all in".

[Linda Ed]

22. He run on the dem ticket however,

His campaign trashed Hillary like he did to Warren and he didn't stop it......He didn't win trashing Hillary and he won't win after trashing Warren...His campaign people were given a script to instruct Sanders volunteers to tell voters leaning toward the Massachusetts senator that the “people who support her are highly-educated, more affluent people who are going to show up and vote Democratic no matter what” and that “she's bringing no new bases into the Democratic Party.”

Diane Roberts: Bernie Sanders, stop trashing Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/211259-diane-roberts-bernie-sanders-stop-trashing-hillary-clinton-democratic-party


Elizabeth Warren Says Bernie Sanders Sent Volunteers ‘Out to Trash Me’
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/12/us/politics/warren-sanders.html

[ehrnst]

43. He quit the party again after the Convention. He was and is not a Democrat except when he is

a campaign event in a primary. ALL other times, he serves as a Senator as an independent and votes as an independent.

Call his office if you don't believe me.

[Linda Ed]

11. He clearly isn't a democrat

so he should run as an independent....some of his statements are:

"I am extremely proud to be an independent. The fact that I am not a Democrat gives me the freedom to speak out on the floor of the House, to vote against both the Democratic and Republican proposals."

"I am the only non-Democrat, non-Republican, independent progressive mayor in the United States of America. OK, it is awkward. I freely admit, it is awkward for me to walk into a Democratic Party caucus, believe me, it is awkward. I am not a Democrat. Period."

The Liberty Union Party "certainly has not gone as far as I wanted it go to, and in that sense it's a failure."
The Democratic Party is "ideologically bankrupt. … They have no ideology. Their ideology is opportunism."

SO IN the last few years he has changed his tune...while running for president,,,,

"I am a member of the Democratic Party. I will run a Democrat, accept the nomination of my Party, and I will serve as a Democrat if elected."

[Doodley]

16. Good points. He has no qualms about damaging the Democrats while playing up his independence.

[BlueIdaho]

13. I suspect he'll keep his war chest intact

To fund his pretend revolution going after he loses the nomination.

[redstatebluegirl]

17. Or line his own pockets, he came out of the last election in much better financial shape than

he was going in.

[BlueIdaho]

42. You don't expect him to run a revolution

Without a paycheck do you? 😉

[LaurenOlimina]

14. No

[Thekaspervote]

18. No, he won't run as an Indy. he's currently using the Dems cause he knows how much work it

Would be form a party platform and build a coalition, which he has shown he doesn’t want to or won’t

[apcalc]

19. Is he ever not pissed? The ever present scowl suggests otherwise.

[relayerbob]

21. No

He knows he can't win that way, or we wouldn't have signed on with the Democratic establishment in the first place

And while he may have a huge ego, he also knows that the country cannot survive four more years of Trump

[Linda Ed]

23. unknown however,

Sanders skips Selma and Mississippi and goes on Fox News instead. No mystery why he's not getting more black voters to vote for him.

Bernie Sanders surrogates ranging from Nina Turner to David Sirota to Rashida Tlaib out there smearing Joe Biden. Sanders and his campaign pulled this same crap in 2016, once he started falling way behind Hillary Clinton, and look where it got us...

We can’t allow Sanders ego and bitterness to give us another four years of Trump.

[blue-wave]

24. It would be political suicide

I would then put money on the good people of Vermont turning their backs on Bernie. He would never win anywhere for anything, not even dog catcher.

[Turin_C3PO]

25. No, he won't do that.

If he did, we’d lose of course, but I don’t think Sanders wants Trump re-elected.

[bearsfootball516]

26. No.

[SergeStorms]

27. We don't call it "the establishment", Bernie....

we call it the Democratic Party. This "establishment", as you call it, are black, white, brown, yellow, old, young, female, male, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transsexual, rich, middle class, poor, and a host of other distinguishing characteristics that we combine into one fascinating political party: Democrats.

So take your "establishment" bullshit and shove it where the sun don't shine. You're tying to infer that Biden is an elitist. Nothing could be further from the truth. The coalition that comprises the Democratic Party encompasses the total spectrum of humanity. If that's the "establishment" then I'm damned proud to be a member of that establishment.

[rampartc]

28. no

bernie said he will support the winner.

he kept his word in 2016, why mot again?

[Turin_C3PO]

31. You know it's against the rules

here to express support for an independent over a Democrat in an election, don’t you?

[oasis]

30. Cenk's minions could sway Bernie into seriously considering such a move. nt

[Celerity]

32. events in real life have taken away scenarios in terms of outcomes that could have pissed him off so

much he might have done an indy run.

I think the only way he MIGHT have done so if if he was at 45% of the pledged delegates going into the convention and then had the nomination go to someone else. If he was at 48% of the pledged delegates, it was still mathematically possible (I have done the math in multiple posts before) to take it away and at that level he surely would have. As I have said before, thank fuck we are not going to end up there. He will not even have a plurality. so will 95% not run as an indy now.

[Codeine]

33. He said he would not. I will take him at his word. nt

[emmaverybo]

34. The jealousy is palpable and growing. He is so angry he is looking apoplectic. He is angry at Joe,

the former candidates endorsing and campaigning for him, the fanfare...of course, the Democratic Party he feels cut him out in 2016.

He knows this is his last chance.

[AlexSFCA]

35. he has huge ego but he is not evil

[SiliconValley_Dem]

37. I think Sanders knows very clearly he would not win as independent

And would clearly be splitting the Dem vote for a Trump victory which at this point in history would be insane no matter what his aspirations.

[Gothmog]

36. From day 1, Bernie built a campaign to appeal to 30%

Link to tweet

So if, from day one, they didn’t think they needed more than 30%, why would they actually run a campaign and build a culture designed to win more than his 30% ceiling? As that article notes, even way back in early 2019, Sanders was picking fights and creating enemies out of potential allies.

We saw that in Sanders’ refusal to broaden his message to bring in more people. When I said exactly that on Meet the Press, that “the problem with Bernie Sanders is that he has the exact same message he had four years ago” when he lost to Hillary Clinton 60-40, the response from the Sanders campaign was, well, this:

Link to tweet

If your message wasn’t a majority message four years ago, and you want to win, wouldn’t you tweak it? They didn’t. Proudly and explicitly did not tweak it. They had zero intention of growing new support by broadening and expanding their message. (Sanders famously refused to even inject more biography into his stump speech to humanize him more.)

Sanders and his campaign saw that their ceiling was 30%, and they built an entire strategy around winning with 30%. That means that instead of seeing the other 70% of voters as allies, they saw them as THE ENEMY. Even when there was ideological alignment.

[Moderateguy]

38. I don't think so..

Even Bernie has to realize that if he ran as an independent and Trump won re-election-he'd have to seek asylum in Moscow because Americans would HATE him. In this situation, I would not be surprised if the voters of VT successfully recalled him

[NCProgressive]

39. He will be tarred and feathered if he does

His legacy will be toast

[Sunlei]

40. He would never run as a spoiler. How could you even think that?

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks now at a Sanders rally about her support and the D party unity.

[brooklynite]

41. Not possible...

Too many States have a "sore loser" law prohibiting running as an Independent after losing a Party Primary.

[TheFarseer]

44. NO!!! nt