Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., spent his first appearance on Tuesday night Democratic National Convention setting his own policy priorities — even ones he knows diverge from Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign platform.
“We must join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all people as a human right, not a privilege,” Sanders said, doubling down on his longtime support for a Medicare for All program.
The Independent senator running for re-election in Vermont was well aware that Harris did not share his position on universal health care.
“We need Medicare for All,” he said in an interview Monday Politico. “That’s not her view, and that’s not President Biden’s view. And you know what, I think I’m right and they’re wrong.”
During his speech at the DNC, Sanders also railed against the influence of big money in politics, despite the fact that all of the billionaire donors helped fund Harris’ campaign.
“Billionaires in both parties should not be able to buy elections — including primaries,” Sanders said.
Harris has a well-documented Rolodex of billionaire big donors who help fund her campaign, along with millions more in small-dollar donations.
“We need to take on big pharma, big industry, big tech and all the other corporate monopolists whose greed denies workers progress,” Sanders said.
By making universal health care, money in politics, and class warfare all central points of his DNC speech — and by never extolling the virtues of Harris, Sanders knowingly flouted an unspoken rule of presidential conventions: Speakers are expected to sing the praises of the party candidate.
And while he offered a quick note of support in Harris’ campaign against former President Donald Trump, Sanders’ positions effectively contrasted the vice president.
Sanders’ speech on Tuesday was not the first time he expressed noticeably lukewarm support for Harris.
“She’s a great activist,” Sanders said of Harris in Monday’s interview with Politico. “We’re not the best of friends, but I’ve known her for many years.”
Sanders said Monday that while he supports Harris, he stands by his belief that President Joe Biden could have served a second term, a view not shared by most of his party leaders.
Sanders remained fiercely loyal to Biden even after his disastrous debate led to concerns among Democrats about his re-election bid.
Not so radical?
But Sanders’ decision to highlight the distance between himself and Harris, while unconventional, could ultimately be an advantage for the vice president as she works to appeal to moderate, undecided voters.
August poll from New York Times and Siena College found that 45% of likely voters felt Harris was too liberal or too progressive in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.
That sentiment is partly the result of Trump trying to paint Harris as a radical progressive, an effort to scare undecided voters curious about Democrats who might lean more moderate.
“Comrade Kamala Harris is terrible for our country. She is a communist, has always been a communist and will always be a communist,” Trump wrote. Truly Social Sunday.
But Sanders’ half-hearted enthusiasm for Harris offers a direct rebuttal to these Republican attacks.
A Democratic Socialist and one of the furthest left-wing lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Sanders is a reminder to centrist voters that there are plenty of Democrats far more radical than the vice president.
That message may have already started to resonate with the electorate.
Austin Davis, a 29-year-old self-proclaimed communist from Chicago, told NBC News on Tuesday that he does not consider Harris a communist.
“Kamala is not a communist,” he said. “Anyone who can understand even the basic definition knows she is not a communist.”