#Bernie Sanders says Joe Biden could be most progressive president since FDR

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Former US vice president Joe Biden (left) and Sen. Bernie Sanders greet each other with a safe elbow bump before the start of their Democratic debate back in March
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Sen. Bernie Sanders said Joe Biden told him that he believes he can become the most progressive president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

“The reason I say that I think Biden has a chance to be the most progressive president since FDR is that is exactly what Joe Biden said to me,” Sanders, a former presidential candidate, said in an interview Wednesday on PBS’ “Amanpour & Company.”

“He understands the severity of this moment,” said Sanders.

Sanders went on to list the crises now facing the US, including coronavirus pandemic, the state of the economy, rising joblessness, and the continuing protests across the country after George Floyd’s death, calling for police reforms and an end to racial injustice.

“So in talking to the vice president, and in his own public proclamations, I think he is making it clear that we need to, in a very bold way, start addressing the crises facing working-class families today,” Sanders said.

He noted the agreement released earlier this month between Biden and Sanders to establish a number of task forces to address those issues.

“And I think we hammered out some agreements which will make, in my view, Joe Biden a very progressive president if he, in fact, implements what has been written,” Sanders said.

Progressive lightning rod Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, who proposed the “Green New Deal,” would co-chair the task force on climate change.

The documents recommend an enhanced timeline to reach zero-emissions, but do not mention the Green New Deal specifically by name.