Sanders is quietly worried about the campaign Biden is running against Trump

Bernie Sanders is privately concerned about how Democratic nominee Joe Biden is running against President Donald Trump. 

The Washington Post reported Saturday that Sanders is urging Biden’s team to talk about more pocketbook issues and campaign with Democrats including hip progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

Sanders is warning that Biden could lose to Trump, like Hillary Clinton did in 2016, if he continues with his vague, down-the-middle approach, sources told The Post.   

The Post wrote that Sanders believed Biden would be better served talking about economic populism, instead of simply criticizing the president. 

Faiz Shakir, who ran Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, told The Post that Sanders is ‘working as hard as he can’ to get Biden elected, but admitted that Sanders advised some adjustments. 

‘Sen. Sanders is confident that Joe Biden is in a very strong position to win this election, but nevertheless feels there are areas the campaign can continue to improve upon,’ Faiz said in a statement to The Post. ‘He has been in direct contact with the Biden team and has urged them to put more emphasis on how they will raise wages, create millions of good paying jobs, lower the cost of prescription drugs and expand health care coverage.’  

The Vermont senator ‘also thinks that a stronger outreach to young people, the Latino community and the progressive movement will be a real help to the campaign,’ Shakir said.  

Latino voters could be critical for Biden in states like Floirda, where a recent poll saw Trump making gains among Latinos, and in Arizona and Nevada, where Trump is holding rallies this weekend. 

In the early primaries, Latinos in Nevada swung that state decisively for Sanders. 

Sanders captured a majority of the youth vote too, while progressives went for him or Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. 

Sanders has tried to move his voters over to Biden’s column.  

He dropped out months earlier than he did in 2016 and immediately backed Biden. 

Members of his campaign team joined up with Biden’s to craft a ‘unity taskforce‘ document outlining specific policy proposals they’d come to an agreement on.  

But Biden – hoping to pick up disaffected Republicans and independents – has pushed back when Trump has tried to characterize him as a tool of the ‘radical left,’ a term the president uses to describe politicians like Sanders and AOC.  

‘You know me. You know my heart, and you know my story, my family story. Ask yourself, do I look to you like a radical socialist with soft spot for rioters? Really?’ Biden said during a late August speech as he tried to distance himself from Black Lives Matter protests that had turned violent and destructive.  

By Sunday morning, Trump’s team was already taking advantage of yet another story about Democratic Party disarray.  

Jason Miller, a senior adviser with the Trump campaign, mentioned the Sanders story as he tried to push back on a new poll that showed the president’s approval rating on the coronavirus sitting at 35 per cent.  

‘There is a reason why Bernie Sanders and other Democrats are so concerned about Joe Biden – the lack of enthusiasm with his candidacy,’ Miller said. 

Miller pointed to the thousands of people who showed up in Nevada Saturday night for a Trump rally there and said, of the crowd, ’20 per cent didn’t vote in 2016.’  

 ‘That’s why our internal numbers show us actually winning Nevada,’ Miller said.    

And soon Trump was reacting to the Sanders story too.  

‘Sleepy Joe Biden has spent 47 years in politics being terrible to Hispanics. Now he is relying on Castro lover Bernie Sanders to help him out. That won’t work!’ Trump wrote. ‘Remember, Miami Cubans gave me the highly honored Bay of Pigs Award for all I have done for our great Cuban Population!’