Bernie Sanders Promises ‘Hard Look’ at Supporting a Challenger Against ‘Corporate Democrat’ Kyrsten Sinema

Senator Bernie Sanders (VT) ripped into his new fellow independent Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) in light of her move to switch her affiliation away from the Democratic Party.

Sanders joined CNN’s Dana Bash to give his reaction to Sinema’s interview with Jake Tapper, wherein she took questions about why she no longer considers herself a Democrat. On Sinema, Sanders said “I don’t want to spend a whole lot of time” on her, describing her as a spoiler for Democratic efforts to pass progressive agenda items through Congress.

Here’s his thoughts on why Sinema made the change:

She has her reasons. Dana, I happen to suspect that it’s probably a lot to do with politics back in Arizona. I think the Democrats there are not all that enthusiastic about somebody who helped sabotage some of the most important legislation that protects the interests of working families and voting rights and so forth. So, I think it really has to do with her political aspirations for the future in Arizona. But, for us, I think nothing much has changed in terms of the functioning of the U.S. Senate. The good news is that we now have 51 votes. We will have the majority on committees. It means that we can go forward and start protecting the interests of the working families and deal with the reality that we are increasingly living in an oligarchy, where the billionaire class and large corporations control almost every aspect of our country. So, I would hope very much that, with this new majority, Democrats will sit down and start fighting for the needs of ordinary Americans.

Bash followed up on that by looking ahead to 2024, asking Sanders if he would campaign on behalf of any of the Arizona Democrats who’ve said they’d challenge Sinema in the next election for senator.

“I support progressive candidates all over this country,” Sanders said. “I don’t know what’s going to be happening in Arizona. We will see who they nominate. But certainly, that’s something I will take a hard look at.”

“Does [Sinema] have the guts to take on powerful special interests?” Bash asked.

“No, she doesn’t,” Sanders put it bluntly. “She is a corporate Democrat who has, in fact, along with Senator [Joe] Manchin, sabotaged enormously important legislation.”

Watch above via CNN.