CNN’s Abby Phillip Reacts to Sanders’ Outreach Speech to Biden: ‘He Cannot Stomach’ the Idea of Trump’s Re-Election

CNN’s Abby Phillip offered an astonished reaction to Bernie Sanders after the Vermont senator concluded his very frank speech about the state of the 2020 Democratic primary.

In his address on the mini-Super Tuesday results, Sanders blasted President Donald Trump before conceding that he’s losing the debate that he’s more electable than former Vice President Joe Biden. Sanders did not drop out of the race, however, and he used the rest of his speech to not only emphasize that he’s “winning the generational debate,” he also compelled Biden to answer for the issues at the root of his progressive movement.

As Phillip joined her colleagues to review Sanders’ attempts to keep progressive issues alive, she assessed that “he’s trying to balance two really important things.”

“He knows that he has this massive movement behind him of people who really want him to stay in this race, people very close to him in the campaign who do not want this campaign to end, even where he is right now. But at the same time, people close to him say he absolutely hates Donald Trump. There’s a reason he started that press conference talking about Donald Trump. He cannot stomach the idea of doing anything that would cause Donald Trump to be re-elected. And so, with those two things in mind, I think what he is trying to do is really try to continue to push Joe Biden to not ignore his people. Not by simply saying, ‘Hey, come on over,’ but by saying, ‘I hear you on these ideas and on these demands that you have about how this country ought to operate.'”

Phillip concluded by noting that Sanders “doesn’t want to go negative” on Biden, pointing to how the Vermont senator refers to the ex-veep as a “friend.” David Chalian agreed by stating that Sanders’ focus was on holding Biden accountable before his own supporters because “Joe Biden and his team clearly know they need [them] in the fold to actually accomplish the mission of defeating Donald Trump. ”

Watch above, via CNN.