Bernie Sanders says he would’ve liked Hillary Clinton to have picked Elizabeth Warren as VP
Bernie Sanders had only nice words Sunday for his Senate colleague and soon-to-be Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine.
Asked on NBC’s Meet the Press about the Virginia senator, who Hillary Clinton announced Friday as her running mate, Sanders said he was a “very smart” and “very nice guy.”
However, Kaine would not have been No. 1 on Clinton’s veep shortlist for the Vermont senator, who had a fellow New Englander in mind.
“[Kaine’s] political views are not my political views. He is more conservative than I am,” Sanders said. “Would I have preferred to see somebody like an Elizabeth Warren selected by Secretary Clinton? Yes, I would have.”
As The New York Times reported immediately after the Kaine pick went public Friday, the 58-year-old senator is seen as a less-risky selection ahead of an “unpredictable” race against Republican nominee Donald Trump.
As Chuck Todd noted Sunday on Meet the Press, some Sanders supporters were disappointed by the pick, questioning Kaine’s progressive bona fides. The Virginia senator had been notably more centrist on issues like trade and energy, compared to Sanders or Warren, who was the most popular pick among Clinton supporters, polls showed.
After speaking highly of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal both Sanders and Warren have railed against, Kaine came out against the deal Saturday. As Politico reports, it is “a stance calculated” to appeal to the Sanders wing of the Democratic Party.
Though Warren and Sanders were both notably silent Friday night following the Kaine announcement as many other Democrats and progressive groups applauded the pick, both have since spoken favorably of the senator.
In a tweet Saturday, Warren highlighted Kaine’s history, as a lawyer in Virgina, working to fight housing discrimination.
“Tim has always had a good heart,” she said.
And in an appearance Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper, Sanders noted that, whatever their differences, Kaine was in his view far preferable to the alternative.
“On his worst, worst, worst day, Tim Kaine is 100 times better than Donald Trump will ever be,” Sanders said.
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