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Sep 13, 2020 - Politics & Policy

Bernie Sanders urges Biden campaign to focus more on the economy

Hans Nichols
Biden and Bernie

Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Sen. Bernie Sanders is urging the Biden campaign to focus more on the economy and not “just go after Trump."

Why it matters: Sanders had been privately grousing about the Biden campaign and even urged the campaign to “intensify its focus on pocketbook issues and appeals to liberal voters,” according to a Washington Post story that popped on Saturday.

In a Sunday interview with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi, Sanders denied the report but then said, “I think we need to give people a good reason to vote for Joe Biden.”

  • “Joe has some pretty strong positions on the economy, and we need to do a better job of talking about that.”
  •  “I think Biden's in an excellent position to win this election,” he said. “But I think we've got to do more as a campaign than just go after Trump.”

The big picture: Biden still maintains a healthy lead in most national and battleground polls, with a new Fox News survey giving Biden a 51%-46% overall lead over Trump.

  • But the poll shows voters trust Trump over Biden on the economy by 5 percentage points.
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