Bernie Sanders Endorses Joe Biden, Suggests They Should Play Chess

“You and I have our differences…”

Bernie and Joe

Joe Biden / YouTube

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Bernie Sanders made no secret of who he was going to support for president when he dropped out of the Democratic primary last week. He called Joe Biden “a very decent man who I will work with to move our progressive ideas forward,” and he promised that “together, standing united, we will go forward to defeat Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in modern American history.” But campaigns are all about bells and whistles and formal announcements, and so on Monday, the Vermont senator dropped by Biden’s regular campaign livestream to say a little more directly what he had intimated before: Sanders was endorsing Biden for president.

“I am asking all Americans, I’m asking every Democrat, I’m asking every independent, I’m asking a lot of Republicans, to come together in this campaign to support your candidacy—which I endorse—to make certain that we defeat somebody who I believe—and I’m speaking just for myself now—who is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country,” Sanders said.

Sanders wasn’t finished. He announced that his staff and Biden’s would be forming task forces on issues key to the progressive movement—including immigration reform, climate change, criminal justice, and “how we have a health care system that is so much better than what we have right now.”

“It is no great secret out there, Joe, that you and I have our differences—we’re not gonna paper them over, that’s real,” Sanders continued. But he said he believed the task forces would help the party move forward.

It was not the kind of big production that campaigns like to put together for “unity” rallies. (In 2008, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama literally rallied in the town of Unity, New Hampshire—eye-roll.) But it was a striking split-screen to see, coming so quickly after Sanders dropped out, and a reflection of an understated dynamic throughout the 2020 Democratic primary—Sanders and Biden get along far better than Sanders and Clinton ever did. By all accounts, they seem genuinely fond of each other. (“The former vice president falls into an exclusive category for the Vermont senator: the people who were nice to Sanders before he mattered,” as BuzzFeed put it in March.) Sanders, broadcasting live from his home office, sat with a chess set behind his right shoulder, and when Biden asked if he had anything else to say, the senator joked that they should play a match.

Maybe they should livestream that, too.

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“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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