Bernie Sanders Urges Supporters at DNC Convention to Back Biden and Defeat Trump: ‘Price of Failure Is Just Too Great to Imagine’

Senator Bernie Sanders offered a full-throated endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee—and former 2020 primary rival—Joe Biden during the first night of the Democratic National Convention. And, true to his word, he urged his progressive supporters to follow suit to help defeat President Donald Trump and to preserve the gains his left-wing supporters have made and can make in a Biden administration.

Sanders, speaking from his home state of Vermont, pulled no punches about the consequences of the 2020 election, calling it an “unprecedented moment” with overlapping public health and economic crises, in the midst of a nationwide awakening about racial injustice.

“In the midst of all of this, we have a president who is not only incapable of addressing these crises, but is leading us down the path of authoritarianism,” Sanders said. “This election is the most important in the modern history of this country. In response to the unprecedented crisis we face, we need an unprecedented response, a movement like never before of people who are prepared to stand up and fight for democracy and decency and against greed, oligarchy and bigotry.”

He then nodded at his campaign’s supporters, who briefly pushed him to the front of the 2020 primary race and who proved to be a growing force within the party.

“Let me take this opportunity to say a word to the millions of people who supported my campaign this year and in 2016. My friends, thank you for your trust, your support and the love you showed Jane, me and our family,” Sanders said. “Together, we have moved this country in a bold, new direction, showing that all of us, black and white, Latino, Native American, Gay and straight, yearn for a nation based on the principals of justice, love and compassion. Our campaign ended several months ago, but our movement continues and is getting stronger every day. Many of the ideas we fought for that just a few years ago were considered radical are now mainstream. But let us be clear. If Donald Trump is re-elected, all the progress we have made will be in jeopardy.”

Sanders then turned back to Trump and skewered him for his failed response to the coronavirus pandemic as well as his open attempts at undermining the legitimacy of the upcoming election.

“This president is not just the threat to our democracy, but by rejecting science, he has put our lives and health in jeopardy. Trump has attacked doctors and scientists, trying to protect us from the pandemic while refusing to take strong action to produce the masks, gowns and gloves our health care workers desperately need,” Sanders said. “Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfs. His actions fanned the pandemic, resulting in over 170,000 deaths and a nation still unprepared to protect its people. Furthermore, Trump’s negligence has exacerbated the economic crisis we are now experiencing.”

Listing out a number of policies where he and Biden sometimes disagree, but share many of the same goals, Sanders detailed how Biden supports raising the minimum wage to $15/hour, building upon the Affordable Care Act and Medicare, implementing paid family leave and pre-K education, fighting climate change, enacting real criminal justice reform, and ending the racism and nativism coming from the White House.

“My friends, I say to you, to everyone who supported other candidates in the primary and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election, the future of our democracy is at stake,” Sanders warned. “The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake. We must come together, defeat Donald Trump and elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as our next president and vice president. My friend, the price of failure is just too great to imagine.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.