Sanders: 'Very, Very Unlikely' He Will Run For President Again

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Monday that it is “very, very unlikely” that he will ever run for president again.

“I think the likelihood is very, very slim at that,” Sanders responded when asked in an interview with the Washington Post if he would consider a third consecutive presidential run in 2024.

.@costareports: "Do you want to run for president again?"

Sen. @BernieSanders: " I think the likelihood is very very slim at that. I think next time around you're going to see another candidate carrying the progressive banner." pic.twitter.com/PQZvvutkJu
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 11, 2020

“I think next time around you’ll see another candidate carrying the progressive banner,” he added. “I think it’s very, very unlikely that I’ll ever be running for president ever again.”

The self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist created a national progressive movement during his first bid for the Democratic presidential nomination against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.

In 2020, Sanders ran again, but this time he ran in a crowded field of over two dozen Democrats. He briefly emerged as the front-runner in the beginning of the year after winning the New Hampshire primary and Nevada caucuses. This led to fears by the moderate wing of the Democratic party to rally behind former Vice President Joe Biden. This led to a string of dominant victories for Biden after winning South Carolina, leaving the former Vice President and Sanders to be the last two men standing in the race.

The coronavirus pandemic halted the 2020 election, with Sanders having over to be 300 delegates behind Biden. With no path forward to securing the nomination, Sanders dropped out at the beginning of April. Less than a week later, the Vermont Senator endorsed Biden and encouraged his supporters to follow suit to help him defeat President Trump in November.

During the endorsement live-stream, Sanders announced that both teams are combining forces for a “number of task forces” working groups to cover five policy issues including the economy, education, criminal justice, immigration, climate change, and health care.

On Monday Sanders said in the Washington Post Live event that he hopes Biden if elected will look to the Congressional Progressive Caucus to staff key members of his Cabinet.

“I hope very much that Joe will take a hard look at some of the leading progressives in this country … what you need to bring into the Cabinet is not only people who have the progressive ideology, but people who have the experience of interacting with working-class people who understand that now is the time to tell the billionaire class and 1 percent that this economy is going to change,” Sanders said.

However, Sanders pointed out that he and the presumptive nominee “have very serious disagreements on policy.” The Vermont senator took aim at Biden’s push for ObamaCare rather than supporting Medicare-for-all, Sanders’ signature push for a government-run single-payer health care system.

“It’s just hard for me to imagine how anybody can defend the current structure of our health care system,” Sanders said.