Former Campaign Manager Says Bernie Sanders Is Still the 'New' Voice America Needs
*By Chloe Aiello*
As 2020 approaches, one question is dominating the Democratic Party: Who can defeat President Trump? According to Jeff Weaver, the campaign manager of Bernie Sanders' 2016 bid for the White House, Americans want someone new. And that "new" voice is still his old boss.
"I think most Americans agree that we need to replace the president with someone who can bring us together, who can meet the needs of working families and marginalized communities ー and Trump's obviously not only not doing that, he's tearing this country apart," Weaver told Cheddar on Monday.
Americans "want somebody new," he said.
"Who is that person? I've been pretty clear about my view on that," Weaver said. In fact, the last three words of his book, "How Bernie Won," are "Run, Bernie, run."
The Vermont Democrat hasn't yet decided whether or not he will throw his hat into the 2020 ring, although Weaver said he is "actively considering it."
In the event he does enter the race, Weaver said Sanders has learned substantive lessons from his 2016 campaign that his team will apply to 2020. "I think this time we have a much better sense of how to ... put together a winning campaign," he said.
Specifically, he said they would put campaign workers on the ground in key states earlier in the race. He said they also plan to build a bigger and more diverse team.
Weaver acknowledged that the crowded Democratic slate for 2020 will pose new challenges. Roughly 30 Democratic candidates are thought to be toying with a bid for the White House, including veterans like former Vice President Joe Biden and newcomers like Beto O'Rourke.
A recent Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll of likely participants in the Iowa caucuses found Sanders in second place in a hypothetical field, ahead of O'Rourke but behind Biden.
Some of Sanders' rockstar status has been eclipsed by O'Rourke, whose unsuccessful campaign against Sen. Ted Cruz for a U.S. Senate seat still catapulted him to national fame. Meanwhile, like Sanders, Biden comes with a blend of longtime Washington experience and a progressive platform.
But Weaver said it "is healthy for the Democratic Party to have this broad range of voices," so long as the process is open and fair.
Weaver also does not begrudge other Democrats the progressive stances that Sanders championed in 2016.
"Other candidates have gravitated to those positions. I think that's fantastic, I think to the extent that we can move the discussion in the primary process around a progressive agenda ... I think that's a very healthy debate to have," Weaver said.
Sanders may have worked up a devoted following in 2016, but if he runs again in 2020, Weaver said the campaign wouldn't take that popularity for granted.
"I don't think anybody running can take anyone running for granted. Each time you go out, you're going to have to go out and make your case again to the American people," he said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/will-bernie-sanders-run-again).
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Cheddar News reporter Megan Pratz brings the latest from the scene of yesterday's horrific school shooting at a Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Now the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history with 19 children and two adults killed, Pratz goes into comments by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, details about the deceased shooter, and reactions from members of the community.
The Robb Elementary School mass shooting killing 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas pm Tuesday was the deadliest school shooting since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, and came just 10 days after the grocery store shooting in Buffalo, New York. Nelson Vergara, the founder and CEO of 360 Protective Solutions, joined Cheddar’s Opening Bell to discuss. "Right now what law enforcement is concentrating on is trying to trace his steps as to what motivated the gunman to act the way he did. What it boils down to just trying to figure out what led to his motivation to do such a horrific act.”
An recently conducted AP-NORC poll found that majorities of the Black and Hispanic populations in the U.S. still find themselves either somewhat worried or extremely worried over the pandemic, while more than half of white Americans responded with either being not too worried or not worried at all. Dr. Chris Pernell, the chief strategic integration and health equity officer at University Hospital, joined Cheddar News to talk about how perceptions of COVID-19 differ between groups of Americans. "We’re still seeing people get infected, and because of the toll of the disproportionate impact, we have concerns among the Black and brown community about whether or not they have an increased risk of exposure because of where they work, because of the use of public transportation, because they live in homes that they may not be able to safely quarantine and or isolate in, and because they have at baseline chronic health conditions that may make coronavirus more severe in those persons," she said.
Judith Enck, a former regional administrator for the EPA and the president of Beyond Plastics, joined Cheddar News to talk about the role of plastics in the climate crisis and California's investigation of ExxonMobil and other oil companies for misleading the public on the ability to recycle plastics. "The reason why petrochemical companies like Exxon have gotten away with selling more and more plastic is that they've lied to the public and told us don't worry about all those negative upstream impacts and downstream impacts of plastics. Just be sure to recycle it. Well, guess what? Plastics largely are not recycled," Enck said.
