Democratic Presidential Hopeful Says Bernie Has ‘Fundamentally Bad Policies,’ Would Likely Lose to Trump

WASHINGTON – Former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), a 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful, said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is also seeking the 2020 Democratic nomination, has “fundamentally bad policies” on issues like health care and climate change.

Delaney also said a Sanders nomination would put “socialism on the ballot” in 2020, which diminishes the party’s chances of defeating President Trump.

“The problem I have with the senator is his policies aren’t good. They’re actually not good policies and by the way, if we put socialism on the ballot in 2020, you know, I don’t think we have much of a chance of winning,” Delaney told PJM on the red carpet at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday evening.

“I think they’re fundamentally bad policies, like, I want universal health care too. I want everyone to have health care as a right and I have a plan to do it, but putting forth a plan that gets rid of all private insurance, that’s just not smart policy, that will lead to worse access and quality in health care and besides, a lot of people who have private insurance actually like their private insurance, so why the heck are we running a campaign on taking people’s private insurance away?” he added.

Delaney criticized the Green New Deal, which is supported by Sanders and other lawmakers including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.).

“Same thing with the Green New Deal. While I admire the goal, there’s much better ways of actually dealing with climate. I introduced the only bipartisan carbon tax bill in the Congress – that I think I can do my first year as president,” he said. “We need to focus on strategies that really deeply de-carbonize our world like negative emissions technologies, direct air capture; I want to build a CO2 pipeline in all of the industrial Midwest to help capture carbon. I mean, there are much more practical things to do that.”

Addressing how Sanders would pay for his proposals, Delaney said the senator “hasn’t even tried to show the American people how he will pay for them.”

Sanders is second in the latest polls behind former Vice President Joe Biden, who recently entered the race. When asked why he thinks Sanders is polling so well, Delaney replied, “I think there’s a lot of anxiety in this country, right, and I think he emerged last election cycle as someone who had a very clear message about how we can build a better future and I want to build a better future too but we have to actually show the American people how we’re going to make it happen.”