Former Vice President Joe Biden defended his policies against more progressive ideas in an interview that aired on Friday, saying mainstream Democrats have won most general election races.
“Look who won last time out,” Biden told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “In the general election fights, who won? Mainstream Democrats who were very progressive on social issues, and very strong on education, health care.”
A number of progressives, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), stormed Congress earlier this year after surprise primary victories against more establishment members of the party, including Ocasio-Cortez’s primary opponent, Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.).
{mosads}Biden appeared to issue a warning against leftward movement within the party, questioning whether progressives could perform well in a nationwide, general election.
“I think Ocasio-Cortez is a brilliant, bright woman, but she won a primary,” he said.
Ocasio-Cortez, for her part, has hit at Biden’s centrist stances, warning he will depress turnout in a general election against President Trump.
“I think that he’s not a pragmatic choice,” the rising Democratic star said last month. “If you pick the perfect candidate like Joe Biden to win that guy in the diner, the cost will make you lose because you will depress turnout as well.”
“And that’s exactly what happened to 2016. We picked the logically fitting candidate, but that candidate did not inspire the turnout that we needed,” she said.
Biden is facing progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in the Democratic primary, both of whom have proposed leftward-leaning ideas like “Medicare for all.”
The former vice president has warned against those ideas, instead, pointing to his own ideas, which he says are more “rational.”
“I have a plan how to do that that’s rational, that will cost a hell of a lot less and that will work,” he said.