“The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg on Wednesday questioned Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) over his decision to continue campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Goldberg pressed Sanders over his remarks this week that he sees a “narrow path” to the nomination, with the host saying the senator’s decision reminded her of the 2016 primary.
Sanders continued to campaign in 2016 after Hillary Clinton secured enough delegates to clinch the nomination. The senator eventually backed her White House bid and campaigned for the former secretary of State.
“I’m told you intend to stay in this race for president because you believe there is a path to victory,” Goldberg told Sanders on Wednesday.
“I want to know what that path is because this feels a little bit like it did when you didn’t come out when Hillary Clinton was clearly the person folks were going for,” she added.
Sanders maintained “that’s not quite accurate,” adding he “worked as hard as I could for Hillary Clinton.”
But Goldberg pushed back, saying while he did eventually support Clinton it took him “a very, very long time to hop in, and your people also took a very long time for them to hop in.”
“Why are you still in the race?” she pressed.
“Last I heard, people in a democracy have a right to vote and they have a right to vote for the agenda that they think can work for America, especially in this very, very difficult moment,” Sanders responded.
“We are assessing our campaign, as a matter of fact, where we want to go forward. But people in a democracy do have a right to vote,” he added.
Sanders said Monday he planned to continue his campaign despite a nearly insurmountable advantage for former Vice President Joe Biden among pledged delegates.
Biden leads Sanders 1,217 delegates to 914 among the 2,302 delegates allocated so far in the Democratic race, according to The New York Times.
“We’re about 300 delegates behind. Biden has 1,200, we have 900,” Sanders said in an interview on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”
“There is a path. It is admittedly a narrow path. But I would tell you, Seth, that there are a lot of people who are supporting me. We have a strong grass-roots movement who believe that we have got to stay in in order to continue the fight.”
Sanders told Goldberg on Wednesday that he and fellow lawmakers are working on a fourth coronavirus stimulus package aimed at ensuring that “all of our people in this crisis have health care” and that people “continue to receive their paycheck.”
Goldberg asked Sanders if he should focus on Congress’s coronavirus response instead of “splitting the time” with campaigning for president.
“I’m sitting in my house right now. I’m not holding a rally in Wisconsin because of the nature of campaigns,” Sanders responded, saying that he and other lawmakers are also pushing for states and cities to receive funds to continue paying their employees.
Sanders was joined by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in a Wednesday letter asking the Department of Labor for details on how it will expedite the unemployment benefits included in the $2.2 trillion coronavirus aid package passed by Congress late last week.