CLAIM: Biden: “Being progressive, he (Sanders) thought Barack Obama — he wanted to primary — he wanted to primary Barack Obama.”
FACT CHECK: Partly true. Sanders thought it would be a “good idea” for Mr. Obama to be primaried, but he did not plan to challenge Mr. Obama himself.
Sanders did bring up the possibility of a primary challenge to President Obama on the Thom Hartmann radio show on July 22, 2011, but he did not say that he himself would run.
“So my suggestion is, I think one of the reasons the president has been able to move so far to the right is that there is no primary opposition to him,” Sanders said, “and I think it would do this country a good deal of service if people started thinking about candidates out there to begin contrasting what is a progressive agenda as opposed to what Obama is doing…Discouragement is not an option. I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition.”
The idea was mentioned again in a recent article in The Atlantic, and Sanders was asked about the story at a February 24, 2020 CNN Town Hall. Here’s that exchange:
CUOMO: …”The Atlantic” had the reporting. They published an initial report that said then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had to talk you into it.
SANDERS: No, not true at all. And call up Harry, and he will deny that. There’s another one that involved Senator Leahy. He will deny it, as well. Just wasn’t true.
I did not give any consideration — you know, I’m the senator from a small state. And I did not give any consideration to running for president of the United States until 2015. And that was — I was looking around and I thought that the working families of this country needed a progressive voice.
And the truth is, as you will recall, Chris, there was a lot of discussion about Elizabeth Warren running for president. And I waited. And Senator Warren said, no, she’s not going to run. I did run. But the idea of running in 2012, absolutely untrue.
— Maggie Dore