Former Biden Adviser on Bernie Sanders: ‘We Cannot Let This Man Be the Nominee’

Democrats must not select Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as their presidential nominee, warned Moe Vela, former senior adviser to Vice President Joe Biden and president of the Vela Group, on Monday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour and special guest host John Hayward.

“[Bernie Sanders] will be disastrous for down-ballot races,” said Vela of a possible Democrat presidential nomination for the Vermont senator. “From sheriff to school board to mayor, all the way up to the U.S. Senate and the House, he will be absolutely disastrous for down-ballot Democratic races.”

Vela continued, “We cannot let this man be the nominee of the Democratic Party,” adding, “It would be like giving Donald Trump a gift with a bow on it, and Republicans would be jumping up and down if Bernie Sanders was the nominee because they know, as we say in Texas, you can just open up a can of whoop-ass.”

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Trump “is a master at defining his opponent,” Vela said, adding, “[Trump] will have an absolute heyday with a socialist opponent. … He will destroy Bernie. By the time he’s done, [Sanders] will be stuck in a corner crying somewhere.”

Vela highlighted Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s dual endorsements of Biden as evidence of the Democrat Party’s coalescence around the former vice president toward 2020’s presidential election.

“I think what you’re seeing is that the Democratic Party — those of us who have been lifelong Democrats [and] who are real Democrats — have come to the realization that we’re not going to give our party up to somebody who’s never been a Democrat,” said Vela.

Vela went on, “Bernie Sanders isn’t even a Democrat, so let’s just start with that premise. That’s my major concern. The second concern I have is, most of us in the Democratic Party — and certainly all of you on the other side of the aisle and most of us and almost all of you — don’t support socialism. My major concern is that there will be a mass rejection of this socialism that Bernie’s peddling. Third, a concern, the man’s never gotten a dadgum thing done.”

Vela continued, “[Sanders] has renamed a couple of post offices in Vermont. Those aren’t results. That’s not how you build coalitions. That’s not how you build consensus. He’s not capable of doing that, yet he wants you to think he’s gonna overhaul an entire healthcare system.”

Asked about a brokered convention, Vela replied, “The beauty of a brokered convention is you’ve got to convince delegates to come your way if, in fact, you don’t have a majority, but you have a plurality.”

Vela continued, “Frankly, Bernie Sanders wrote the rules and now he wants to change them, again. We changed them the last time because he and his folks were up in arms. Now that it doesn’t seem to benefit him, he wants to change them back or disregard them. Life doesn’t work that way. We were taught that as children. You’ve got to abide by the rules of the game, and so therefore, I don’t think Bernie will be handed anything for a plurality.”

“Whoever gets to that magic number where they cross the threshold, that will be the nominee of the Democratic Party,” added Vela. “And all I can say to you is, dadgum it, I hope it’s a real Democrat. It will certainly be disappointing to see a non-Democrat be the nominee of a party.”

Vela said a brokered convention is a likely outcome given the race for the Democrat presidential nomination, thus far.

“I think it is in the cards,” said Vela of a brokered convention. “Frankly, I don’t see how it isn’t brokered, at this point. I think tomorrow night, about this time, or a little later, it’ll be very clear that we’re headed to a brokered convention. I think that because of Joe Biden’s resounding victory on Saturday and the endorsements today from some of his former competitors. I think what you’re going to see is he’s going to be viable in California, now, and cross that 15 percent threshold. … That’s going to take away a good chunk of delegates in California away from Bernie where he otherwise would have had those in his in his column, so therefore I think that’s just another going to be another sign tomorrow night that we’re headed to a brokered convention. Bernie will have more delegates at the end of tomorrow night. That’s my prediction, but Biden will not be so far behind that that it’s scary or in any way going to keep him from moving forward, raising more money, and going into thes states after that, and probably being more victorious than he will be tomorrow night in some of those states that follow.”

Early voting disadvantaged Biden relative to Sanders in that those who voted for Buttigieg and Klobuchar cannot recast their ballots for the former vice president, determined Vela.

“It’s more of a problem because for the folks who already voted for Sen. Klobuchar and Mayor Pete, for example, or Tom Steyer,” Vela estimated. “In those 14 states tomorrow, regrettably, they won’t be able to now switch over, so that would hurt a Biden candidacy tomorrow night. There’s no doubt about it.”

“That’s that’s the reality the Biden campaign has to face tomorrow night, that early voting is going to unfortunately not probably be good for them, but I think [Biden] will come out okay, and like I said, I think he’ll stay in contention and it’ll be close enough for delegates to fight another day in the states that follow, concluded Vela.

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