Bernie Sanders says he's not interested in getting advice from Hillary Clinton
Amid reports that former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is talking with some 2020 contenders, one presidential candidate suggested Friday that he has no plans to meet with the former secretary of state. "Hillary has not called me," Sen. Bernie Sanders said on ABC's "The View."
"Look, we have differences. Hillary has played a very important role in American politics," Sanders continued. Asked if he is interested in her advice, the Senator from Vermont shook his head.
"I think not," he said.
Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, vowed to support the eventual Democratic nominee for president regardless of who it is. "I hope to be the Democratic nominee and have the support of the whole Democratic Party behind me. If I am not and somebody else is, I will support that candidate. Because what's most important is that Trump is defeated. But Hillary and I have, you know, fundamental differences and that's what it is."
Sanders rose to national prominence after mounting a surprisingly strong but ultimately unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination in 2016. After the primaries concluded, he supported Clinton in her campaign against President Trump.
Asked about Hillary Clinton's failed presidential bid, Sanders said he's not eager to "go back to 2016." Sanders added, "I think, in some ways, she didn't reach out to working-class people the way I think she should have. There were states where she did not campaign as vigorously as she should have, in Wisconsin, Michigan, maybe some other states. But that was 2016."
In response to the sexual harassment allegations lodged against some of his senior male 2016 staffers, the Vermont senator insisted he's implementing safeguards to prevent any such misconduct in his new campaign. "When I ran for re-election in Vermont just in 2018, we established I think the strongest protocol against sexual harassment. And that is being incorporated into this presidential campaign."
Sanders said he was "embarrassed" by the reports of sexual harassment. "We're going to do everything we can to ensure that it doesn't happen again," he added.
In response to New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's recent comments questioning the morality of having children given the threat of climate change, Sanders demurred, and called beginning a family an "enormously personal choice that every couple is going to make." In an Instagram Live video posted over the weekend, the first-term congresswoman said young people face a "legitimate question" about whether it is "still okay to have children" given climate forecasts.
Sanders also said the Green New Deal, a proposed roadmap for reshaping the economy in an effort to combat climate change and implement other progressive economic priorities, did not go too far in addressing environmental challenges.
"You cannot go too far on this issue of climate change. The future of the planet is at stake, okay?" Sanders said. "According to the best scientists in the world, we have twelve years to begin cutting carbon emissions before there will be irreparable damage."
At the tail end of a long interview, Sanders vowed to reach across the aisle to work with Republican colleagues. Pressed by co-host Meghan McCain on whether he would mirror prior efforts made with her late father, Republican Sen. John McCain, to break party lines in drafting legislation, Sanders said yes.
"Well actually, not only can I say it, we are doing it right now," Sanders replied, saying he will be coming out with a bill to stop United States' involvement in the war in Yemen alongside lead co-sponsor Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, in a "week or two."