Sanders gives Harris campaign advice

Progressive Democrats, including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, have been calling on US presidential candidate Kamala Harris to make changes to her campaign’s closing message, shifting focus from her Republican rival Donald Trump, the Associated Press reported on Friday.

According to the outlet, progressive leaders have been raising concerns that Harris’ message is increasingly centered on Trump and the supposed threat he poses to US democracy, an attempt to win over moderate Republicans, while it ignores the economic struggles of the American working class. Some have also been reportedly frustrated that the Democratic nominee’s campaign hasn’t featured progressives like Sanders or New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in higher-profile spots.

“The truth of the matter is that there are a hell of a lot more working-class people who could vote for Kamala Harris than there are conservative Republicans,” Sanders told AP on Thursday.

The progressive US senator claimed he had been doing whatever he was asked to help Harris win. Sanders said he’d participated in two dozen campaign-related events this month alone, mostly in rural areas, but without Harris herself.

“She has to start talking more to the needs of working-class people,” Sanders pointed out. “I wish this had taken place two months ago. It is what it is.”

The report indicated that while Trump’s allies have been accusing the former California senator of being a “radical-left liberal,” Harris has been reluctant to appear with progressives like Sanders.

She instead was campaigning with Liz Cheney, a prominent neoconservative whom Trump called a “dumb War Hawk” who wants “to go to war with every Muslim country known to mankind.”

Meanwhile, the executive director of the progressive group Our Revolution, Joseph Geevarghese, suggested that as many as 10% of progressives may not vote for Harris because of their frustrations. Some may not cast a ballot at all, while some may even support Trump, he claimed, as cited by AP.

Harris is scheduled to deliver a major speech just outside the White House, the same location where Trump spoke shortly before the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. In her closing pitch to voters, the Democratic presidential nominee is expected to focus more on convincing voters she represents the future for the country and would defend their day-to-day freedoms, people familiar with her strategy told NBC.

They said Harris will also continue to lash out at Trump, stressing that he is “increasingly unhinged and unstable” and that his desire for “unchecked power” is dangerous.

Meanwhile, the former president is set to outline his formal closing message on Sunday at Madison Square Garden in New York City. He is reportedly expected to focus on average Americans’ displeasure with the direction of the country. The Republican nominee’s campaign is centered on the economy and inflation, immigration, crime, and foreign policy.