Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is stumping for Florida’s Senate Democrat candidate Angie Nixon, who is a member of Democrat Socialists of America (DSA).
“The reason that we’re going to win this thing is the people of Florida, the people of America, want real change,” Sanders said. “They’re tired of the status quo. They’re tired of establishment politics. They want real change.”
“Angie is speaking to that need, and that’s why you guys have pulled off already an unbelievable upset, and you’re going to pull off another unbelievable upset. So I look forward to working with Angie and Maxwell and everybody else,” Sanders said, predicting that these upsets will be seen “throughout the United States of America” as well as the “entire world.”
“You guys are in a position to help us move this political revolution forward in a way that we’ve never seen,” Sanders said.
Sanders also said Nixon “understands that it makes no sense at all that we’re spending 1.1 trillion dollars … on the military, tens of billions of dollars going to the extremist government in Israel, which is a terrible, terrible thing against the people, Palestinian people.”
He added:
The reason that you guys pulled off this unbelievable upset in Florida – it’s not only you got a great candidate, can’t do it without a great candidate. … You can’t do it without a strong grassroots movement. And when Maxwell is saying, absolutely right, we got to double our efforts all over the state. We got to knock on doors. They got the money. We got the people.
Notably, Nixon recently attempted to distance herself from socialists despite joining DSA earlier this year. During an interview on NBC News, Nixon responded to a question on whether or not she supports the DSA position to defund the Pentagon and lift sanctions on Iran.
She initially responded, “I think we need to make sure that we are looking at the Department of Defense budget with a fine-tooth comb.”
“They are the only agency or department that has failed an audit. And so I want to make sure that we’re spending our money wisely,” she continued. “I think we need to figure out what we’re going to use our funding on” when asked about defunding the military.
When pressed if she believes in defunding the military, she eventually answered, “I don’t believe in defunding anything. I think we need to make sure that we are scrutinizing them, and we need to make sure we’re spending money the right way.”
Despite holding a variety of socialist positions, such as abolishing ICE, establishing universal health care and pre-k, Nixon still tries to distance herself from socialists. When asked if she is a Sanders Democrat, Nixon responded, “I do align with a lot of what Bernie Sanders aligns with, but again, I am not 100 percent with anyone.”
“I’d have to go through the list,” Nixon said when asked if she could name what she disagrees with Sanders on, noting that they are particularly united on universal healthcare.
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