Bernie Sanders’ key surrogates refuse to endorse Joe Biden as supporters lament senator’s switching sides

Bernie Sanders’ endorsement of Joe Biden hasn’t gone over well with the socialist senator’s supporters, who see their candidate’s capitulation as a betrayal of his values.

Sanders made a surprise appearance in a livestream with Biden on Monday, to give his full endorsement to a candidate he’d once described as an architect of “disastrous” trade policies, a stooge for credit card companies, and part of “the establishment that is working frantically to try and defeat us.”

“We’ve got to make Trump a one-term president and we need you in the White House,” Sanders said to Biden on Monday, before calling on his supporters to back the former vice president.

To Sanders’ vocal base of left-wing supporters, the endorsement was a punch to the gut. Many, including former press secretary Briahna Joy Gray, refused to follow their candidate onto team Biden. “With the utmost respect for Bernie Sanders, who is an incredible human being & a genuine inspiration, I don't endorse Joe Biden,” Gray tweeted.

David Sirota, Sanders’ most senior adviser until Monday, spent the day arguing with Twitter critics (at one point calling pundit Michael Tracey a “total d*ck”) who blamed the senator’s campaign for its failure to beat Biden. When Sanders gave Biden the thumbs-up, Sirota turned to history to explain “how steep the odds” against his boss were.

“In the last 68 years, a party’s outgoing or immediate past vice president has never run for president and not won his party's nomination,” he tweeted, the grim resignation palpable. “Never. Not once.”

Sanders’ fans and left-wing commentators made their disappointment and rage known. “#BernieSanders has endorsed Joe Biden,” tweeted ‘Redacted Tonight’ host Lee Camp. “Apparently no one told him that political revolutions do not ‘endorse’ the complete opposite of everything they stand for.”

To commenters on the right, the move was no surprise. After leading a campaign that came within inches of defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016, Sanders backed Clinton, much to the anger of his most devoted followers. Moreover, Sanders has repeatedly described Trump as the “most dangerous president in modern history,” and the socialist senator was unlikely not to back his party’s eventual nominee.

Sanders is perhaps the most recognizable face of the American left, and a powerful ally to Biden. Whether his supporters accept his defeat and switch their allegiance en masse to the former VP will be definitively revealed in November. Until then, expect the rage to keep flowing on Twitter.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!