Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., this week defended his support for President Joe Biden following criticism from third-party presidential candidate Cornel West.
West said recently that some politicians "don't really want to tell the full truth" about Biden because they're afraid of former President Donald Trump taking back the White House.
"[Biden has] created the best economy that we can get. Is this the best that we can get? You don't tell that lie to the people just for Biden to win," West said.
Sanders, in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union," said that while he agrees that the U.S. economy "certainly is not" the best it could be, "Where I disagree with my good friend, Cornel West, is I think in these really very difficult times, where there is a real question whether democracy is going to remain in the United States of America."
He continued: "You know, Donald Trump is not somebody who believes in democracy. Whether women are going to be able to continue to control their own bodies, whether we have social justice in America, we end bigotry — around that, I think, we have got to bring the entire progressive community to defeat Trump or whoever the Republican nominee will be."
Sanders added that progressives should "demand that the Democratic Party, not just Biden, have the guts to take on corporate greed and the massive levels of income and wealth inequality that we see today."