It’s always a big question in the world of politics, who are the people closest to some of the most powerful people in America. One of those people we ask about definitely has to be Bernie Sanders.
Bernie Sanders is close friends with his wife Jane Sanders. While he hasn’t made his other super close friends public knowledge, Sanders is known to be friends with fellow Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, and a lot of celebrities like Spike Lee, Susan Sarandon, and Harry Belafonte. One thing that is very clear, is he is not friends with Hillary Clinton.
You can read more below about his blossoming friendship with his other Democrat representatives, his famous supporters, and his spar with Clinton.
Bernie Sanders’ Democrat Friends
There was a lot of speculation during the Democratic debates and race on who was friends with Bernie Sanders. Similar to the race in 2016, Sanders was a top candidate along with Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and Elizabeth Warren.
Elizabeth Warren has actually been a long time friend of Bernie Sanders. Their friendship goes all the way back to his days as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Vermont’s at-large district.
During an interview with Anderson Cooper, Elizabeth Warren said “Bernie and I have been friends forever, long before I ever got involved in politics, I went up to Vermont and did town halls with Bernie. I’ve given Bernie much of my work when the housing crash was coming. So I’m always glad to be anywhere with Bernie.”
So it was no surprise that during the debates, Warren and Sanders were often standing to back the other throughout. Instead taking opportunities to discredit other candidates during the Democratic Party’s race.
The Democratic race to be the presidential candidate drew in twenty-eight candidates total with many dropping out before the primaries. By the time the primaries came around, there were a total of eleven candidates remaining including Sanders and his friend Elizabeth Warren.
Some of Sanders’ other Democrat friends like Amy Klobuchar were apart of the primaries as well, but soon candidates were dropping out left, right, and center. Finally, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden were the only two candidates left but Bernie decided to drop out and endorse Biden in the end.
Joe Biden is someone who Bernie’s wife Jane refers to as his work friend. The two worked together after the primaries to set up joint task forces to come up with policies that would help to beat Trump in the 2020 Election.
Bernie’s Famous Supporters
While Bernie Sanders did drop out of the 2020 Democratic Party Presidential Candidate race, that didn’t change the fact that he has a lot of famous supporters. Throughout his campaign, he had support videos from tons of A-Listers.
One of those supporters was none other than the famed entertainment aficionado, Spike Lee. In a video for Sanders’ campaign, Lee walks around a school campus in Brooklyn, New York yelling “Wake Up!”
In that same video, people like Cesar Vargas, Susan Sarandon, Erica Garner, Rosario Dawson, Alan Cummings, and Dr. Cornel West all spoke in support of Bernie Sanders’ campaign.
You can watch the full campaign video below.
This campaign video isn’t the only support the Senator had from a community of famous celebs. He also had support from big-name entertainers like Cardi B and Ariana Grande. In 2019, Sanders visited Grande in Atlanta and the singer called him “MY GUY.”
Hillary Clinton Still Dislikes Bernie Sanders
Despite Bernie Sanders’ high approval rating with the public and connections and friendships within the Democratic Party, there is still one person out there who just can’t seem to get on-board with him. That would be none other than his 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate opposition, Hillary Clinton.
Four years after the 2016 primaries, Clinton is still bashing the man who lost to her in the 2016 primary. In the four-part Hulu docuseries titled Hillary, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, Clinton still had some mean things to say about him.
As The Guardian reported, Hillary Clinton said things like “nobody likes him” and she continued to perpetuate the whole “Bernie Bros” narrative that she had created in 2016. The idea that Bernie supporters were all just young white bros focused on trolling his competition.
Despite Hillary’s ongoing criticism, Bernie Sanders has never really lashed out to his former rival, well at least not in the same sense that she has to him.