Sanders, Hickenlooper, Ryan debate whether Bernie can win election

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) rebutted concerns from former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) and Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) that the Vermont senator is too radical to defeat President Trump. 

The exchange went to the center of an ideological fissure within the Democratic primary field over whether the base is hankering for systemic change along the lines of Sanders’s “Medicare for All” plan or whether voters would favor more incremental adjustments.

{mosads}“You might as well FedEx the election to Donald Trump. I think we have to focus on where Donald Trump is failing,” Hickenlooper said when explaining why he thought Sanders’s policies were too extreme for the White House.

Sanders responded by touting a slate of polls showing him besting Trump in a handful of crucial swing states.

“Well, the truth is that every credible poll that I have seen has me beating Donald Trump, including [in] the battleground states of Michigan, where I won the Democratic primary, Wisconsin, where I won the Democratic primary, and Pennsylvania,” Sanders shot back. 

“And the reason we are going to defeat Trump and beat him badly is that he is a fraud and a phony, and we’re going to expose him for what he is.”

Hickenlooper responded that Americans would not agree to “go along” with Sanders’s progressive plans.

“So again, I think if we’re going to force Americans to make these radical changes, they’re not going to go along,” the Colorado Democrat said, prompting Sanders to throw up his hands.

“Throw your hands up!” Hickenlooper shouted back, to which Sanders snapped back “I will!” 

Favorite moment of the night – when Hickenlooper tells Sanders to throw his hands up: pic.twitter.com/gB2DaZlsLf

— Samantha-Jo Roth (@SamanthaJoRoth) July 31, 2019

John Hickenlooper says some of Sanders’ proposals, such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, would be a “disaster at the ballot box.” “You might as well FedEx the election to Donald Trump” #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/KCNzLL5l1s

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 31, 2019

Ryan went on to note that polls at this point in the 2016 cycle showed eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump. 

Sanders has touted a slate of progressive policies that would significantly expand the federal government’s role in providing health care, tackle climate change, rectify racial and fiscal inequities and more. Several centrists in the field have said such expansive and expensive policies could risk losing the support of swing voters in manufacturing areas.