After two high-profile presidential runs, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) all but ruled out another try in 2028.
Speaking with Robert Costa at the National Press Club, the interviewer relayed that several of Sanders’s allies had broached the prospect of the Vermont senator giving the presidency another shot in the next election cycle. Sanders, 84, began with a comedic response, riffing on his age.
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“Because they want youthful vigor in the White House! That’s what they want. We’re tired of these 30- and 40-year-old people,” Sanders said to laughter from the audience. “What we really need are 80-year-olds running the country.
“But I suspect that’s not going to happen,” he said.
When pressed on the reasoning, Sanders pointed to his age.
“I know I look like I’m 30; I am not. And that’s that,” he said, trailing off.
Sanders will be 87 at the time of the 2028 elections and, if elected, would be the oldest U.S. president by a significant margin.
In the same interview, Sanders said he would do “everything I can to make sure that Graham Platner is the next senator from the state of Maine” when asked about allegations of mistreatment of past girlfriends made against him in a recent New York Times report.
At another point, he praised the career of the social activist Eugene Debs and his opposition to World War I, calling the conflict “one of those stupid, endless wars we should never have gotten into,” trying to draw a parallel between it and the war with Iran.
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Sanders ran two campaigns for president, in 2016 and 2020, and came close to clinching the Democratic nomination both times. His age was noted by critics and commentators both times, and he suffered a heart attack while campaigning in 2019.
His losses in each primary to the more establishment-friendly candidate left the party’s progressive wing with lasting bitterness.
