Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have announced plans to form working groups with a mix of ideological views to develop policy solutions to a wide range of issues, including criminal justice and drug policy reform.
During a livestream on Monday, the two former rivals for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination laid out a shared agenda heading into the November election. Biden became the presumptive nominee after Sanders dropped out of the race last week, and the senator has now offered his endorsement.
Given the sharp divides between their platforms and Biden’s need to shore up support from those who’ve backed Sanders, the working groups represent one example of how his campaign is attempting to bridge those gaps and show a unified Democratic Party despite ideological differences. And while it’s not clear whether the former vice president is willing to budge in his opposition to marijuana legalization, that’s one area that reform advocates are closely following.
“I know we share the same goals on many of these things. We’ve had different ideas about how to accomplish them, but on some issues we’re going to continue to disagree respectfully, but not in any substantive way,” Biden said on the stream. “I believe there’s a great opportunity—a great opportunity to work together to deploy policy approaches that can take us closer to our shared goals.”
