CNN host presses Bernie Sanders on why Kamala Harris is campaigning with Liz Cheney and not him

CNN host Jake Tapper pressed Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday on why Vice President Kamala Harris is out campaigning with Liz Cheney, a Republican, rather than the progressive Vermont senator.

"What does it say the Kamala Harris is starting this week with only 16 days left, campaigning with Liz Cheney, a very conservative former congresswoman, daughter of Dick Cheney, obviously, but she has not yet held a public campaign event with you, arguably the leader of the progressive movement in the United States?" Tapper asked. 

Cheney, a big critic of the former president, endorsed Harris for president and is set to appear on the campaign trail with her in key swing states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

"I think it says is that what the vice president understands is that there are millions of people really disgusted with Trump’s constant lying with his attempt to prevent the first peaceful transition of power, his undermining of American democracy and that’s what she’s talking about," Sanders responded.

CNN's Jake Tapper asked Bernie Sanders on Sunday why VP Kamala Harris was campaigning with Liz Cheney and not him. (Screenshot/CNN)

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Tapper also pressed Sanders on Harris' flip-flops on several far-left positions the Vermont senator supports. 

"In addition to the Green New Deal and Medicare for all single-payer health care and ending fracking. In addition to those being positions that you hold, Vice President Harris used to be with you on all three of them, and now is against you on all three of them. Is she making a mistake having reversed those positions?"

Sanders said the Democratic Party was coming together to defeat Trump. 

"In terms of Medicare for all, I personally believe that the current system is broken, dysfunctional. Its major goals is to make billions in profits for the drug companies and the insurance companies. And we end up spending twice as much per capita on health care as the people of any other country," he said. "I think we have to expand Medicare."

Vice President Kamala Harris leaves after a Rose Garden event at the White House to mark National Small Business Week on May 1, 2023. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

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Harris and Cheney will team up for a series of "moderated conversations" targeting suburban voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the Harris campaign announced. The campaign said the events will be moderated by longtime Republican strategist Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark, and conservative radio host and writer Charlie Sykes.

Harris and Cheney will speak to voters in Chester County, Philadelphia, and Oakland County, Detroit, as well as Waukesha County, Milwaukee. The latter will take place the day before early in-person voting begins in the Badger State.

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Fox News' Michael Dorgan and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.