Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., was unwavering in her demand that President Donald Trump be removed from office and the call to action has elevated her national standing since the 2016 election.
But Waters admitted Tuesday that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee doesn’t give her confidence. When asked, she was unwilling to say if former Vice President Joe Biden has what it takes to unseat Trump.
“Are you backing Biden, or [Sen. Bernie Sanders]?” Just The News’ Nicholas Ballasy asked Waters.
“I haven’t endorsed anyone,” she replied. “It’s not about who you like, it’s about watching and understanding who can beat Trump.”
“Do you think Biden has what it takes to beat Trump?” Ballasy asked.
“I don’t know,” Waters replied. “But we’ll see.”
When asked about Biden’s tendency to become confused and make public gaffes, Waters went back on the attack.
“Nobody has made more gaffes and told more lies than the president of the United States of America,” she said about Trump. “How dare he talk about somebody’s gaffes?”
“How dare he try and say Biden has done so many, and so much, when he has had hundreds of gaffes,” Waters continued.
Biden’s sudden rise to the top of the Democratic presidential primary has been nothing short of miraculous. Just weeks ago, Biden was looking at an early exit. Following a string of stunning wins and political endorsements, he’s rocketed from a fifth-place finish in Iowa to become the clear favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Not everyone in the party is ready to line-up behind Biden, however.
His rival, Sanders, is vowing to press ahead with his presidential campaign at least long enough to debate Biden this weekend, even while acknowledging his deficit in the Democratic race may be insurmountable.
The Vermont senator on Wednesday offered no further details on what his campaign may look like before or after he and Biden — the last two major candidates vying for the Democratic presidential nomination — spar Sunday night on stage in Arizona. The only thing on Sanders’ public schedule was taping an appearance on Wednesday’s “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
“While our campaign has won the ideological debate, we are losing the debate over electability,” Sanders said, meaning Democratic voters think Biden has a better chance of beating Trump in the fall. “That is what millions of Democrats and independents today believe.”
He was quick to add that he thinks he’s the stronger choice, and that he could show that during Sunday’s debate. Sanders promised to press Biden for answers about millions of Americans who don’t have health insurance, a criminal justice system he said unfairly targets and punishes minorities and raising the federal minimum wage.
That Sanders was vowing to soldier on was hardly a surprise. The 78-year-old democratic socialist is nothing if not willing to take on the political establishment against all odds — and Sanders’ closest allies are happy to see him stay in the race, even if the rest of the party is not.
“The process of unity isn’t just this pie-in-the-sky, vague, butterflies-in-your-tummy type of feeling,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., one of Sanders’ highest-profile supporters, said Wednesday in an interview on Capitol Hill. “It requires real coalition building, and coalition building requires plans and commitments to electorates to figure out how we unify.”
“And so I think that this is a good opportunity for us to come together.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article