Elizabeth Warren Went All In On Endorsing Joe Biden
More than a month after ending her own presidential campaign, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has finally made her position on the 2020 presidential election clear. For weeks, Warren stayed silent, despite voters' calls for her to issue an endorsement. On Wednesday, April 15, Warren officially announced her support for former Vice President Joe Biden, and Warren's video endorsing Biden goes all in with her support.
Warren, who ended her own campaign on March 5, announced her endorsement in a brief but passionate video. "Among all the other candidates I competed with in the Democratic primary, there's no one I've agreed with 100% of the time over the years," Warren acknowledged. "But one thing I appreciate about Joe Biden is he will always tell you where he stands. When you disagree, he'll listen — and not just listen, but really hear you and treat you with respect no matter where you're coming from."
Warren's video comes on the heels of endorsements from former President Barack Obama and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who endorsed Biden on April 14 and 13, respectively. Sanders, who had been a frontrunner in the 2020 primary race, was one of the last two remaining candidates until he suspended his campaign on April 8, leaving Biden the presumptive Democratic nominee. Ahead of Sanders' departure, Warren had faced pressure to endorse either Biden or Sanders.
During the primary cycle, Warren and Biden sparred on everything from health care to the state of money in politics. But according to Warren's endorsement, despite their policy disagreements, she believes that Biden will be the leader Americans need. She cited his tribute one year after the Boston Marathon bombing, as well as his implementation of the 2009 Recovery Act, as examples of Biden's empathetic governance.
"Empathy matters, and in this moment of crisis, it is more important than ever that the next president restores Americans' faith in good, effective government," Warren said in her endorsement video. "That's why I'm proud to endorse Joe Biden as president of the United States. I've seen the vice president help a community heal."
Warren and Biden also worked together in 2010, when Warren, then a professor at Harvard Law, worked with the White House to establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). She first won her senator's seat in 2012. "Joe Biden was there at the very moment I became a senator — he swore me in," Warren recalled. "And when he did, he said, 'You gave me hell! And you're gonna do a great job.'" Warren concluded her endorsement video by urging her supporters to donate to Biden's campaign and make phone calls and texts to get out the vote.
The endorsement has fueled speculation that Biden will consider Warren as a potential running mate, per The New York Times. Neither Biden nor Warren has explicitly addressed this speculation, but Biden thanked Warren for an endorsement in a statement and applauded her for inspiring "generations of women" to "dream big and fight hard."
