Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) stood to leave an interview this weekend when asked about the possibility of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) launching a campaign for the Senate.
Sanders heaped praise on the House progressive, but declined to engage in “nonsense” questions about Senate tensions.
“Would you like to see her join you in the Senate?” ABC News’s Jonathan Karl asked Sanders, referring to Ocasio-Cortez.
“Right now, we have, as I said, just a whole lot of people in the Congress,” Sanders responded.
He then stood up to leave, adding, “Okay, Jonathan, thanks.”
Karl called after Sanders, trying to get him to stay for another question: “Wait. I got one more. I got one more. This is important.”
“Well, I ask you, you know, you want to do nonsense? Do nonsense,” Sanders replied.
“No,” Karl said.
“I don’t want to talk about inside-the-Beltway stuff,” Sanders added.
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez traveled through Western states last week to rally progressives against Trump’s agenda, dubbing it the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour. The tour has reportedly attracted tens of thousands of attendees.
Karl noted he asked the question about the young progressive since they have been working together on the tour. Sanders, earlier in the interview, also praised Ocasio-Cortez as “extraordinary,” saying, “I am so impressed by her work in Congress and her, just, she inspires young people all over the country.”
“You know, fine, but I don’t want to talk about this,” Sanders said, when Karl pressed.
Sanders then asked for Karl’s final question and sat back down in his seat. Karl asked about Sanders’s own political future and whether he would run again for president.
“Right now, I am very proud that the people in the state of Vermont sent me back to the Senate with 63 percent. Right now, I’m Vermont’s senator. That’s what I do, and I’m very happy to do it,” Sanders said.
“I am 83 years of age,” he added, “and I’m tired.”
Ocasio-Cortez has been an outspoken critic of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), especially after he voted to advance a GOP-written bill to keep the government open. Her outspoken criticism has renewed talk of whether she might try to primary the New York senator when he’s up for reelection in a few years.
