In her upcoming book What Happened, Hillary Clinton blamed Democratic rival Bernie Sanders for some of Donald Trump‘s attacks, after Sanders attacked her progressive credentials during the primary. In response, he urged her to look ahead.
Sanders appeared on The Late Show, where Stephen Colbert asked him about Clinton’s comments. Instead of directly responding to those accusations, Sanders called for everyone to stop rehashing 2016 and move forward, not backwards.
“Look, Secretary Clinton ran against the most unpopular candidate in the history of this country and she lost and was upset about that and I understand that,” Sanders said. “But our job now is really not to go backwards. It is to go forwards. It is to create the kind of nation we know that we can become. We have enormous problems facing us and I think it’s a little bit silly to keep talking about 2016.”
Colbert will soon have Clinton on his show as she promotes her book, so he asked Sanders what he should ask her when she sits down with him. Sanders called on Clinton (a private citizen) to join him and others in supporting a progressive agenda.
“I think the response is we have got to think going forward and I would like her to join us in a fight for 15, in a Medicare-for-all single payer system, in taking on the fossil fuel industry so that we transform our energy system away from fossil fuel and move to energy efficient and sustainable energy,” he replied. “So in other words, we need her help to go forward. Let’s not keep arguing about 2016. Let’s get together and take on Trump’s desire to divide us up. Let’s go forward with a progressive agenda. Ask her if she’ll do that.”