THREAD: There has been a lot of criticism levied against @BernieSanders recently following his comment about "working within the context of what Biden wants" as Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. This thread will explore why this really isn't all that surprising.

Over the last 20+ years, Bernie has endorsed every establishment Democrat running for President: Bill Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Obama, Hillary, and most recently, Biden. These candidates and what they represent largely contradict much of what Bernie says he stands for.
Chris Hedges theorized in 2015: "...All that energy and all of that money goes back into the Democratic party. [Bernie] functions as a sheepdog to corral progressives, left-leaning progressives, back into the embrace of the Democratic establishment."

https://t.co/5wXGxTuVrf
Bernie's foreign policy positions are also telling. While he *did* vote against the US invasion of Iraq, he still voted to fund it once underway, & also backed the US bombing of Kosovo, US sanctions against Iran & Libya, & the Iraqi Liberation Act of '98.

https://t.co/O0AoqiY7TS
Bernie called closing the torturous gulag at Guantanamo a "complicated issue" and supported a proposal in 2009 to "prohibit funding to transfer, release, or incarcerate detainees detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to or within the United States."

https://t.co/4p64SgeD1x
In 2011, Bernie co-sponsored S. Res. 85, which urged the UN Security Council to take action to "protect civilians" in Libya, including the possible imposition of a no-fly zone over Libyan territory.

https://t.co/ecM2pcNu3g
In 2014, he supported US sanctions against Russia.
That same year, Bernie didn't object to having his name included - by unanimous consent - in S.498, which backed Israel's brutal military assault against Gaza.

As a result, he was berated by supporters at a town hall meeting in Vermont.

https://t.co/zOQmi35kZM
In 2015, he supported US airstrikes in Iraq & Syria.

https://t.co/7KyZkeBWk0
Following the death of neocon John McCain in 2018, Bernie referred to him as an "American hero, a man of decency and honor and a friend of mine."
Bernie's recent endorsement of Joe Biden is the most telling. Biden is a corporate-owned warmonger who voted for the US invasion of Iraq, opposes M4A, & opposes a Green New Deal. Yet Bernie endorsed him - as he has endorsed every establishment Dem over the last two decades.
Bernie's various support for US acts of aggression, combined with 20+ years of endorsements for pro-war establishment Dems, is ultimately why his pledge to work "within the context of what Biden wants" as Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee really isn't all that surprising.

More from Biden

I got overnight via email a query from @briansflood at Fox News, the principal part of which I reproduce below. I answered by email too. I'll append that reply in the next threaded tweet:


My reply:


Hunter Biden's dubious business activities have been reported for years. Here for example is @TheAtlantic in September 2019, year *before* @nypost
https://t.co/qZBTpyuysM


That emails attributed to Hunter Biden were circulating was also known well before the NYPost story in October. Here's TIME magazine https://t.co/JvpEKdG0U4


What @NYPost added to the work earlier done by others was a new *origin* story for the materials that circulated in Ukraine in 2019. When other media organizations attempted to corroborate that story, hijinx ensued. https://t.co/ZJGZWq7etU @thedailybeast account

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