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Bernie Sanders bizarrely claims his socialist policies are backed by MOST Americans as he pushes for Biden cabinet post
BERNIE Sanders has insisted his left-wing policies are backed by the majority of Americans - as he makes his pitch for a job in Joe Biden's cabinet.
The veteran senator, who wants to be Labor Secretary, is pushing the President-elect to stick to his "progressive" policy agenda when he enters the Oval Office.
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, runner-up in the Democrat primary race, said he and Biden had agreed shared priorities on healthcare, the economy and climate change.
He told CNN: "I fully expect the Biden administration will be advocating the proposals that they agreed to."
And he claimed most voters would back his "far left" policies.
He said: "I sometimes find it amusing when our opponents talk about the far left agenda.
"The truth is that when you talk about raising the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour, when you're talking about expanding health care to all people as a human right, when you talk about effectively taking on climate change, when you talk about making public colleges and universities tuition free, these are not far left ideas.
"These are commonsense ideas that the majority of the American people support.
"And we're going to fight to make sure that they are implemented."
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Sanders, 79, dismissed as "dead wrong" suggestions that left-wing ideology among some candidates had cost the party seats in the House of Representatives.
Since the election, moderate Dems have pointed the blame at colleagues who embraced in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests.
But self-declared democratic socialist Sanders insisted no candidates backed such extreme policies.
He said: "Nobody I know who's running for office talks about defunding the police.
"What we talk about is making police officers accountable, making sure that police departments do what they can do best, figuring out how you deal with mental illness, how you deal with homelessness, whether those are, in fact, police responsibilities, making sure the police officers are not killing innocent African-Americans.
"That is not defund the police."
The independent Vermont senator also confirmed that he has been in talks with the Biden transition team and is interested in becoming Labor Secretary.
He told CNN last week: "If I had a portfolio that allowed me to stand up and fight for working families - would I do it? Yes I would."
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, who was third in the primary race for presidential candidate, is said to be angling for the post of Treasury Secretary.
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