Joe Biden appears to be adopting Sen. Bernie Sanders’ progressive policies on education, calling for more college debt forgiveness and free college.
Speaking about protests that have spread nationwide over the death of George Floyd, the former vice president has changed much like the country has in their wake.
“Well, you know, things are beginning to change and people are realizing, and I have changed. I have. I believe there has to be more debt forgiveness for college loans, I think, more opportunity to go to college for free. For free,” Biden told Trevor Noah during an interview Wednesday on “The Daily Show.”
But the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said corporate policy has to change as well, and blasted President Trump’s $2 trillion tax cut.
“Imagine if we had that $2 trillion tax cut back,” he said, adding that it could have been used to educate people.
“We’re going to use that to reduce student debt. We’d be a different country. Leadership matters,” Biden said.
He had previously backed making college tuition-free for most students, except for those whose families make $125,000 or more a year.
Sanders, who dropped out of the presidential race in April and endorsed Biden, has encouraged his campaign to find common ground on many of the progressive policies he espoused during the campaign.
Adopting those policies would go a long way to unite the Democratic Party and encourage Sanders’ supporters to turn out at the polls in November.
In an interview published Tuesday with The New Yorker magazine, Sanders said he thinks Biden is moving further left.
“I think you’re going to see him being rather strong on the need for a new economy in America that does a lot better job in representing working families than we currently have,” Sanders said. “He has told me that he wants to be as strong as possible in terms of climate change, and I look forward to hearing his proposals.”
Biden didn’t go into detail during the “Daily Show” appearance about the tuition policy and host Noah didn’t press the question.
A request for clarification from the Biden campaign wasn’t immediately returned.
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