During an interview praising Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) for his economic views, Vice President Joe Biden suggested the views of the self-avowed democratic socialist senator are indistinguishable from the positions of the modern Democratic Party.
Biden stated that Sanders merely “characterizes himself” as a democratic socialist:
You know, if Bernie Sanders never said he was a democratic socialist, based on what he's saying, people wouldn't be calling him a democratic socialist.
That’s how he characterizes himself, in sort of European terms—the democratic socialist parties in Europe...
Biden’s refusal to distance the views of the Democratic Party from the self-avowed democratic socialist Sanders comes after Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz failed on four separate occasions (here, here, here, and here) to explain the difference between a socialist and a Democrat.