The Sunrise Movement Is Really Struggling to Live With Joe Biden

“I am not willing to vote for Joe Biden,” one Sunrise member wrote in the Zoom chat among the group last week titled, “Bernie's Out: Where We Go from Here.” “FUCK JOE BIDEN,” wrote another. Biden’s record is disqualifying, said William Spencer, a 19-year-old who leads a local Sunrise hub in Virginia, told VICE News. “I’m just wondering how we can trust you when you’ve continually broken your pledge not to take fossil fuel money?” a Sunrise Movement member asks Biden directly in the video. “If they were to endorse Biden now I think it would be a disservice to Sunrise members,” Tisya Mavuram, a 24-year-old Sunrise member who worked on Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign.“If they were to do that after holding him accountable, after getting concessions from him, after putting public pressure on him to release his donors or adopt planks of the Green New Deal, or stop taking money from fossil fuel executives, or release his cabinet appointments, I think it’d make more sense to me.” While the movement’s leaders try to push Biden to the left, they’re rallying their base behind down ballot candidates they can support without reservation.