Bernie Sanders Is Going To Announce "Pretty Soon"

Hillary Clinton might have some competition in the Democratic primary after all. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has been weighing a presidential run for a while now, and on Sunday Sanders said that he plans to make the announcement “pretty soon.” The only thing standing in his way right now of challenging Hillary, he says, is ensuring he has enough money to run an effective campaign.

On Fox News Sunday, the Independent senator — who caucuses with Senate Democrats — made it clear that while he definitely wants to run, he doesn’t want to enter the race just to make a point. Politico reports that if Sanders announces, he will be running to win, which is largely why his decision to run rests on whether he can raise sufficient funds to effectively challenge Clinton. The Clinton campaign is expected to spend a lot of money. Sanders said on Fox News Sunday:

Making sure you have the money to run a credible campaign is very important. We’re working on it. And we will make the best decision we can in the near future.

Thus far, Sanders appears to be working hard to make that happen and to accurately gauge his chances at success. Earlier this month Sanders traveled to multiple states and said he felt encouraged about how he was received, according to The Washington Post. He has long been trekking across the country to raise money and speak to supporters.

But though money is the central question in whether or not Sanders will run, his campaign platform is based on the notion that America is in desperate need of a “political revolution” so that working-class Americans can regain governmental control from the billionaires of the U.S. Sanders, who is running on a decidedly more progressive platform than Clinton, wants to confront corporate tax loopholes, excessive campaign spending, and take on Wall Street banks. He also supports a single-payer healthcare system as well as cutting excess defense spending.

According to Sanders, the importance of these causes is also one of the reasons he will carefully weight his decision of whether to run:

It has to be a credible campaign, not just for my ego but because all of the issues that we're talking about. All of those issues that millions of people believe in, I've gotta carry that banner, and if I can't run a good campaign, I'm not going to do it.

But if Sanders doesn’t do it, then who will? In an interview on Thursday with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Sanders did not entirely rule out the possibility that Clinton could very well be a candidate up to the task. However, Sanders — along with many other Democrats — are concerned as to whether Clinton will take on Wall Street, along with other concerns. As of yet, Clinton is the only Democrat to announce.

At this point, Sanders' biggest challenger seems to be money, though. We’ll likely be finding out pretty soon whether he can take that quandary on and then move onto his next one — Hillary Clinton.

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