Mike Pence: Joe Biden won his party's nomination, but Bernie Sanders 'won the party'

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday it is clear that his successors, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are picking up where Barack Obama left off in fundamentally transforming the American system into one that is hard-left.

Pence also reacted to Harris' trip to Honduras to visit with newly-inaugurated Socialist president Xiomara Castro and discuss the "root causes" of the illegal immigration crisis.

"Most people don't want to leave home if they leave, it is usually because they are either fleeing harm or they simply cannot satisfy their basic needs. The area of cooperation and work that we will do together on economic prosperity will be pivotal to that issue and in particular, irregular migration," Harris told Castro during public remarks Thursday.

On "Jesse Watters Primetime," host Jesse Watters asked Pence if he offered any advice to Harris when he passed the proverbial vice-presidential torch to her last year, and whether he believes she's taken said advice:

Pence replied that Harris' continued focus on "root causes" is a throwback to the prior Democratic presidency:

"That's an old mantra of back in the days of the Obama-Biden administration was that the problem of illegal immigration was driven by root causes," he said. "I really wasn't that surprised when she skipped over the border and started to talk about root causes. And look, she's down in Honduras. The new president, she's a socialist. But you know, frankly, just say I'm more concerned about the social issues associated with here in Washington, D.C. than I am in the Northern Triangle."

"The reality is this administration unleashed the worst border crisis in American history because on day one, President Biden undid the policies that President Trump put into effect that reduced illegal immigration by 90% [including the] Remain in Mexico policy."

Late last year, a federal judge ordered Biden to return to enforcing that policy, but critics have said the president is doing as little as possible in that regard.

"The Biden-Harris administration is failing the American people at our southern border, failing on our economy and frankly failing the country at home and abroad," Pence said.

Watters asked Pence, who has been in politics more than two decades, first serving as a U.S. congressman from Indiana during the Bush administration, if he believes Biden has changed over his own decades in D.C.

"You know, I've said as I've traveled around the country over the last year that, Joe Biden won his party's nomination but Bernie Sanders won the party," Pence said in response. 

"And the truth of the matter is that the politics of the socialist left are in the saddle of the Democratic Congress – I served in the House of Representatives back in the day with Bernie Sanders. He is a straight-up unreconstructed, European-style socialist."

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"The politics of the left, including all the politics of defund-the-police, are driving this administration," Pence said.

He remarked that since moving back to Indiana, he returned to private life and again drives his own car, and is feeling the effects of inflation.

"One of the advantages of no longer being vice president is I get to drive my own car. One of the disadvantages is I get to pay for my own gas," Pence said.

In terms of his current relationship with former President Donald Trump, Pence said they spoke last summer:

"I've said many times we, you know that it was difficult --January 6 was difficult: It was a tragic day in the life of the nation. I know I did my duty under the Constitution of the United States, but the president and I sat down in the days that followed that we spoke about it, talked through it," he said.

"We parted amicably."