Bernie Sanders: AOC will have key role in my White House if I'm elected in 2020

close

Video

Bernie Sanders: AOC will have key role in White House if I'm elected president

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., discusses his possible future cabinet during a Sunday television interview. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., would be given a vital role in a Bernie Sanders administration and could even be tapped for a cabinet-level position, the 2020 presidential hopeful told ABC News on Sunday.

"Look, I have said this before, let me say it again -- and I don't want [Ocasio-Cortez] to hear this, because [her] head will explode," Sen. Sanders, I-VT., said during a joint interview alongside the freshman House member.

"I don't know of any person -- I've been in Congress for a few years, who in the course of less than one year -- she's been in office less than one year, who has had more of an impact on American politics as a freshman member of Congress than she has."

When asked about the possibility of Ocasio-Cortez joining his cabinet, Sander responded that she's deserving of an influential role if he wins in 2020.

BERNIE SANDERS CALLS GUN BUYBACKS 'UNCONSTITUTIONAL' AT RALLY: IT'S 'ESSENTIALLY CONFISCATION'

Video

"She is, again, at the end of one year she is a leader in the United States Congress and her ideas are resonating all over this country," he said. "If I am in the White House, she will play a very, very important role, no question."

Sanders also criticized former New York City mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg in the same interview for floating the idea of his own presidential run, and declining to campaign in the early primary states.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"That is the arrogance of billionaires," he said  "I'm doing five events this weekend right here in Iowa.

"We're all over New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, California. But he's too important. You see, when you're worth $50 billion, I guess you don't have to have town meetings, you don't have to talk to ordinary people," Sanders said. "What you do is you take out, I guess a couple of billion dollars, and you buy the state of California."