From driftglass:
And here is where I get all confused.
From Newsweek, October 23, 2017:
BERNIE SANDERS WON’T BECOME A DEMOCRAT, WILL RUN AS AN INDEPENDENT IN 2018
Bernie Sanders has announced he will be running as an independent in 2018, prompting speculation over whether he will run as a Democrat presidential candidate in 2020. But the Vermont senator, who faced pressure to join the Democrats following his bid for the party’s 2016 nomination, said he had always been an independent and was not planning on making any changes in 2018.
“I am an independent and I have always run in Vermont as an independent while I caucus with the Democrats in the United States Senate. That’s what I’ve been doing for a long time, and that’s what I’ll continue to do,” Sanders said in a Sunday-night interview with Fox News.
I understand that Senator Sanders is well within his rights to break the promise he made during the 2016 presidential election about running as a Democrat from now on. After all, that promise is no longer convenient, and he didn’t swear to it under oath or anything — he merely asked us to trust him.