Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) is not ruling out a 2020 presidential run, but he says that it is too early to make a decision.
Sanders appeared on the "Make It Plain With Mark Thompson" radio show to discuss opposing President Donald Trump, raising the minimum wage, and Donald Trump Jr., HuffPost reports. The Vermont senator demurred when Thompson asked about a potential 2020 campaign.
"I'm not taking it off the table," Sanders told the host at SiriusXM's "Progress" channel in an interview scheduled to air Thursday. "I just have not made any decisions, and I think it's much too early."
He said that he is more concerned about fighting for the progressive agenda in the Senate.
"Our job right now is to not only fight against this disastrous health care proposal, it is to take on all of Trump's reactionary proposals," Sanders said. "He is a representative of the billionaire class. He's at war against the working class."
"We've got to raise the minimum wage right now, we're working on that, to 15 bucks an hour," Sanders added. "We have got to make public colleges and universities tuition-free."
Sanders has remained a staunch supporter of the "Fight for 15" campaign, which seeks to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. Economists have criticized that plan, and a study out of Seattle suggests that it leads to higher unemployment.
Sanders also said that Trump Jr.'s meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya to obtain incriminating information about Hillary Clinton was "very damaging."
"It is a very damaging piece of evidence," Sanders said. "But what is important is that there be a methodical, objective, bipartisan process that looks at this whole business of the possibility of Trump's campaign colluding with the Russians."
Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Party's 2016 presidential primary, but he has retained enthusiastic support from the party's left wing. If he were elected in 2020, he would be 79 years old, the oldest man elected president in U.S. history.