Sanders backer, 'Squad' member Rep. Rashida Tlaib won't endorse Biden

Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a member of the House’s progressive “Squad” – says she won’t endorse fellow Democrat Joe Biden for president, just to get residents to vote against incumbent President Trump. 

“If the ultimate goal is to get rid of Donald Trump, that doesn’t have to involve me actually endorsing Biden,” Tlaib told Newsweek in an interview posted Monday. 

In the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, Tlaib backed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent and democratic-socialist.

“My constituents don’t need to be bogged down in, ‘Is he the best candidate?’," Tlaib also said in the interview. "That’s not what you have to convince my residents. They need to come out in droves and be inspired by something. And that is going to be a vote against Donald Trump.”

The freshman congresswoman is facing a tough primary challenge from a candidate she narrowly defeated in 2018, Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones, amid criticism that Talib's nation profile as a member of the Squad with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Pramila Jayapal is more important than helping her district.