Elizabeth Warren Lays Out How Bernie Sanders Has Changed the Democratic Party

Impact

Bernie Sanders' run for the presidency has helped the Democrats draw a sharp, positive contrast with the Republicans, Sen. Elizabeth Warren says.

In a wide-ranging interview Tuesday, Warren — who's been mentioned as a potential Hillary Clinton running mate — said Sanders has "put forward the arguments about what it means to be a Democrat."

Read more: Here's the Full Transcript and Video of Mic's Interview with Elizabeth Warren

"What Bernie has done, and this whole Bernie/Hillary [primary] process, has been to really draw the distinction between what it means to be a Democrat and what the Democrats stand for and what the Republicans are out there standing for, and I've got to say: I'm proud to be a Democrat," she said in an interview with Mic's Zeeshan Aleem.

Warren, one of the clarion voices of the Democratic Party's left flank, said the Clinton-Sanders debates suggested that the candidates differences on major issues were a matter of degrees, not deep divides.

"So what have the Democrats debated?" Warren asked. "'Should the minimum wage be $12 an hour or $15 an hour?' But all Democrats are saying that we need to raise the minimum wage and we need to make it a living wage."

She drew similar comparisons to the candidates' give and take over the cost of college and Wall Street regulation.

"These are the kinds of debates we have had because we've had two candidates in there fighting hard and it has truly shown the gulf with the other side," Warren said.