While the House was in session for a contentious speakership vote, on the other side of the Capitol, Vice President Kamala Harris opened the Senate doors to swear members in before the new Congress.
During the ceremony, C-SPAN cameras captured a humorous interaction between the vice president and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“Stand here. While it’s not in your nature to stand where you’re told to be, try it,” Harris told Sanders as the senator approached him to be sworn in.
Sanders gave a brief smile in response.
For Sanders, 83, this will be his fourth and possibly last term in the Senate, he told Politico in December. Sanders has served in the Senate since 2007.
Sanders is an independent but caucuses with Democrats, whom he has sometimes criticized, especially after Harris loses the 2024 presidential election.
Sanders slams Democrats for election defeat: ‘The American people are angry and want change’
“It should come as no surprise that a Democratic Party that has abandoned the working class will find that the working class has abandoned them,” Sanders wrote in a statement days after the election.
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a popular news reporter for USA Today. Contact him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on @fern_cerv_.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Harris jokingly takes jab at Sanders during swearing-in: ‘Stand here’
