Sen. Bernie Sanders 'considering' another presidential bid in 2020

Sen. Bernie Sanders is "considering" another run for president.

That's according to Jeff Weaver, Sanders' senior adviser and 2016 presidential campaign manager.

During a Tuesday interview with C-SPAN's Washington Journal, Weaver was asked whether voters would get another chance to cast ballots for the Vermont independent in 2020.

"Voters in Vermont certainly will coming up in November," said Weaver, whose book How Bernie Won was released this month. "Nationally, he is considering another run for the presidency. When the time comes I think we’ll have an answer to that. But right now he’s still considering it."

Weaver later told USA TODAY, "What motivates him is the desire to have a new president in the White House and a heavy consideration is, who is the best person to beat Trump in 2020.'"

During his long-shot primary bid against Hillary Clinton in 2016, Sanders defied expectations and became a progressive sensation, drawing nearly 1.5 million people to his rallies and other events across the country and support from more than 13 million voters.

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Sanders, 76, announced this month that he is running for a third Senate term, telling supporters in a statement, "our struggle to create a government which represents all of us and not just the one percent ... must continue."

But he has kept the door open to national ambitions as he campaigns for candidates across the country. At a recent policy forum, he reframed a familiar theme from his 2016 presidential campaign, decrying American oligarchy as the singular roadblock to achieving success on a host of progressive policies.

“The American vision of the future, our vision, must be to create a government and an economy that works for all, not just a handful of billionaires," he said, echoing his 2016 stump speech.

In 2016, 12% of those who voted for Sanders in the Democratic primaries voted for President Trump in the general election, according to data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study released last year.

Weaver is pushing for another presidential bid, ending his book with "Run, Bernie, Run!"

"Bernie is the person best positioned to defeat Trump in 2020. That's my personal view," Weaver told USA TODAY. "He brings a lot of new voters into the process. He is also incredibly strong with independent voters."