Bernie Sanders still doesn’t have much downtime, though his campaign for the Democratic nomination has ended. The Independent senator from Vermont has been busy in Congress working on coronavirus relief, teaming up with the now-presumptive nominee Joe Biden to shape the Democratic platform, seeking convention delegates to solidify his influence, and finding time to make online appearances with movers and shakers like Cardi B.

It’s a lockdown schedule that might make anyone’s head spin, but in a phone interview with Teen Vogue this week, Sanders’s even-keeled “do the work” ethos was as evident as ever. The man who said he wanted to be the “organizer in chief” discussed not just his work to defeat Donald Trump and push Biden to the left, but how he views the stakes of the COVID-19 pandemic from Capitol Hill. Sanders also offered his perspective on what the coronavirus crisis has demonstrated about the nature of our society.

After a campaign that saw a lot of support from younger voters, Sanders seems optimistic about the future. The senator explained what he means when he says the movement behind his campaign is winning the ideological and generational battles in U.S. politics.

“We are winning the ideological struggle,” Sanders said. “If we keep our shoulders to the wheel, we can create a government based on justice, on science, on dignity for all, rather than the type of mentality that pervades in our country today.”

Check out what else Sanders had to say below, edited for length and clarity.

Teen Vogue: How are you, Senator?

Bernie Sanders: Well, what can I say? Hanging in, hanging in.

TV: I want to start with the end of the nomination campaign and the pivot to this push for delegates and influence at the convention, when that happens. How’s that going right now?

BS: What we have got to do are two fundamental things. Number one, we have got to work as hard as we can to defeat Donald Trump. I just don't know how in any substantive way this country will survive four more years of Trump. This is a president who is anti-science, a president who does not care about the constitution. He thinks he's above the law. He is a racist, a sexist, and a homophobe and a xenophobe and a religious bigot. He has got to be defeated. And that means we've got to do everything we can, mind you, to elect Joe Biden.

Having said that, at the same time, we've got to make Joe Biden a far more progressive candidate than he is right now. We are working on six separate task forces that address some of the major issues facing this country. And I hope that out of that process you will see a Biden willing to accept positions that are far more progressive than we have seen in the past.

TV: I know you're working in Congress. What level of optimism do you have about how the federal government can be an effective ally to the communities that are being hit hardest, especially because we're seeing the pandemic's worst effects play out along unfortunately predictable lines of class and race?

BS: That's right. Look, in an hour and a half I'll be on the phone, as I often am, with the democratic leadership — with Chuck Schumer and the other Democratic leaders — and what we will no doubt be discussing is a fourth emergency piece of legislation. And we're going to do our best to make sure that legislation protects all the working families of this country and puts some special focus on the poor minority communities who have been devastated, devastated, by this crisis.