Sen. Bernard Sanders is leveraging his latest run as an internet meme to raise money for the Meals on Wheels charity in the Senate Budget Committee chairman’s home state.
The Vermont independent has begun selling a sweatshirt through his official website that prominently features a widely shared photograph showing the senator at President Biden’s swearing-in ceremony Wednesday.
The photo, taken by Brendan Smialowski for Getty Images, captured Mr. Sanders, clad in a blue face mask, sitting in a chair with his arms and legs crossed while dressed in a cozy gray parka and woolen mittens.
Internet users soon began sharing the photo on social media, along with countless humorous mock-ups made by inserting the image of Mr. Sanders wearing his Inauguration Day outfit into other scenes.
The photo appears front and center on the “Chairman Sanders Crewneck” the senator’s website started selling this week. They retail for $45, and 100% of proceeds go to Meals on Wheels Vermont.
Supporters of Mr. Sanders wanting the sweatshirt may have to wait, however.
“Due to overwhelming demand for this item, it will be 3-6 weeks until you receive your sweatshirt,” his site says.
Mr. Sanders, who briefly ran against Mr. Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, later spoke about nearly stealing the show from Mr. Biden during a TV interview Thursday evening.
“I was just sitting there, trying to keep warm, trying to pay attention to what was going on,” Mr. Sanders said on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”
“What was really nice, Seth, is the woman who made the mittens lives in Essen Junction, Vermont,” Mr. Sanders added. “She is a schoolteacher and a very, very nice person, and she has been somewhat overwhelmed by the kind of attention that has been shown to her mittens.”
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