Could he be thinking about choosing her for his running mate? Socialists of a feather stick together.
"Look, I have said this before, let me say it again -- and I don't want [Ocasio-Cortez] to hear this, because [her] head will explode," Sanders said.
"I don't know of any person -- I've been in Congress for a few years, who in the course of less than one year -- she's been in office less than one year, who has had more of an impact on American politics as a freshman member of Congress than she has," he continued.
When Sanders was questioned on the possibility of adding AOC to his cabinet, he replied that she deserves an important role...and if he wins, she will get it.
"She is, again, at the end of one year she is a leader in the United States Congress and her ideas are resonating all over this country," the senator said, "If I am in the White House, she will play a very, very important role, no question."
Sanders also criticized former New York City mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg in the same interview for floating the idea of his own presidential run, and declining to campaign in the early primary states.
"That is the arrogance of billionaires. I'm doing five events this weekend right here in Iowa," he concluded, "We're all over New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, California. But he's too important. You see, when you're worth $50 billion, I guess you don't have to have town meetings, you don't have to talk to ordinary people. What you do is you take out, I guess a couple of billion dollars, and you buy the state of California."