Beating Don not enough, Joe: Bernie

The passive-aggressive banter between Democratic frontrunners Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden continued Sunday.

According to multiple polls, the septuagenarian elder statesmen are dominating a Democratic field that so far includes nearly two dozen candidates.

On “Meet the Press,” Sanders, 77, indirectly took a shot at Biden, 76, who’d told a cheering campaign crowd in Philadelphia the previous night that “Beat Trump” was the centerpiece of his environmental policy.

Without mentioning Biden by name, Sanders said a need to beat the incumbent was a given. More specifically, he called for the transformation of the nation’s energy systems.

“Beating Trump is not good enough,” he told the NBC program. “You have to beat the fossil fuel industry, you have to take on all the forces of the status quo who do not want to move this country to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.”

During his Saturday visit to the City of Brotherly Love, Biden urged bipartisanship as an answer to addressing the nation and the planet’s needs.

“We need to set the most aggressive goals as soon as possible,” Biden said. “But we have to work together to get it done.”

Sanders took a decidedly less symbiotic approach to pushing for change in his campaign.

“Our campaign has a different goal to transform this country,” according to Sanders. “We are taking on the entire establishment when we do that.”

Sanders similarly went after his “good friend” Biden in May after the former vice president claimed to be the most progressive candidate seeking the Democratic Party nomination.

“Joe is a good friend of mine, and I’m not here to attack Joe,” Sanders said on ABC’s “This Week.” He then attacked Biden’s position on the war in Iraq, NAFTA, trade with China and Wall Street regulation.

A Fox News poll cited by “Meet the Press” showed Biden more then doubling Sanders’ numbers with 35% of the vote to only 17% for the senator from Vermont. No other candidate registered double digits.