Bernie Sanders' meme merch, crochet doll to raise millions for charity

US senator Bernie Sanders, the famed curmudgeon photographed at President Joe Biden’s inauguration wearing mittens and a scowl behind his mask in an image that instantly became a meme, said he was happy it may help raise millions for charity.

Lifting spirits around the world since it went viral, the meme depicts everything from Sanders’ mittens touching Michelangelo’s Hand of God in the Sistine Chapel to the Vermont Democrat helping actress Demi Moore mould clay at the pottery wheel in the 1990 film Ghost - and Sanders joining the historic World War 2 Yalta Conference in 1945 seated next to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin Roosevelt and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

Check out more hilarious Sanders memes here:

Asked by CNN on Sunday whether he was enjoying the meme as much as the rest of the world, the 79-year-old gave an uncharacteristic grin and said he was overjoyed that his handwoven mittens, blue mask and trademark glower could be turned into gold for needy Americans.

“Not only are we having fun but what we are doing here in Vermont is we’re going to be selling around the country sweatshirts and T-shirts, and all the money that’s going to be raised – which I expect will be a few million dollars – will be going to programmes like Meals on Wheels that feed low-income senior citizens,” Sanders said.

“So it turns out actually to be a good thing and not only a fun thing.”