Bernie Sanders was talking to advisers as pressure mounted on the leftist Vermont senator to end his White House campaign following a drubbing by Joe Biden in the latest Democratic primaries.
As the coronavirus outbreak played havoc with the primary schedule, calls grew among Democrats for Sanders to bow out to allow the centrist Biden to focus on beating President Donald Trump in November. Biden, 77, trounced Sanders, 78, in the three states which went to the polls on Tuesday — Arizona, Florida and Illinois — to build up an all-but impregnable lead in the number of delegates needed to head the Democratic ticket.
“The race for the nomination is over,” said Democratic strategist David Axelrod, who ran Barack Obama’s two presidential campaigns. “That is the reality Bernie Sanders faces.” While his hopes of winning the nomination may look increasingly dim, the senator strongly denied press reports that he was dropping out.
“Anybody who suggests that at this point we are ending the campaign is not telling the truth,” Sanders told CNN.
Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir did say, however, that the candidate was holding talks to “assess” the future.
“The next primary contest is at least three weeks away,” Shakir said in a statement. “Senator Sanders is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign.
“In the immediate term, however, he is focused on the government response to the coronavirus outbreak.” Several states have postponed primaries because of the pandemic and both candidates have been forced to halt public rallies and turn to virtual campaigning.
Biden trounced Sanders in each of Tuesday’s battlegrounds, taking 62 per cent of the vote in Florida against 23 per cent for Sanders and winning by 59 per cent to 36 per cent in Illinois.
In Arizona, Biden had nearly 44 per cent to Sanders’ nearly 32 per cent. Voters had also been scheduled to go to the polls in Ohio but the governor of the midwestern state postponed the election, citing the coronavirus outbreak. The surging Biden has now won 19 of the 27 state contests held so far. The victories underscored his position as the clear frontrunner and the eagerness of Democratic leaders and party rank and file to come together around a moderate standardbearer to challenge Trump.
According to a count by RealClearPolitics, Biden has racked up 1,153 delegates to Sanders’ 874, with 1,991 needed to capture the nomination. — Reuters
Chris Lefkow and Paul Handley
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