Bernie Sanders ‘assessing’ campaign
WASHINGTON : Progressive activists say they have no intention of easing pressure on Joe Biden to adopt their left-of-centre causes as he shifts to the general election, despite fears among Democrats that their efforts could damage Biden’s ability to beat President Donald Trump.
In all but defeating Senator Bernie Sanders for the nomination, Biden has been cool to the most progressive ideas at the heart of Sanders’s campaign, including Medicare for All and the Green New Deal to fight climate change. Biden won a string of recent primaries by drawing an explicit contrast with Sanders, saying voters “don’t want a revolution, they want results.”
Sanders, for his part, was talking to advisers on Wednesday as pressure mounted on him to end his White House campaign following the latest 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 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.
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% of the vote in Florida against 23% for Sanders and winning by 59% to 36% in Illinois.in Arizona, Biden had nearly 44% to Sanders’ nearly 32%.