Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Biden, Sanders aim their barbs at each other
Michigan big prize as six states vote Tuesday
DEARBORN, Mich. — The Democratic presidential primary is down to two major candidates, and it shows.
Former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are spending their first weekend as their party’s last top White House contenders increasingly taking aim at each other. Each wants to show he is the best choice before six more states — Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington — vote on Tuesday.
A bitter matchup could endure for months as Biden and Sanders compete for the right to face President Donald Trump in November.
“We have a two-person race,” Sanders said Saturday in Dearborn, a Detroit suburb. “And all over this country, people are asking themselves which candidate can best defeat Trump. I have zero doubt in my mind that, together, we are the campaign that can beat Trump.”
Campaigning in St. Louis, Biden took veiled swipes at Sanders, even as he called on Democrats to rise above Trump’s division.
He told the crowd that if they wanted to nominate a “lifelong” and “proud” Democrat, they should pick him. Sanders has run for office as an independent and identifies himself as a democratic socialist.
“If you want a nominee who’ll bring the party together, who will run on a positive progressive vision for the future, not turn this primary into a campaign of negative attacks — because that will only re-elect Donald Trump if we go that route — if you want that, join us,” Biden said.
Sanders supporters — including his campaign manager — raised questions about Biden’s stamina after he gave a seven-minute speech in St. Louis. At his second stop, in Kansas City, he gave another truncated version of his stump speech, speaking for a little over 15 minutes.
Sanders campaign manager Faiz
Shakir issued a tweet noting Biden’s short speaking time and highlighting the fact that Sanders had three campaign events on his schedule, “each speaking engagement extending for close to an hour.”
That prompted online pushback from Biden allies. Democratic strategist Guy Cecil, who leads the party’s largest outside spending group, tweeted, “Spreading conspiracy theories online won’t help your candidate,” but “it will help Donald Trump win in November.”
But the focus on Biden’s age is ironic given that the 78-year-old Sanders is a year older than Biden. Sanders, who has served in Congress since 1991, contends he has bucked the establishment of both parties with decades with unpopular stands that now give him the credibility to lead a political revolution “from the bottom up.”
Strong support among Hispanics lifted Sanders to victories in Nevada and California, but Biden trounced him in South Carolina and throughout much of the Deep South that voted during last week’s Super Tuesday. Biden ran up the score with African Americans.
Sanders canceled a trip to Mississippi to focus on Michigan, Tuesday’s largest prize. He made a stop in Chicago’s Grant Park on Saturday afternoon and declared that he has a different vision than Biden, “and the American people are going to hear about it.”
Sanders will spend the rest of the weekend in Michigan, while Biden is in Missouri and Mississippi.
Biden’s campaign announced that it was spending $12 million on a sixstate ad buy in places voting Tuesday and the following week. It was his largest single advertising effort of the 2020 campaign.
He is using two television and digital ads, one promoting his relationship with President Barack Obama, the other a new effort to counter a Sanders attack on Biden’s past record on Social Security. It’s a criticism Sanders has used for months. And though he hasn’t mentioned it as frequently while campaigning in Michigan, he has released his own ad airing in states voting Tuesday and the following week dinging Biden on Social Security.