Recuperating Sanders says he might slow down campaigning pace
BURLINGTON, VT.
Bernie Sanders began reintroducing himself to the 2020 campaign on Tuesday, venturing outside his Vermont home to say that he doesn’t plan on leaving the presidential race following last week’s heart attack — but that he might slow down a frenetic pace that might have contributed to his health problems.
“We were doing, in some cases, five or six meetings a day, three or four rallies and town meetings, and meeting with groups of people. I don’t think I’m going to do that,” Sanders told reporters when asked what his schedule might look like going forward. “But I certainly intend to be actively campaigning. I think we’re going to change the nature of the campaign a bit. I’ll make sure that I have the strength to do what I have to do.”
Pressed on what that meant, Sanders replied: “Well, probably not doing four rallies a day.”
Sanders’ campaign has said he will be at Tuesday’s Democratic presidential debate in Ohio. But it hasn’t commented on if or when he’ll resume campaigning before that — or what his next steps will be. NBC News announced it would air today an “exclusive” interview with Sanders, his first since the heart attack.
His health problems come at a precarious time, since Sanders, 78, was already facing questions about being the oldest candidate seeking the White House, and he has seen his recent poll numbers decline compared to 2020 rival Elizabeth Warren, his chief competitor for the Democratic Party’s mostprogressive wing.
Sanders, a Vermont senator, also recently shook up his campaign staff in Iowa and New Hampshire, which kick off the presidentialnominating process.
“I must confess, I was dumb,” Sanders said in front of his house, speaking in soft, calm tones with his wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, looking on behind him. “Thank God, I have a lot of energy, and during this campaign I’ve been doing, in some cases, three or four rallies a day all over the state, Iowa, New Hampshire, wherever. And yet I, in the last month or two, just was more fatigued than I usually have been. And I should have listened to those symptoms.”
Doctors inserted two stents to open up a blocked artery in his heart last week. Sanders left the hospital on Friday and flew home to Vermont the following morning.