He’s staying.
After a disappointing finish in Tuesday night’s primaries, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) showed no signs of quitting the Democratic primary during a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
“Last night, obviously, was not a good night for our campaign from a delegate point of view,” Sanders said, listing how he lost “the largest state up for grabs” — Michigan — as well as primaries in Mississippi, Missouri and Idaho.
But Sanders touted his win in North Dakota before arguing that despite losing the delegate count to former Vice President Joe Biden, he is “strongly winning in two enormously important areas which will determine the future of our country.”
Sanders, who hadn’t spoke publicly since his primary losses Tuesday evening, also reminded reporters that he’s “winning the generational debate,” while also slamming Biden for his significant backing from senior voters.
“I say to the Democratic establishment: in order to win in the future, you need to win the voters who represent the future of our country and you must speak to the issues of concern to them. You cannot simply be satisfied by winning the votes of people who are older,” Sanders said.
Sanders then argued that while his campaign has “won the ideological debate,” it is “losing the debate over electability.”
“I cannot tell you how many people our campaign has spoken to who have said, ‘I like what your campaign stands for. I agree with what your campaign stands for. But I’m going to vote for Joe Biden because I think Joe is the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump,'” Sanders said. “We have heard that statement all over this country. Needless to say, I strongly disagree with that assertion.”
Sanders added that he “very much” looks forward to debating Biden in Arizona Sunday night and plans to press the former VP on a slew of questions including medical debt, health care, climate change, higher education, student debt, poverty and “billionaires buying elections.”
Sanders’ latest remarks come after prominent Democrats Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) and political consultant James Carville argued that the Democratic primaries were over following Biden’s series of wins Tuesday night.
Watch Sanders’ remarks below:
Sanders: "Last night, obviously, was not a good night for our campaign from a delegate point of view." pic.twitter.com/0YM5ux4vZ3
— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) March 11, 2020
Bernie not dropping out creates two immediate decision points.
First, people on the progressive side will need to decide if they start to cut him loose, so as not to infect their ideas with anymore with the angry old old socialist/communist who may be helping Trump get elected yet again. AOC, Warren, etc, have a choice to make. Get ahead of Bernie, and help make themselves relevant, or go down with the ship.
Second, Bernie himself has a choice. Promote his ideas, have a debate with Biden about whether those ideas or other ideas are the way to go, and why. Have some honest discussion. Keep his ideas and his relevancy alive. Pivot to attacking Trump and highlighting that his differences with Biden are small in comparison.
Or he can keep attack Biden as he did Hillary as being “crooked” and paid for by billionaires. Run the kind of dishonest advertisements and make the same stupid statements that he has been doing in Florida TV advertisements. If he goes with the dark side , he is just doing Putin and Trump’s work for them, as he did in 2016. Then he needs to be destroyed by Biden, and cut off from civil discussion. He will show he is just a communist who really is not interested in making things better, rather he is interested in power in service of an extreme ideology, and willing to do anything to win.
The democrats can’t make these decisions for “progressives” but what the “progressives” do right now will impact how welcome they are in the democratic party in the future.
Mirroring Trump, there will be no pivot for Bernie.
Sanders’ statement is about the future of the Democratic Party and not this election Some of us are more concerned with the immediate future of the United States and this election.
Those dang millennial candidates and their participation trophies. Elections are about winning, my dude. Not interested in your twisting yourself into a pretzel in order to figure out why #actually you’re winning. I know of another guy who behaves that way.
Good luck…