Vanity Fair - Is Bernie Sanders Ready to Bail on 2020?

Tulsi Gabbard is the latest to back Joe Biden as calls are growing for Sanders to drop out given a nearly insurmountable delegate challenge and a desire to unify the party amid the coronavirus pandemic.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/03/is-bernie-sanders-ready-to-bail-on-2020



Just a few weeks ago, the Democratic primary—and the state of the country—looked completely different. Bernie Sanders had claimed victory in the first three contests and seemed to be running away with the nomination. Joe Biden, by contrast, was perhaps one more disappointing finish away from being knocked out of the race he’d led in national polls since entering it. But now, after racking up primary victories across the country, including some in decisive fashion, Biden has built a commanding delegate lead, is easily outpacing Sanders in national polls, and has forced his progressive rival to consider the future of his campaign.

Sanders was recently sending signals that he had no intention of leaving the race just yet. “I want the senator to stay in,” Nina Turner, one of the national co-chairs of his campaign, said earlier this week. But after another drubbing Tuesday in which Biden swept three more states, there are signs that Sanders may be preparing to exit. After losing Arizona, Florida, and Illinois on Tuesday, Sanders suspended Facebook advertisements, fueling speculation that his once-promising run was drawing to an end. An email to supporters updating them on the state of play which did not include the typical request for donations kept the rumor-mill churning. And while Axios pulled back its Wednesday report that Sanders was suspending his campaign, the Washington Post reported later that his campaign has been in regular contact with Biden’s team, apparently to discuss policy ideas about the novel coronavirus that has upended American life—a sign, potentially, that Sanders could soon step aside and cement Biden as the party nominee to take on Donald Trump in November.

“Bernie is the person—the one person—who can essentially give the Biden campaign permission to start the general election, to start talking to the [Democratic National Committee], to start building the general election operation we need,” Rufus Gifford, a top Biden fundraiser, told the Post. “That’s why it matters sooner rather than later.”

As Biden’s momentum has grown, a chorus of voices have called for Sanders to drop out and unify the party against Trump. “The stakes are so high,” former Labor secretary Robert Reich, a Sanders supporter, told the New York Times earlier this week. But the senator has seemed resistant, despite more or less needing to win the remaining primaries in routs to claim a majority—an even less favorable position, as FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver pointed out Wednesday, than he found himself in at this stage of the race against Hillary Clinton in 2016. “This is a steeper climb,” Silver tweeted.

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