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Bernie Sanders Will Remain in Race and Attend Sunday’s Debate Behind Bernie Sanders’s Decision to Stay in the Race
(about 7 hours later)
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Senator Bernie Sanders on Wednesday made a defiant case for his candidacy despite suffering big losses in the Democratic primary this week, and said that he planned to continue his bid for the presidency and attend the scheduled debate on Sunday against Joseph R. Biden Jr. BURLINGTON, Vt. — Senator Bernie Sanders on Wednesday made a defiant case for his liberal policy agenda despite suffering big losses in the Democratic primaries this week, saying he planned to continue his bid for the presidency. But he acknowledged that he was “losing the debate over electability” to his rival, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Appearing at an afternoon news conference here, Mr. Sanders acknowledged that he was “losing the debate over electability” to Mr. Biden as voters flocked to a candidate they believed had a better chance of defeating President Trump. But in an extraordinary sequence that highlighted his ideological resolve, he addressed Mr. Biden directly and challenged him to explain to the American people how he would solve problems of health care, income inequality and other issues that make up Mr. Sanders’s liberal agenda. Mr. Sanders vowed to participate in the scheduled debate on Sunday, and asserted that “a strong majority” of Democrats supported his progressive causes, even as his path to the nomination looks increasingly narrow. Still, as he addressed reporters at an afternoon news conference in Burlington, he did not directly attack Mr. Biden or vow to carry his fight to the end, instead signaling he was ready for a de-escalation in their rivalry.
“What are you going to do?” Mr. Sanders asked repeatedly as he ticked off a list of issues that also included climate change, poverty, mass incarceration and the criminal justice system. In one striking sequence that highlighted his ideological resolve, Mr. Sanders ticked off a list of policy issues and challenged Mr. Biden to explain to the American people how he would address them — a series of questions that could be seen as an opening gambit for a list of concessions he would seek from Mr. Biden if he were to drop out of the race.
His decision to continue casts more uncertainty over a primary race already upended by the coronavirus crisis, which has forced both candidates to curtail appearances before big crowds and to plan for a debate on Sunday without a live audience. Mr. Sanders made clear that he would persist in his efforts to win over voters, saying that “a strong majority of the American people support our progressive agenda” — even as Mr. Biden’s recent victories gave him a commanding advantage. “He’s pivoting to ensure that the issues that he has built his political career around continue to be front and center in the political dialogue,” said Nick Carter, who served as political outreach director for the 2016 Sanders campaign. “I also think he has top of mind ensuring his supporters and those unenthusiastic about a Biden candidacy — ‘don’t call it a day.’”
Mr. Biden won four states Tuesday with a broad coalition of African-Americans, suburban white voters and union members, and dealt Mr. Sanders a stinging blow with an overwhelming victory in Michigan, where Mr. Sanders had counted on his populist message to revive his flagging candidacy. Mr. Sanders’s decision to continue thrusts the race into a delicate new phase, with Mr. Biden, a moderate, holding a clear path to the nomination but Mr. Sanders wielding the support of the party’s liberal wing. How they navigate their differences to try to unite the competing factions will go a long way toward determining whether Democrats assemble a coalition powerful enough to dethrone President Trump in the fall.
“Last night obviously was not a good night for our campaign from a delegate point of view,’’ Mr. Sanders said. But he asserted that he was “winning the generational debate,” saying that while Mr. Biden was appealing to older voters, he was drawing younger Americans, and that the party needed to build around the leaders of the future. The race has already been upended by the crisis surrounding the coronavirus epidemic, which has forced both candidates to curtail appearances before big crowds and to plan for a debate on Sunday without a live audience. The Biden campaign announced Wednesday it was canceling two upcoming events in Illinois and Florida. Mr. Sanders has yet to officially announce any public events, but his campaign is planning virtual events such as tele-town halls and live-streamed addresses.
“While our campaign has won the ideological debate, we are losing the debate over electability,” he said, adding that many people had told him they liked his agenda but were not convinced he could prevail in the general election. Mr. Sanders did not consider dropping out after Tuesday’s losses, according to people familiar with his thinking, but he was stunned by how severe they were and now recognizes he needs to reassess his path forward. Mr. Biden scored victories in four states, including Michigan, where Mr. Sanders had counted on a victory to revive his candidacy.
Mr. Sanders left the podium without taking questions. In recent days, Mr. Sanders has told people that the campaign is running out of time to recapture its momentum or maintain sufficient leverage to demand the kinds of sweeping progressive policy concessions from Mr. Biden he outlined on Wednesday.
With over half the delegates still to be allocated, aides to Mr. Sanders said they saw more fertile terrain in the coming weeks. They point out that Mr. Sanders lost Illinois by less than a percentage point four years ago and see strength in Wisconsin and Puerto Rico. Georgia, with its heavily black electorate, will most likely go to Mr. Biden, who currently leads Mr. Sanders in delegates, 800 to 660. Nine times during his remarks, Mr. Sanders cited an issue central to his progressive agenda and asked Mr. Biden, “What are you going to do?” — listing systemic problems related to topics like health care and income inequality.
Mr. Sanders spent the morning at home with his wife, Jane, on Wednesday, while aides and advisers debated the way forward in his increasingly long-shot campaign. He canceled a scheduled conference call with surrogates, saying in an email to them that it would be rescheduled “so that we can better provide you with the most updated plans for upcoming states,” according to a copy obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Sanders is also still fighting to win, some of his aides said, insisting there were more opportunities to accumulate delegates in states like Oregon and Wisconsin, which would require Mr. Sanders to stay in the race into late April and May.
Top aides gathered Wednesday morning in the lobby of Burlington’s Hotel Vermont, surrounded by luggage tagged with Mr. Sanders’s name on it as they prepared for an early-afternoon flight to Teterboro, N.J., for the Vermont senator’s scheduled appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night television show. After getting pummeled in the Super Tuesday nominating contests last week, Mr. Sanders incurred a similar drubbing on Tuesday night, including in Michigan, where he had deployed resources and time in a final attempt to regain momentum. Mr. Sanders watched the results at his home with his wife while his aides gathered elsewhere, and later he opted not to make any public remarks. But one longtime Sanders confidant, Larry Cohen, also acknowledged the challenges ahead in states like Florida and Ohio, which vote next week, and the daunting coalition of white and African-American voters Mr. Biden has put together. Mr. Cohen, the chairman of Our Revolution, the Sanders-aligned political organization, said the goal was now as much about accruing delegates to use as leverage in negotiations with Mr. Biden as it was an effort to win the nomination.
Mr. Sanders had planned to hold a Friday rally in downstate Illinois, an event that aides now say will not happen because of concerns about the spread of the coronavirus. On Tuesday, he canceled a planned primary night rally in Cleveland. It’s not likely Mr. Sanders will be able to hold his signature rallies — which provide the evidence, as he says regularly, that his is the campaign of energy and enthusiasm — in the immediate future. “Every delegate is critical to our agenda and discussions with Joe Biden,” Mr. Cohen said from Florida, where he met Wednesday with Our Revolution members who are seeking delegate slots at the Democratic National Convention to help Mr. Sanders. Of Mr. Sanders’s supporters, Mr. Cohen said, “Their only voice is to be elected delegate.”
Instead the Sanders campaign is planning virtual campaign events such as tele-town halls and live-streamed events. But it’s not clear how Mr. Sanders will demonstrate the energy he boasts about from behind a computer screen or over a telephone line. Mr. Sanders now finds himself in an awkward position, pressing on despite long odds even as he insists he wants above all for a Democrat to beat Mr. Trump in November. For months, he has been reluctant to attack Mr. Biden directly, which resulted in inconsistent messaging: At times, he and his campaign would attack Mr. Biden, only to pull back and return to his central policy message of transformational change.
On Tuesday night, his most prominent surrogate, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, told viewers on her Instagram live stream that the election results were a setback for the progressive movement. After Super Tuesday and into this week, some allies expressed frustration, anxious that even if Mr. Sanders were to mount a comeback, it would be too late. On Tuesday night, his most prominent surrogate, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, told viewers on her Instagram live stream that the election results were a setback for the progressive movement.
Aides said Mr. Sanders viewed the debate on Sunday in Phoenix as his first and possibly last opportunity face Mr. Biden one on one. Some inside the campaign have said their last chance to compete with Mr. Biden may be if the national public gets to see the former vice president up close, pointing to his fourth-place finish Iowa as evidence of what happens when voters get to know him. Mr. Sanders has also made it clear that he is aware he cannot continue to campaign indefinitely and defiantly, as he did against Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to former aides and people currently in his orbit.
Mr. Sanders has about $9 million worth of ads booked through March 17, including a $2 million buy this week. And for all of the criticism he has leveled at Mr. Biden recently, Mr. Sanders feels far more positively in a personal way toward Mr. Biden than he did toward Mrs. Clinton, which could make a reconciliation less contentious, according to a veteran of the last campaign. This person and others briefed on Mr. Sanders’s campaign plans insisted on anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations.
Nick Corasaniti and Alexander Burns contributed reporting from New York. Over the past several months, Jeff Weaver, a senior adviser to Mr. Sanders, has opened up a line of communication with one of Mr. Biden’s top political aides, Anita Dunn. Although the back-channel setup has mostly been used to arrange logistics — they hashed out an agreement this week to bar a live audience from Sunday’s debate — it is likely to be the main conduit for talks about political matters, according to people on both campaigns.
With over half the delegates still to be allocated, aides to Mr. Sanders said they saw more fertile terrain in the coming weeks. They point out that Mr. Sanders narrowly lost Illinois four years ago and see strength in Wisconsin and Puerto Rico. Georgia, with its heavily black electorate, will most likely go to Mr. Biden, who currently leads Mr. Sanders in delegates, 864 to 710, with delegates still to be counted.
Mr. Sanders also has about $9 million worth of ads booked through March 17, including a $2 million buy this week.
Aides say Mr. Sanders is particularly motivated to participate in the debate on Sunday in Phoenix because he views it as his first and possibly last opportunity to face Mr. Biden one on one and hold him accountable for his record, while trumpeting his own record in contrast.
“Donald Trump must be defeated, and I will do everything in my power to make that happen,” Mr. Sanders said on Wednesday. “On Sunday night, in the first one-on-one debate of this campaign, the American people will have the opportunity to see which candidate is best positioned to accomplish that goal.”
But the rest of his path forward is murky, especially as concerns about the coronavirus threaten to upend a signature facet of his campaign: Mr. Sanders’s enormous rallies, where the enthusiasm and passion of his loyal base are on vivid display. It is unclear how he will marshal the energy he boasts about from behind a computer screen or over a telephone line.
In his address Wednesday, Mr. Sanders spoke soberly about the signals voters had sent about Mr. Biden being more electable.
“I cannot tell you how many people our campaign has spoken to who have said — and I quote — ‘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,’” he said.
”Needless to say, I strongly disagree with that assertion, but that is what millions of Democrats and independents today believe.’’
Mr. Sanders watched the results come in on Tuesday night at his home with his wife, Jane, while aides gathered elsewhere. He did not make any public comments then.
On Wednesday at his news conference, Mr. Sanders was cleareyed about the challenges ahead but also resolute about his strengths.
“Last night obviously was not a good night for our campaign from a delegate point of view,” Mr. Sanders said, as his wife looked on. But he asserted that he was “winning the generational debate,” saying that while Mr. Biden was appealing to older voters, he was drawing younger Americans, and that the party needed to build around the leaders of the future.
“Today, 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.”
Sydney Ember and Reid Epstein reported from Burlington, Vt., and Glenn Thrush from Washington. Lisa Lerer contributed reporting from Washington and Nick Corasaniti and Alexander Burns from New York.