A day after his disappointing showing on Super Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) projected confidence that he could defeat the newly minted frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, former vice president Joe Biden.
“I have every reason to believe that we’re gonna win this thing,” Sanders told reporters during a press conference Wednesday afternoon at his Church Street campaign office in downtown Burlington.
According to an NBC News projection, Biden won at least 458 delegates in the 15 contests held Wednesday, increasing his total to 511. Sanders collected 399, bringing his total to 459. Those numbers are expected to rise as more results are tallied, particularly in California, where Sanders outperformed Biden.
“Now I haven’t seen the latest delegate count, but my guess is that after California is thrown into the hopper, it’s going to be pretty close,” Sanders said. “We may be up by a few. Biden maybe be up by a few. But I think we go forward basically neck and neck.”
Sanders devoted most of his prepared remarks to contrasting his record with that of his chief opponent. “Joe Biden is somebody I have known for many years. I like Joe. I think he’s a very decent human being,” the senator said. “Joe and I have a very different vision for the future of this country — and Joe and I are running very different campaigns.”
Sanders repeated the refrain that “Joe is going to have to explain” his views on various issues, including his support for entitlement reform, free trade, the 2008 Wall Street bailout and the Iraq War. He called for “a serious debate on the serious issues of our time,” proposing an hourlong debate focused on universal healthcare, and said he hoped that the campaign would not “degenerate into a Trump-type effort where we’re attacking each other [with] personal attacks.”
After losing her home state and winning just 39 delegates on Tuesday, according to NBC’s projections, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was reassessing her campaign, advisers said Wednesday. Sanders confirmed that he had spoken to her earlier in the day, though he was careful not to divulge much about their conversation. He declined to say whether he had asked for her support.
“She has not made any decisions at this point, and it is important, I think, for all of us, certainly me, who has known Elizabeth Warren for many, many years, to respect the time and the space that she needs to make her decision,” he said, later adding, “She has run a strong campaign. She will make her own decision in her own time.”
Asked about former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s decision to drop out of the race and endorse Biden, Sanders claimed that he hadn’t heard the news. “Has he dropped out?” he asked a reporter. “Well, it’s the first I’ve heard about it.” Sanders joked that television networks would be “very disappointed” by Bloomberg’s withdrawal, given how much he had spent on TV ads.
Sanders said he continued to believe that whichever candidate arrived at the Democratic National Convention with the most pledged delegates should win the nomination. If another candidate won, he argued, “that would cause massive dismay [among] the American people.” Sanders expressed a different view during his 2016 campaign, but on Wednesday he said he was “a little bit annoyed” that the media was “distorting” his past statements about the matter.
Though he mostly sounded bullish about his chances, Sanders conceded that he hadn’t yet attracted sufficient support from African American voters and hadn’t inspired enough young people to turn out at the polls.
Asked whether he was disappointed that he had yet to ignite the mass movement he often describes, Sanders said, “Well, look, of course I’m disappointed. I would like to win every state by a landslide. It’s not gonna happen.”
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Ugh.
Are 2 really old white guys the best we can do?
Biden confuses his wife with his sister and the perpetually scowling Sanders is not even a member of the party who’s leadership is now actively trying to undermine him.
Thanks for nothing Dems.
Bernie got the “left coast”. Will be interesting to see how he does in the flyovers. The South has pretty much spoken. Tick, tick, tick.
Interesting how Republican Senators like Mitch McConnel and Lindsey Graham favor Bernie and a election that they feel would be a referendum on socialism instead of Biden which they feel would then focus the election on a referendum on Trump.
Jimmy, ageism is not valid. You cannot dismantle the system with one election – or with ten.
If you are white, someday (if you’re lucky) you too will be an “old white guy.”
Enjoy your youth and innocence while you have them.
I agree with Jimmy that having two ancient, out of touch, white guys as the possible Democratic nominee is not ideal (not to mention the gross, ancient, IQ-challenged, corrupt, orange*faced Republican guy already occupying the White House).
But heres the thing: young people scream, and yell, and holler, and go to political rallies, etc., etc., but THEY DON*T VOTE. THEY DON*T. PERIOD. Expecting anyone under the age of 30 in America to actually go to the polls and vote is like expecting anyone under the age of 30 to use their cell phone to actually make a phone call, as opposed to texting. Phone calls, and voting, simply do not exist for anyone under 30. Bernie*s losses on Super Tuesday proved this. The Bros stayed in their parents* basement instead of going to the polls. A campaign based on the support of people under 30 is doomed. Automatically.
And what that means is that Bernie*s belief that he*s going to have a *revolution* caused by a surge of young people going to the polls is utterly ridiculous. I don*t believe that he actually believes it himself.
If you want to beat Trump you have to have a candidate that baby boomers will vote for over Trump.
Is there a way to motivate young people to vote?
Let’s not give up so easy.
And by the way, old isn’t ancient, smart aleck.
LOL, we’ve had a referendum on Trump in the form of the RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA hoax before they perpetrated the UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE impeachment hoax and all it amounted to was exposing the deceitful democrats again, while boosting Trump’s favorability rating.
If you want to beat Trump, just give up, because it’s not going to happen with either of these two old geezers, no matter how many juvenile names you call Trump. Trump is on an unmatched winning streak, and much of it spurred by the democrats corruption. They can’t even run a clean nomination process and they don’t even have a valid candidate to beat angry socialist Bernie, without being propped up by the establishment. Trump will feast on Biden.