Bernie Sanders says he spoke with Elizabeth Warren about her campaign’s next steps
"She will make her own decision in her own time."
Sen. Bernie Sanders says he spoke with Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday, as the Massachusetts senator weighs her next steps in the Democratic presidential race following the results of the Super Tuesday contests.
“We did speak on the phone a few hours ago and what Senator Warren told me is that she is assessing her campaign,” the Vermont senator told reporters Wednesday afternoon during a press conference at his campaign headquarters in Burlington, Vermont.
“She has not made any decisions as of this point,” Sanders said. “And it is important 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.”
Sanders began his post-Super Tuesday press conference by saying he expected the delegate race to be “neck and neck” between himself and former vice president Joe Biden, once the votes have been completely counted in California. Biden won 10 of the 14 states Tuesday, but Sanders won the other four, including California, the country’s biggest delegate haul.
For her part, Warren failed to muster any second-place finishes — even in her home state of Massachusetts, which Biden won. And in a staff-wide email Wednesday, her campaign manager forebodingly admitted that they “fell well short of viability goals” and that Warren would be taking some time to weigh her next steps.
The longtime alliance between Warren and Sanders recently became strained as the Democratic primary race entered 2020. After a January debate, the two candidates had a tense exchange over Warren’s claim that Sanders once said a woman couldn’t beat President Donald Trump. And in recent weeks, the Cambridge Democratic started more sharply contrasting herself with Sanders, as the self-described democratic socialist began to pull away in the primary race.
Asked Wednesday about the increasingly loud calls on social media for Warren to drop out so that progressives could unite around his campaign, Sanders declined to weigh in — but reiterated his denunciation of some of his supporters’ more aggressive behavior.
“Look, Elizabeth Warren is a very, very excellent senator,” he said. “She has run a strong campaign. She will make her own decision in her own time. And in terms of the vitriol on the online, I’m disgusted by it.”
During his press conference, Sanders said he hoped for an issues-oriented race with Biden and asserted that his campaign was “increasingly” about the question: “Which side are you on?”
“I like Joe,” he said. “I think he’s a very decent human being. Joe and I have a very different voting record. Joe and I have a very different vision for the future of this country. And Joe and I are running very different campaigns. And my hope is that in the coming months, we will be able to debate and discuss the very significant differences that we have.”
Referencing Biden’s support from billionaire donors, Sanders said the Delaware Democrat is “obviously heavily supported by the corporate establishment.” Echoing an argument Warren has made, Sanders questioned whether Biden would deliver on the progressive goals they share.
“Does anyone seriously believe that a president backed by the corporate world is going to bring about the changes in this country that working families and the middle class and lower-income people desperately need?” he asked Wednesday.
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