Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was late-night host Seth Meyers’ first “social distancing” remote guest Monday night, and while the Vermont socialist focused largely on his “contributions” to the fight against coronavirus he also admitted, in the interview, that he’s staying in the presidential race because he and his team believe he still has a “narrow path” to the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, even now.
Sanders is around 300 delegates behind former Vice President Joe Biden in the race for the nomination, but Sanders told Meyers that he believes his grassroots support will put him over the top.
“We have a path,” Sanders said, before adding that “it is, admittedly, a narrow path.”
“We have a strong grassroots movement who believe that we have got to stay in the race,” Sanders noted, suggesting that his far-left platform has supporters who have nowhere else to go in the presidential race.
“We need Medicare-for-all,” Sanders claimed. He later added that the United States needs to “raise the minimum wage to a living wage,” and institute “paid family and medical leave.”
Sanders focused intently on Medicare for All, telling host Meyers that his preferred “system is designed to provide quality care for all to do preventive work in order to prepare for some types of pandemics, not simply to make huge amounts of money for the insurance companies and the drug companies,” even though European countries, which have Sanders-type universal health care systems, are struggling.
The Vermont socialist then highlighted his Senate floor speech from last week, suggesting that he somehow staved off a handout to the rich.
“You have folks in the Senate, my Republican colleagues, who voted for a trillion dollars in tax breaks for the 1 percent and large corporations,” he said.
Sanders ultimately voted to pass the relief package with the “corporate handouts” intact.
Democrats have expressed growing concern, over the last few weeks, that Sanders insists on remaining in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, even though Biden is the presumptive nominee.
Even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), once a powerful Sanders surrogate, has since distanced herself from his campaign, initially over concerns that Sanders was creating too much of a “big tent” by counting controversial podcaster Joe Rogan, whom Ocasio-Cortez called “transphobic,” into his fold, but later over concerns that Sanders was creating disunity within the Democratic coalition.
But Sanders is correct: there is still a path to the nomination for some contender, other than Biden. It’s just not clear that contender is Sanders.
Most states with April and May primaries have either canceled or postponed those contests, leaving Biden facing down the possibility of failing to grab the 1,991 delegates necessary to secure the nod by July’s Democratic National Convention. Without a clear majority of delegates, the convention becomes “brokered” and outside contenders, like Sanders, could see their bids resurrected.
For Biden, the prospect must be especially concerning; since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the former Veep has been all but absent from the airwaves, and when he has appeared, he’s made gaffe after public gaffe.
Sanders is not faring much better, though. He has been similarly sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic, and other Democrats, like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, now appear more desirable to Democrats seeking to unseat President Donald Trump.