Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) finally gave in to inevitability Wednesday and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president in a dramatic video posted to social media.
Warren was the last remaining holdout of the major players competing for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) endorsed Biden shortly after dropping out of the race, ahead of the Super Tuesday primaries, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who dropped out of the race just last week, endorsed Biden on Monday.
Warren, who dropped out last month, may have been waiting for a deal to endorse Biden — a deal that never came. Former President Barack Obama, who reportedly backed Warren early on even against his own Veep, negotiated with Sanders, not Warren, to provide progressive policy consulting on Biden’s presidential campaign, likely leaving Warren with little choice but to join the chorus of endorsements without any payback.
Warren’s endorsement came in the form of an extended video presentation, prepared for social media — a largely black and white retrospective of Joe Biden’s career.
“In this moment of crisis, it’s more important than ever that the next president restores Americans’ faith in good, effective government—and I’ve seen Joe Biden help our nation rebuild. Today, I’m proud to endorse @JoeBiden as President of the United States,” Warren wrote.
The video was followed closely by a fundraising plea: “Now it’s up to all of us to help make @JoeBiden the next president. Let’s get to work. Go to JoeBiden.com right now, and chip in your $5, make some calls, send some texts—because we are all in this together.”
In this moment of crisis, it’s more important than ever that the next president restores Americans’ faith in good, effective government—and I’ve seen Joe Biden help our nation rebuild. Today, I’m proud to endorse @JoeBiden as President of the United States. pic.twitter.com/VrfBtJvFee
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 15, 2020
“Empathy matters. And, in this moment of crisis, it’s more important than ever that the next president restores Americans’ faith in good, effective governmen,” Warren says in the video. “Joe Biden has spent nearly his entire life in public service. He knows that a government run with integrity, competence, and heart will save lives and save livelihoods. And we can’t afford to let Donald Trump continue to endanger the lives and livelihoods of every American.”
Biden thanked Warren for her endorsement in his own Twitter post.
“We are in a battle for the soul of this nation and I’m proud to have the fiercest of fighters, Senator @ewarren, on my side,” he wrote. “With her help, we’re going to beat Donald Trump and create a government that works for everyone — not just the wealthy and well-connected. Let’s do this.”
Warren was once considered a front-runner for Biden’s vice president slot but has since been pressed off the list of contenders by governors and other lawmakers actively involved in the coronavirus response and, it seems, by Democratic contenders who performed markedly better than the Massachusetts Senator in the primaries.
Warren never made it past a fourth place finish in most contests and found herself in a swiftly declining campaign in mid-November, after failing to make a coherent argument as to how she planned to pay for massive expansions of the federal government, including a Medicare-for-All healthcare plan.
Biden is now the presumptive Democratic nominee and will go on to face President Donald Trump in November.