While polling ahead of the first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses in Iowa indicated that former Vice President Joe Biden might not take first, not many expected what actually took place — especially his campaign. Though who exactly won the state is still unclear and may never be satisfactorily determined due to a series of reporting errors and calculating “inconsistencies,” Biden was certainly not the winner. In fact, he came in a stunning fourth place.
The result, Biden admitted Wednesday, was a “gut punch.” Now, the former frontrunner has gone “missing” in New Hampshire ahead of the primary vote as his campaign reportedly holds an emergency meeting to plan his “last ditch effort” to save his campaign.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat it. We took a gut punch in Iowa,” Biden said Wednesday, as reported by Politico. “The whole process took a gut punch. But look this isn’t the first time in my life I’ve been knocked down.”
With 71 percent of the precincts reporting — if imperfectly — Biden found himself in fourth place. The surprisingly bad performance followed a series of highly optimistic predictions from his campaign ahead of the botched caucuses, which will likely prove to be Iowa’s last time being the nation’s first primary vote.
In response to the “gut punch,” as reported by The Washington Post, Biden has gone “missing” in New Hampshire, his suddenly desperate campaign focused now on trying to figure out a way to save his third attempt to be president from once again meeting an inglorious end:
Biden spent Thursday gathered with his top advisers at his home in Wilmington, Del., seeking a reset and perhaps a last-ditch effort to save his candidacy, beginning with a debate Friday night. He held no public events.
Following dismal results in the Iowa caucuses that have rattled many in his orbit, his campaign is now simultaneously trying to lower expectations here — with some suggesting they would consider a finish as low as third place a victory — while also bracing for a second straight difficult Election Day.
The Post points to another particularly “troublesome sign” for Biden’s campaign, which is facing an increasingly dire financial situation: “it canceled nearly $150,000 in television ads in South Carolina, which votes Feb. 29, and moved the spending to Nevada, whose Feb. 22 contest follows New Hampshire’s.” The Post reads the decision as an apparent admission that the former vice president can’t afford another poor performance and yet more negative press.
As The Daily Wire pointed out Thursday, recent polling shows Biden poised to come in fourth, again, in New Hampshire, with Sanders, Buttigieg, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) all leading him:
On Thursday evening, the latest WBZ/Boston Globe/Suffolk University daily tracking poll for the state of New Hampshire shows support for 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg rapidly rising, with a 4% increase in just one day. … Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) leads with 24% support, but Buttigieg comes in a very close second with 23% support. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) ranks third with 13% support, and former Vice President Joe Biden lands in fourth with 11%. 11% of respondents were also “undecided.”
Related: AP Declares No Official Democrat Winner In Iowa; Trump Has Advice On Who To Blame