Bernie Sanders campaign to 'reassess' if Tuesday's primary contests don't go well
If the races in Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Rhode Island don't go well for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Tuesday, his campaign says he'll likely have no choice but to "reassess" his standing in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sanders currently only has 1,192 delegates to opponent Hillary Clinton's 1,946. The polls show Clinton is ahead in at least four of the five states voting Tuesday, where 384 delegates are up for grabs.
"If we are sitting here and there's no sort of mathematical way to do it, we will be up front about that," Sanders senior strategist Tad Devine said. "If we have a really good day, we are going to continue to talk about winning most of the pledged delegates because we will be on a path toward it. If we don't get enough today to make it clear that we can do it by the end, it's going to be hard to talk about it. That's not going to be a credible path. Instead, we will talk about what we intend to do between now and the end and how we can get there."
However, even if Sanders ends up confronting the mathematical impossibility of clenching the nomination, his campaign remains certain he won't be dropping out of the race. No matter what happens, Devine says, Sanders will compete in every contest, including California and Washington, D.C., in June. "Reassess does not mean that he's not going to be part of this race," Devine said. "Reassess does not mean that his message, that we think is the most powerful message, is going to change."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Read Devine's full comments on Sanders' increasingly implausible path toward the Democratic nomination over at The New York Times.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Bari Weiss’ ‘60 Minutes’ scandal is about more than one reportIN THE SPOTLIGHT By blocking an approved segment on a controversial prison holding US deportees in El Salvador, the editor-in-chief of CBS News has become the main story
-
CBS pulls ‘60 Minutes’ report on Trump deporteesSpeed Read An investigation into the deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s notorious prison was scrapped
-
Trump administration posts sliver of Epstein filesSpeed Read Many of the Justice Department documents were heavily redacted, though new photos of both Donald Trump and Bill Clinton emerged
-
Trump HHS moves to end care for trans youthSpeed Read The administration is making sweeping proposals that would eliminate gender-affirming care for Americans under age 18
-
Jack Smith tells House of ‘proof’ of Trump’s crimesSpeed Read President Donald Trump ‘engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election,’ hoarded classified documents and ‘repeatedly tried to obstruct justice’
-
House GOP revolt forces vote on ACA subsidiesSpeed Read The new health care bill would lower some costs but not extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies
-
Hegseth rejects release of full boat strike footageSpeed Read There are calls to release video of the military killing two survivors of a Sept. 2 missile strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat
-
Trump vows naval blockade of most Venezuelan oilSpeed Read The announcement further escalates pressure on President Nicolás Maduro


