Sanders challenged over claim Democratic 'establishment' forced Buttigieg, Klobuchar out

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last updated 8 March 2020

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Sunday he wasn't surprised that the "power of the [Democratic] establishment" forced Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg — both of whom he said worked very hard on their campaigns — out of the Democratic presidential race in an attempt to elevate former Vice President Joe Biden and keep Sanders from the nomination.

But Sanders received some pushback on the comments from observers who argued it wasn't the Democratic establishment that caused the downfall of the Klobuchar and Buttigieg campaigns, but their inability to, well, conjure up enough support from voters, and African American voters in particular. After all, Klobuchar and Buttigieg were, to put it mildly, trounced by Biden in South Carolina, where the Democratic electorate is comprised of a majority of black voters, suggesting they had little room for improvement going forward. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.