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Senator Elizabeth Warren suspended her bid for the presidency Thursday, leaving the 2020 Democratic presidential race down to two older white men: former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders. Warren's decision to end her campaign comes after she failed to perform as well as she had hoped in early primary states and on Super Tuesday, including placing third in her home state of Massachusetts.
Warren gave no indication whether she will endorse either of her former rivals. Supporters of Sanders say they hope she will throw her support behind their candidate in order to form a united "progressive front" and take on powerful corporate forces now lined up behind Biden. Six more states are set to hold presidential primaries and caucuses on March 10, including delegate-rich states of Michigan, Washington and Missouri. We get response from Raquel Willis, a journalist and activist and former executive editor of Out magazine who had endorsed Elizabeth Warren for president. We are also joined by Norman Solomon, co-founder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org, which is supporting Bernie Sanders,
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Senator Elizabeth Warren has suspended her bid for the presidency, leaving the 2020 Democratic presidential race down to two older white men: former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders. Warren broke the news in a call with her campaign staff Thursday, then made her announcement to reporters outside her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: So, I announced this morning that I am suspending my campaign for president. I say this with a deep sense of gratitude for every single person who got in this fight, every single person who tried on a new idea, every single person who just moved a little in their notion of what a president of the United States should look like. I will not be running for president in 2020, but I guarantee I will stay in the fight for the hard-working folks across this country who have gotten the short end of the stick over and over. That's been the fight of my life, and it will continue to be so. "
I was told at the beginning of this whole undertaking that there are two lanes -- a progressive lane that Bernie Sanders is the incumbent for and a moderate lane that Joe Biden is the incumbent for -- and there's no room for anyone else in this. I thought that wasn't right. But evidently I was wrong.
AMY GOODMAN: Senator Warren's decision to end her campaign comes after she failed to perform as well as she had hoped in early primary states and on Super Tuesday, including placing third in her home state of Massachusetts. Warren gave no indication whether she'll endorse either of her former rivals, Sanders or Biden.
REPORTER: Will you be making an endorsement today? We know that you spoke with both Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders yesterday.
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: Not today. Not today. I need some space around this and want to take a little time to think a little more. I've been spending a lot of time right now on the question of suspending and also making sure that this works as best we can for our staff, for our team, for our volunteers.
AMY GOODMAN: Supporters of Senator Sanders say they hope Warren will throw her support behind their candidate in order to form a united "progressive front" and take on powerful corporate forces now lined up behind Biden. Terminally ill healthcare rights activist Ady Barkan, who had previously endorsed Senator Warren, announced Thursday he's now backing Sanders. Barkan supports for Medicare for All and tweeted, "@BernieSanders has done more than anyone else to build the movement for #MedicareForAll. He has reshaped American politics. Reshaped what we think is possible. Reshaped how we dare to dream. But, of course, it's not about him. It's about us. And I'm all in," Ady Barkan said.
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