Former Vice President Joe Biden followed up last week’s dominant performance by winning the majority of delegates at stake on Super Tuesday II.
Biden defeated Sen. Bernie Sanders 53-36 in Michigan, which Sanders won in 2016 despite trailing in the polls by more than 20 points.
Biden bested Sanders 60-35 in Missouri, a state Sanders lost in 2016 by just 0.2%.
Biden trounced Sanders 81-14.8 in Mississippi. Sanders is not eligible for any statewide delegates because he did not hit the 15% viability threshold.
Biden also beat Sanders 49-43 in Idaho, a state where Sanders dominated in 2016 when it held a caucus.
Sanders won North Dakota’s primary 53-40 and is awaiting the results in Washington. Sanders leads Biden 32.7 to 32.5 with 67% of the results in, meaning the two will likely split the state’s delegates fairly evenly.
Biden now leads Sanders with 847 pledged delegates to 685.
Biden supporters want Bernie to drop out:
Rep. James Clyburn, who endorsed Biden in February, told NPR that the party may need to “step in” and cancel future debates. Sunday’s debate will not have a live audience due to concerns over the coronavirus.
"I think when the night is over, Joe Biden will be the prohibitive favorite to win the Democratic nomination . . . If the night ends the way it has begun," it is time to "shut this primary down," Clyburn said.
Democratic strategist James Carville argued on MSNBC that voters “want to shut this thing down.”
"Let's shut this puppy down, and let's move on and worry about November," he told said. "This thing is decided. There's no reason to keep it going not even a day longer."
Bernie campaign not going anywhere:
"I, for one, am extremely excited about this debate all the moderates are panicking about," said campaign press secretary Briahna Joy Gray. "The delegate count difference is only about 150 points out of 4051 total. America finally gets to see Biden defend his ideas, or lack there of, on Sunday."
"There's no doubt that the polling and momentum right now is with Vice President Biden. And Sen. Sanders acknowledges that," campaign co-chair Rep. Ro Khanna told CNN. "But he does believe that debates in the past have changed, dramatically, the race... I think he's earned his right to make his case at the debate."
