Sanders Suspends Presidential Campaign, Rendering Biden Presumptive Democratic Nominee

By Paul Steinhauser, Brooke Singman | Fox News

Bernie Sanders has suspended his Democratic presidential campaign — all but handing the nomination to former Vice President Joe Biden.

According to a brief campaign statement, the senator from Vermont announced the decision during an all-staff conference call Wednesday morning.

He will address supporters shortly before noon during a live-stream.

Sanders won New Hampshire’s primary and scored a landslide victory in the Nevada caucuses in late in February, as he surged to front-runner status in the nomination race.

The populist lawmaker then suffered a string of major primary defeats in his second straight presidential bid, but until now had refused to back out of the race, instead of pressing Biden to embrace progressive policy positions.

But Biden has amassed a near-insurmountable delegate lead, following decisive victories on Super Tuesday as well as subsequent contests — before coronavirus measures forced most primaries on the calendar to be delayed.

Sanders’ lingering presence in the race had agitated Biden allies, concerned he would continue to make it difficult for Biden to fully focus on a general election battle against President Trump.

Biden, however, was already moving ahead, planning to consider running mates and even downplaying the possibility of any future debates with Sanders as part of the primary process.

The most recent primary was held Tuesday in Wisconsin, though most others are postponed. Results in that race are not expected for another week, though Biden was thought to have the clear advantage there.

Sanders was considered the longest of long-shots when he launched his first White House bid in the spring of 2015. But after nearly defeaing Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucuses and then crushing the former secretary of state in the New Hampshire primary, he battled the eventual nominee throughout the primary calendar.

He made an uneasy peace with Clinton in the summer of 2016, but many of his progressive and younger supporters never embraced the Democratic nominee. The lack of unity was a contributing factor in helping Donald Trump upset Clinton.

There are deep concerns among Democrats of a repeat of the 2016 lack of unity. Biden has praised Sanders in recent weeks and has said he would not pressure the senator to drop out of the race.

Biden has also embraced some progressive proposals, such as bankruptcy reform and free college tuition at public colleges and universities – policies that Sanders had pushed.