WASHINGTON, D.C., April 8, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Avowed socialist and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders announced Tuesday he is officially suspending his campaign for the Democrat presidential nomination, leaving former Vice President Joe Biden the party’s presumptive nominee to challenge President Donald Trump.
The 78-year-old Sanders first confirmed the news during a staff conference call Wednesday morning, then issued a brief statement declaring that while “the campaign ends, the struggle continues.”
Bernie Sanders quotes Nelson Mandela: “It always seems impossible until it is done.”
“If we don't believe that we are entitled to health care as a human right, we will never achieve universal health care.” https://t.co/0XC5lOM7to pic.twitter.com/kFdVjCFcJU
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) April 8, 2020
Once voting began in the Democrat primary, Sanders temporarily became the frontrunner in the field, but before long fell back behind Biden. Sanders ultimately ended with 914 delegates to Biden’s 1,217 and trailed behind Biden 33.5% to 58.7% in RealClearPolitics’ national polling average.
In recent weeks, national discussion of Sanders’ campaign almost disappeared entirely as the coronavirus panic and the federal government’s response came to dominate national news.
Sanders ran on an absolutist pro-abortion platform, which pledged direct taxpayer funding of abortion and contraception at home and abroad and would ban states from setting their own abortion policies, even on modest regulations such as ultrasound requirements or waiting periods. In the past, he has also threatened to direct the U.S. Department of Justice to “go after those states” that restrict abortion “in every way that I legally can.”
Biden, who is widely perceived as a more “mainstream” Democrat, is running on a largely-indistinguishable pro-abortion platform, as well as an LGBT platform that would elevate homosexual and transgender “acceptance” above religious liberty and conscience rights.
The suspension of Sanders’ campaign leaves Biden as the party’s presumptive nominee, though mounting concerns about the 77-year-old candidate’s mental acuity have prompted speculation that Democrats may attempt to replace him at the party convention with a younger candidate, such as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.