Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders dropped out of the 2020 Democratic presidential race on Wednesday. Former Vice President Joe Biden is now the party’s best chance to defeat President Donald Trump in November. Biden now has a clear path to the nomination, though the end of the primary is overshadowed by the global crisis of the coronavirus pandemic as it spread across the U.S.
“If I believed we had a feasible path to the nomination, I would certainly continue the campaign, but it’s just not there,” Sanders said in a livestream address on Wednesday. “As I see the crisis gripping the nation, exacerbated by a president unwilling or unable to provide any kind of credible leadership and the work that needs to be done to protect people in this most desperate hour, I cannot in good conscience continue to mount a campaign that cannot win and which would interfere with the important work required of all of us in this difficult hour,” he said. Sanders called his choice to suspend his campaign a “difficult and painful” decision.
