Desperate Bernie Sanders resorts to floating deranged conspiracy theories on live national television
We’ve seen this happen before. Bernie Sanders runs a spirited campaign and attracts a number of enthusiastic supporters, but he doesn’t end up being broadly popular, so he falls behind in the Democratic primary race. Then, instead of being gracious or trying to figure out how to expand his support base, he begins spewing bizarre conspiracy theories about why he’s not the frontrunner. He did it in 2016. Now he’s doing it again, in even more absurd fashion, in 2020.
This morning Sanders appeared on ABC This Week and claimed that “establishment” – whoever that might be at this point – “forced” Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg to drop out of the race and endorse Joe Biden ahead of Super Tuesday. Sanders never can seem to identify who these “establishment” people are who are pulling these supposed strings behind the scenes.
Anyone with even a basic understanding of political demographics knows that once Pete and Amy fared very poorly in South Carolina, there was no chance they’d do much better on Super Tuesday. It was over for them, and they knew it, and there was no reason for them to stay in the race. Also, Mike Bloomberg dropped out the day after Super Tuesday and also endorsed Biden. Are we supposed to believe Bloomberg, with his billions, is somehow beholden to the Democratic Party establishment as well?
This nonsense drew sharp rebukes. Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 campaign adviser Lis Smith tweeted “PeteButtigieg’s decision to get out of the race was his and his alone.” Politico’s Tim Alberta added this: “Sanders does not seem to grasp the basic protocol that has informed 99% of presidential campaigns: When there’s no longer a path to victory, the candidate drops out.”
