Biden claims victory despite distant second finish to Sanders

LAS VEGAS — Second is the new first for Joe Biden.

After dismal fourth- and fifth-place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, Biden sounded a victorious word when he took the stage at a union hall right here and declared a comeback — regardless that fewer than a 10 % of the precincts have been in and confirmed him in a distant second to Bernie Sanders.

“I do know we do not know the final outcomes but, however I really feel actually good,” Biden stated. “You set me able. You recognize, the press is able to declare individuals lifeless shortly however we're alive and we're coming again and we will win.”

At one level, a member of the gang yelled that the 77-year-old was “the comeback kid!”

Moments earlier than the speech, Biden campaign supervisor Greg Schultz stated on Twitter that “based mostly on our inner knowledge, Biden will come in a robust second tonight in Nevada” because of strong turnout among African People, caucus-goers older than 65 and people who oppose Medicare for All, Sanders’ signature plan.

But Biden’s declaration was premature, in accordance with Pete Buttigieg’s marketing campaign, which projected at one level that the former South Bend, Ind. mayor was in second. Biden’s lead, nevertheless, grew over Buttigieg because the night time wore on.

In his caucus night time speech, Buttigieg also drew a far-sharper distinction with Sanders, calling him out by identify and accusing him of main “an inflexible, ideological revolution that leaves out most Democrats, to not point out most People” that wouldn’t change “the toxic tone of our politics." Sanders surrogates fired again at Buttigieg for speaking so robust when he simply acquired whipped.

Biden was more indirect.

“I ain’t a socialist. I ain’t a plutocrat,” Biden stated, referencing Sanders and billionaire Mike Bloomberg.

The back-and-forth between Sanders and Buttigieg is what Biden needs with a purpose to seem above the fray as he heads into South Carolina’s Feb. 29 main, a must-win election for the previous vice chairman. However Biden’s huge losses and Sanders’ massive wins have led to deep potential cracks in Biden’s South Carolina firewall.

“We're gonna win, we’re gonna win in South Carolina,” Biden stated Saturday. “And then Super Tuesday and we are on our approach!”

For months, Biden’s marketing campaign has been predicated on a big South Carolina win that might catapult him into the March 3 Tremendous Tuesday states and past. However his marketing campaign once predicted he would win at the least one of many three other early states, and he did not do it every time.

The Nevada loss to Sanders also contradicted the Biden marketing campaign’s longstanding claims that the Vermont senator would wrestle, in comparison with Biden, in a state with a large proportion of non-white voters. Polls and preliminary caucus results point out Sanders won the biggest share of non-white voters, notably Latinos.

When Biden first acquired in the race, he made the argument he might win white working-class voters, too. But he began to qualify that assertion after dropping in heavily white Iowa and New Hampshire.

“His concept of the campaign is he can win Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania and that he might get the white vote there that went for Donald Trump,” stated John Coleman, a 62-year-old African-American voter, advised POLITICO at his caucus website Saturday. “But we simply went via these two states with all these white voters and he came in, what, fourth in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire? He can’t get the white vote there; why is he going to win it in different states?”

While it’s true that Biden loved robust African-American help in Nevada and may anticipate it in South Carolina, the skepticism from black voters like Coleman isn’t limited to South Carolina, where polls show the race has tightened with Sanders.

Biden flew to South Carolina on Saturday night time to begin campaigning for the whole week there. Sanders, in distinction, is better-funded and has lower expectations about profitable South Carolina as he focuses on profitable the mega-states of California and Texas on March three.

If Biden’s campaign in Nevada is any measure, he’ll doubtless focus more on turning out black voters over Latinos. Within the week Biden spent in Nevada, he went to numerous African-American occasions and held only one that overtly appealed to Latinos.

Within the run-up to South Carolina, the place greater than two-thirds of the first citizens is black, Biden will lean into his time as vice chairman to the nation’s first African-American president, Barack Obama. Biden on Saturday night time made positive to say his hyperlink to Obama, as well as a report that Sanders once thought-about primarying the primary black president.

“I was proud to have run with Barack Obama,” Biden stated. “I’m proud to nonetheless be his good friend. And I inform you what? I promise you, I wasn’t speaking about operating a Democratic main towards him in 2012.”

Src: Biden claims victory despite distant second finish to Sanders
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