Don’t Be ‘Absurd’: Sanders Rejects Establishment Calls to Drop Revolutionary Bid
(COMMON DREAMS) Deirdre Fulton, March 19, 2016 — Calls for him to drop out of the presidential race are “absurd,” Bernie Sanders said Thursday, following reports that political heavy hitters including President Barack Obama are urging Democrats to rally around rival Hillary Clinton as the nominee.
The Missouri primary was called Thursday evening in Clinton’s favor, meaning that she swept this week’s contests and leading her campaign to declare Clinton has an “almost insurmountable” lead in pledged delegates. Corporate media has largely parroted that narrative.
But as Sanders told MSNBC in an interview Thursday: “The bottom line is that when only half of the American people have participated in the political process…I think it is absurd for anybody to suggest that those people not have a right to cast a vote.”
In fact, he continued, “to suggest we don’t fight this out to the end would be, I think, a very bad mistake. People want to become engaged in the political process by having vigorous primary and caucus process.”
In an interview Friday with the Associated Press, he added, “I don’t believe they have an insurmountable lead. Secretary Clinton has done phenomenally well in the Deep South and in Florida. That’s where she has gotten the lion’s share of votes. And I congratulate her for that. But we’re out of the Deep South now.”
Referencing places like Arizona, Washington, Wisconsin, New York, and Pennsylvania, Sanders said: “We’ve got some big states coming up and we think if we can do well, if we go into the convention with delegates, we’ve got a shot at taking the nomination.”