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Klobuchar, Buttigieg to back Biden at rally in Super Tuesday state of Texas


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Klobuchar, Buttigieg to back Biden at rally in Super Tuesday state of Texas

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jarrett Renshaw

 

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FILE PHOTO: Former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Amy Klobuchar listen as former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg speaks at the ninth Democratic 2020 U.S. Presidential candidates debate at the Paris Theater in Las Vegas Nevada, U.S., February 19, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

 

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former Vice President Joe Biden's Democratic presidential bid picked up steam on Monday as he was set to pick up the endorsements of two former 2020 rivals - Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg - on the eve of the crucial Super Tuesday primary elections.

 

Klobuchar, a U.S. senator from Minnesota, will become the third 2020 candidate in as many days to drop out of the race when she announces the suspension of her campaign in Dallas, where she will also publicly back Biden, a Klobuchar aide said.

 

Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Buttigieg, who ended his White House bid on Sunday, also plans to endorse Biden in Dallas, a top adviser said.

Biden is fresh off a resounding victory in Saturday's South Carolina primary and is aiming for a strong showing on Super Tuesday against U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, the national front-runner and a democratic socialist from Vermont.

 

But Biden also faces a challenge from billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg among voters hoping the party will nominate a moderate.

The Super Tuesday contests offer the biggest one-day haul of the 1,991 delegates needed to win the party's nomination at its national convention in July, with about 1,357 delegates, or nearly one-third of the total number, up for grabs.

 

Fourteen states - California, Texas, Virginia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Vermont, Colorado, Utah, North Carolina and Maine - as well as American Samoa and Democrats living abroad cast ballots on Tuesday. (The primary for expatriate Americans is scheduled to run through March 10.)

 

Bloomberg, a late entrant to the race, will make his ballot-box debut. He is betting the $500 million of his own money he has poured into his campaign will allow him to make up for not competing in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina.

 

Five candidates - Biden, Bloomberg, Sanders, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii - remain in the running for the nomination to take on Republican President Donald Trump in November's election, down from more than 20 earlier in the campaign.

 

Bloomberg and Biden have emerged as the main contenders for the votes of moderate Democrats while Sanders is the progressive front-runner nationally, eclipsing Warren.

 

Billionaire former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who makes his first appearance on primary ballots in Super Tuesday states, said on Monday that he talked to his former rivals Senator Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg who recently dropped out of the 2020 race and wished them well.

 

BIDEN'S MOMENTUM

Biden's high-stakes triumph in South Carolina, where his campaign had said his popularity with black voters would propel him to victory after early disappointing finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, helped winnow the field.

 

In addition to Klobuchar and Buttigieg, billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer also gave up his campaign on Saturday night after a third-place finish in the Southern state in which he had invested most heavily.

 

Already, one of Buttigieg's top fundraisers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some of the former mayor's supporters planned to donate to Biden's campaign.

 

However, Sanders' momentum might not be easily slowed. On Monday, his campaign downplayed the efforts by moderates to present a united front.

 

"The establishment is nervous, not because we can't beat Trump, but because we will," said Sanders' campaign manager, Faiz Shakir. "And when we do, the Democratic Party will again be a party of the working class."

 

Indeed, it was not immediately clear who would immediately benefit from departures by Buttigieg and Klobuchar. A Morning Consult poll taken Feb. 23-27, for example, before Buttigieg exited the race, showed that 21% of his supporters named Sanders as their second choice, 19% picked Biden, another 19% chose Warren and 17% favoured Bloomberg.

 

Biden still lags his rivals in spending and organization in Super Tuesday states and beyond, but his campaign said on Sunday it had raised more than $10 million over the preceding two days.

 

Biden's campaign has also touted endorsements from more than 70 elected officials and community leaders since South Carolina's primary that could lead to a boost in attention for Biden ahead of Super Tuesday.

 

In Virginia, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine has endorsed him, along with state House Majority Leader Charniele Herring. In Colorado, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock has backed Biden. In California, U.S. Representative Gil Cisneros is supporting the former vice president.

 

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Houston, Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California and Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia; additional reporting by Amanda Becker, Michael Martina and Tim Reid; writing by Amanda Becker and Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-03-03
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2 hours ago, neeray said:

 The Trump/Giuliani "dirt machine" will now be revived as they perpetuate the hoax and try to find some elusive Ukraine dirt on Joe Biden.

 

"We'll see. We'll see how it goes"

I love that Judge Jennie offering Guliani an entire show letting Rudy expose the details of what he learned. His response was I already did! You can't make this stuff up.

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6 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Wrong again.

 

It’s ‘Operation Defeat Trump’.

 

What with Biden - a seemingly senile veteran whose veneer of respectability appears very thin?

 

If Biden got elected, which I doubt, and the Republicans got control of the House, wonder if they'd investigate his and his families dealings in foreign countries whilst he was VP? Might even lead to another impeachment! 

 

Sad for Americans but fun to watch!

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