The overall takeaway from Super Tuesday is that former Vice President Joe Biden won the night. However, Fox News contributor Karl Rove believes Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has a path to the nomination because of California.
“Let’s not kid ourselves, we’re focused on Biden who had a big night but the guy who had a better morning is Bernie because the results are coming in [from] California,” Rove said on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday morning.
Though Biden has the delegate lead as of this writing, Rove pointed out that Sanders will close the gap once the final tallies are recorded in the once Golden State. Those will slowly come in throughout Wednesday and possibly Thursday.
Rove has previously argued that Bernie Sanders is the most formidable candidate against President Donald Trump. Last year, when Bernie appeared in a Fox News town hall, Rove said that showed Bernie’s willingness to buck party trends and pull in a diverse coalition of voters. Keep in mind, Bernie appeared on Fox News in defiance of DNC chair Tom Perez’s decision to blackball the network from hosting Democratic presidential primary debates.
“That was a smart move on his part,” Rove said, later adding that Sanders has learned from previous mistakes. “He is a lot more fluid.”
Rove said that, as has clearly been on display throughout this election primary, Bernie had a talent for pivoting on issues when being confronted on his more controversial positions.
“He says, ‘I paid all the taxes I owe,’ and he quickly pivots and says, ‘I released 10 years of tax returns, President Trump ought to do the same,’” Rove said in 2019. “Martha says, ‘You know, here’s Mayor Pete, he says there should be a new generation of leadership. You will be 79 if you’re sworn in as president.’ He makes a joke. He says, ‘It’s a fair question.’ He says, ‘It’s not whether you’re young or old, it’s what you believe.’”
“Every time he brought it back to his message,” Rove continued. “That demonstrated to me that he has learned from having run before. He really did a good job of softening the edges of socialism. Whenever the issue came up, he made it feel warm and fuzzy, kumbaya, shake hands, run around the campfire.”
Does Sanders actually have a path to the nomination after Super Tuesday? That all depends on how he performs in next week’s primary on March 10, which will include states like Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, and Washington.
In response to Tuesday night, Bernie’s supporters, such as Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks, have largely blamed the party establishment for Biden’s surge. Tezlyn Figaro, Bernie’s former campaign director, however, said the socialist from Vermont has only himself to blame.
“This time, Bernie Sanders really did come in with an advantage,” she said. “He came out on top. He started this campaign on top with more resources than anybody so a lot of this was just from poor campaign management, I believe, and a lot of the negativity and not being able to really expand the base.”
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