Nevada caucuses: Joe Biden cut off by TV cameras while insisting his campaign is ‘still alive’
‘You know the press is ready to declare people dead quickly. But we’re alive and we’re coming back and we’re gonna win’
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Your support makes all the difference.Just as Joe Biden was promising to lick his wounds and navigate an improbable comeback after what was shaping up to be a third successive loss in the 2020 primary season, the former vice president was cut off by a national news channel that had some urgent news: Bernie Sanders had officially won the Nevada caucuses.
The timing of the cutaway by MSNBC was noticed nearly immediately by political observers, who had tuned in or left the channel on as Mr Biden delivered what he seems to have hoped would be an optimistic concession speech in the Silver State.
“You know the press is ready to declare people dead quickly. But we’re alive and we’re coming back and we’re gonna win,” Mr Biden said during his rally as Nevada results were still incoming.
The crowd laughed in the background in response to his quip at the press’s expense. Then the press interrupted with some news.
“We have been listening to vice president Joe Biden speaking in Nevada,” the announcer said, before proceeding haltingly as a slide came on the screen showing Vermont senator Mr Sanders had won the caucuses. ”We are projecting that Bernie Sanders — NBC News projects Bernie Sanders the winner in Nevada. Brand new, breaking news numbers coming right ouf of Nevada.”
Mr Biden and rival Pete Buttigieg later both claimed to have come second.
Mr Sanders’ win in Nevada marks an historic achievement — he is the first candidate in modern Democratic history to win the popular vote in all three of the first states to vote in the nominating process — and cements the Vermont senator as a front-runner just 10 days from Super Tuesday, when several states will head to the polls on a day that will allocate more delegates than any other day in the primary.
Mr Biden has seen his fortunes falling in recent months, with losses in Iowa and New Hampshire and, now Nevada. He has staked his political fortunes on South Carolina, which votes next week, where African American voters who have been thought to be strong supporters of Mr Biden are likely to be decesive.
Mr Biden leads Mr Sanders in South Carolina by a razor thin margin, according to an aggregate of polls by Real Clear Politics.
In those polls, Mr Biden attracts 23.3 per cent of the vote compared to Mr Sanders’s 21 per cent.
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