Worried Democrats on Monday intensified their assault against the party’s presidential front-runner, US Senator Bernie Sanders, as he marched toward South Carolina’s weekend primary eyeing a knockout blow.
At least three leading candidates, former US vice president Joe Biden, former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg and former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, reinforced their anti-Sanders rhetoric with paid attack advertisements for the first time.
A new political group was also spending big to undermine Sanders’ standing with African American voters.
“Socialist Bernie Sanders is promising a lot of free stuff,” says a brochure sent to 200,000 black voters in South Carolina by The Big Tent Project, a new organization trying to derail Sanders’ candidacy. “Nominating Bernie means we reelect Trump. We can’t afford Bernie Sanders.”
The multi-pronged broadside just five days before South Carolina’s first-in-the-South primary represents the Democrats’ most aggressive attempt to knock Sanders down.
It reflects growing concern within his party that the self-described democratic socialist is tightening his grip on the presidential nomination while they fear he is too extreme to defeat US President Donald Trump this fall.
It also underscores the precarious state of Biden’s campaign. He has long been viewed as the unquestioned front-runner in South Carolina, because of his support from black voters.
However, as the contest nears, Sanders is also making a strong play in the state. If he can eat into Biden’s base of support, that would raise fundamental questions about the future of Biden’s candidacy.
Sanders senior adviser Jeff Weaver said there was an “air of desperation” to the fresh attacks on his candidate.
“You’ve got candidates, you’ve got super PACs [political action committees], all piling on to stop Bernie Sanders,” Weaver said. “They know he has the momentum in the race.”
Biden predicted he would win “by plenty” in Saturday’s contest, the first with a sizable black population to weigh in.
Beyond South Carolina, polls suggest Sanders is going to perform well when more than a dozen states vote in the Super Tuesday contests on Tuesday next week.
That is when critics fear Sanders could build an insurmountable delegate lead.
Sanders was the focus of Buttigieg’s first attack ad of the campaign, in which he highlights Sanders’ call for a government-financed health care system as an example of the Democratic front-runner’s “polarization.”
Biden released an online ad accusing Sanders of trying to undermine then-US president Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign with a possible primary challenge.
“When it comes to building on president Obama’s legacy, Bernie Sanders just can’t be trusted,” the Biden ad says.
Bloomberg released a new ad of his own assailing Sanders’ record on gun control, citing the senator’s endorsement by the National Rifle Association when he first ran for Congress decades ago.
While he once had the NRA’s backing, Sanders proudly proclaims his “F” rating from the pro-gun organization now.
One candidate who did not take Sanders on directly on Monday was US Senator Elizabeth Warren. Although she shares many of Sanders’ liberal policies and could benefit if he were to stumble, she has been reluctant to tangle with him throughout the campaign.
Some of Warren’s supporters say she has to start drawing a sharper contrast with Sanders if she’s to break out after middling performances in the first three contests.
Sanders might benefit most from the sheer number of candidates still in the race.
There are still seven high-profile Democrats fighting among themselves to emerge as the strongest alternative to him. There was no sign on Monday that any of those candidates were close to getting out.
US Senator Amy Klobuchar announced plans to launch a US$4.2 million ad buy across several Super Tuesday states, while billionaire activist Tom Steyer told voters at a breakfast in Hilton Head: “We can’t nominate someone who is going to divide us.”
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