Former Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina Says Joe Biden ‘Has to Win on Saturday to Stay in This Race’
President Barack Obama’s former campaign manager Jim Messina predicted the end of former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential run unless he wins the South Carolina primary at the end of the week, during an MSNBC panel, Wednesday.
“Joe Biden absolutely simply has to win on Saturday to continue in this race,” Messina told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, adding that one of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) advantages “is money.”
“Him and Michael Bloomberg are the only people on the air in some of these Super Tuesday states that are really going to decide,” he explained. “You know, 40% of voters and delegates are going to be given here on Super Tuesday and as you know, Andrea, half of the voters on Super Tuesday are going to vote early, so that’s why last night’s debate was so important for Joe Biden.”
“But every single day people are voting and right now in some of these Super Tuesday states they’re just seeing ads from Mayor Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders,” Messina continued.
Messina also dropped the hammer, saying Democrats have “got to get some candidates out of this race in the next few days, probably right after Super Tuesday,” and that, ultimately, “this race has got to kind of come down to Bernie Sanders and one other alternative.”
“I think that’s what Super Tuesday is gonna do for the party. They’re gonna start to weed out some of these candidates who had really good runs, but just can’t afford to stay in this race,” he predicted, noting that “money is the oxygen of American politics, as Michael points out, and some of these candidates just aren’t going to be able to sustain it.”
“It’s why Biden needs a victory this weekend to sustain it and raise the money, it’s why Bernie’s on TV right now because he has that oxygen, and it’s why Bloomberg is starting to move,” Messina added.
After being asked if Bloomberg will be one of the major players moving forward if he can’t improve his debating skills, Messina declared, “I’d rather have 500 million dollars of TV ads than one good debate and that’s his appeal, right? Every night on TV I’m sitting in California and all you see is Michael Bloomberg ads on TV.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
