Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist who promised to lead a grassroots political revolution into the White House, suspended his campaign on Wednesday, making former Vice-President Joe Biden the presumptive Democratic nominee to face Republican President Donald Trump in the November 3 election.
Sanders, the front-runner in February, acknowledged he no longer had a viable path to the Democratic nomination after a string of nominating contest losses to Biden but vowed to work with the former vice-president to oust Trump.
He said he would stay on the ballot in future primaries and continue to gather delegates in order to push the Democratic platform towards his populist anti-corporate agenda.
“Then together, standing united, we will go forward to defeat Donald Trump, the most dangerous President in modern American history,” he said in a live-streamed speech to supporters from his hometown of Burlington, Vermont. The 78-year-old US senator, whose progressive agenda pulled the party sharply to the left, had early success in the Democratic race before losing in South Carolina in late February.
