Sanders maintains lead over other candidates, according to CNN poll, while Biden under pressure to revive campaign

This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

Leading Democratic presidential candidates have stepped up attacks against each other ahead of the New Hampshire primary, with Joe Biden saying Bernie Sanders’ democratic socialism would turn off voters in moderate states in a general election against Donald Trump.

Sanders has maintained his lead over the other 10 candidates going into Tuesday’s vote, according to a CNN poll released on Sunday, with former mayor Pete Buttigieg in second, Biden in third and the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren in fourth.

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Biden, who has long been seen as a frontrunner in the race, is particularly under pressure to revive his campaign after suffering what he called a “gut punch” result in the Iowa caucuses last week, which saw him come in fourth. Both Sanders and Buttigieg declared victory in a race that was marred by chaotic results, and ended up too close to call.

On ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Biden was asked if he thought Democrats can’t defeat the president if they have to defend socialism.

“I think it’s going to be incredibly more difficult. I’m not going to say – look, if I don’t get the nomination and Bernie gets it, I’m going to work like hell for him,” the former vice-president said of the Vermont senator.

“But I’ll tell you what, it’s a bigger uphill climb running as a senator or a congressperson or as a governor on a ticket that calls itself a democratic socialist ticket.”

ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) .@GStephanopoulos: "So you think flat out Democrats can't defeat Trump if they have to defend socialism?"



Joe Biden: "I think it's going to be incredibly more difficult." https://t.co/XNqnj8nMdL pic.twitter.com/I9aXW1tOSm

Trump has already begun waging a negative campaign against the spectre of socialism ahead of November’s election, often singling out Sanders, 78, a self-declared democratic socialist with climate, education and healthcare plans costing trillions of dollars.

Biden also called out Buttigieg during an event on Saturday, saying the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, a city of 100,000 people, lacked experience.

“I do not believe we’re a party at risk if they nominate me, and I do believe we’re a party at risk if we nominate someone who’s never held a higher office than mayor,” Biden said at a rally in Manchester.

Q&A What are the primaries? Show Hide The primaries and caucuses are a series of contests, in all 50 US states plus Washington DC and outlying territories, by which each party selects its presidential nominee. The goal for presidential candidates is to amass a majority of delegates, whose job it is to choose the nominee at the party’s national convention later in the year. In some states, delegates are awarded on a winner-take-all basis; other states split their delegates proportionally among top winners.

“This guy’s not a Barack Obama!” he added, dismissing comparisons with Obama during the presidential campaign in 2008, when Biden said he also lacked experience.

“Well, he’s right, I’m not. And neither is he. Neither is any of us running for president,” Buttigieg told CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union on Sunday. He added: “This isn’t 2008 – it’s 2020, and we are in a new moment calling for a different kind of leadership.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Pete Buttigieg waves to the crowd at the Democratic party’s 61st annual McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club dinner in Manchester, New Hampshire, on 8 February. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Asked whether “the Democrats can defeat Donald Trump if they have to defend socialism”, Buttigieg told Stephanopoulos on ABC that it would be “harder”.

“I think it will be a lot harder. But the bigger concern that I have is further dividing the country. You know, when the campaign says that either you’re for a revolution or you must be for the status quo – most of us don’t see where we fit in that picture,” Buttigieg said.

“And the irony is at this moment, we actually have a historic American majority, not just the line around what we’re against, we need to get rid of Donald Trump, but what we’re for,” he continued. “Let’s hold together and not blow up that American majority.”

Appearing on CNN, Sanders was asked about Biden’s criticism that the democratic socialist label would hurt candidates in other races.

Sanders said that his agenda – a higher minimum wage and healthcare system for all – had “overwhelming” support.

“Our agenda is the agenda of working-class and middle-class Americans,” Sanders said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bernie Sanders addresses the crowd at the Democratic party’s 61st annual McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club dinner in Manchester, New Hampshire, on 8 February. Photograph: Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

Sanders also addressed criticism of socialism on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, including Trump’s past allegations that Sanders is a “communist”.

“No 1, in many respects – in many respects, we are a socialist society today. We have a huge budget. It puts money into all areas,” Sanders responded, saying that Trump received hundreds of millions in subsidies and tax breaks for his businesses.

“The difference between my socialism and Trump’s socialism is, I believe the government should help working families, not billionaires,” he said.

Q&A What are the New Hampshire primaries? Show Hide Most states hold primary elections, in which voters go to a polling place, mail in their ballots or otherwise vote remotely for a presidential nominee. These are much simpler than caucuses, which are hours-long meetings with multiple rounds of balloting. The first caucuses took place in Iowa on 3 February. Donald Trump won the Republican contest by a landslide, but the Democratic vote ended in chaos, with Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg both emerging as winners in a contest that was too close to call.

New Hampshire traditionally hosts the first primaries of the election year and has done so since 1920. All eyes will be on the competitive Democratic primary to see which candidate comes out on top. There will also be a Republican primary, though as Trump faces no serious competition, he is expected to win that contest by a huge margin.

On CBS’s Face the Nation, Buttigieg also addressed criticism that he wasn’t experienced.

One Biden attack ad, for example, states that Biden “helped save the auto industry, which revitalized the economy of the midwest and led the passage and implementation of the Recovery Act, saving our economy from a depression. Pete Buttigieg revitalized the sidewalks of downtown South Bend by laying out decorative brick.”

Chris Meagher, Buttigieg’s national press secretary, said: “While Washington politics trivializes what goes on in communities like South Bend, South Bend residents who now have better jobs, rising income and new life in their city don’t think their lives are a Washington politician’s punchline.”

Elaborating on Sunday, Buttigieg said: “Maybe my community does look good from – does look small from the perspective of Washington. But to us, a lot of times, it’s the infighting in the Washington establishment … that looks small.”

Q&A Why is New Hampshire important? Show Hide While Iowa traditionally holds the first caucuses in the presidential election, New Hampshire has held the first primary since 1920. The goal for presidential candidates is to win early-voting states and create name recognition and a sense of momentum, as well to pick up their first delegates, who will eventually choose the nominee in summer. Sometimes a clear favorite for the nomination emerges quickly, but the last two major Democratic primary contests, pitting Barack Obama against Hillary Clinton and then Bernie Sanders against Clinton, have lasted from the Iowa caucuses in January through to late spring.

Stephanopoulos asked Warren why she did not raise her hand when asked whether she was concerned about having a Democratic socialist on the ballot during the televised New Hampshire debate on Friday night. But the Massachusetts senator declined to be drawn.

“So, look, I am not – I am a capitalist. I’m a – I believe in markets. This is what I talk about all the time,” she said.