Joe Biden appears to have cemented his
position as the front-runner in the US
Democratic presidential race the former
vice president has scored big wins in
four of six states holding contests in
the race to select the Democratic
nominee including the largest prize
Michigan the results are a blow to
Biden's rival for the nomination Vermont
senator Bernie Sanders although some of
his supporters say he still has a slim
chance of winning here's what Joe Biden
had to say to his supporters this
election is the one that has character
on the ballot the character the
candidates the character the nation is
on the ballot it's more than a comeback
in my view our campaign
it's a comeback for the soul of this
nation this campaign is taking off and I
believe we're going to do well from this
point on take nothing for granted want
to earn every single vote in every
single state well at last week's Super
Tuesday Biden leapt ahead of the
delegate count and now he's patting his
lead the total count currently stands at
823 for Biden to 663 for Sanders the
number of Delegates reflects popular
support in each state and a candidate
needs at least 1991 of them to win the
Democratic nomination outright well our
reporter Peter volatile has been
following the primary all along good to
see this morning Peter a big night for
Joe Biden but is it enough to not Bernie
Sanders out of the race well we're not
quite there yet but it is certainly hard
to see how Sanders bounces back after
this he went from you know frontrunner
to trailing pretty badly in just a few
weeks next Tuesday could then sound the
death knell of Sanders we have 577
additional delegates up for grabs in
four states Florida Arizona Illinois
Ohio bind us a favorite to win in every
one of them so it is very hard to see
how Sanders
but this was an important primary
Michigan Sanders had staked his comeback
his hopes on a comeback on Michigan what
went wrong for him I mean this is this
is state that he won surprisingly
against Hillary Clinton in 2016 Hillary
Clinton not that different of a
candidate than Joe Biden Sanders staked
his his whole campaign in his whole
candidacy this year on you know being
that the the person who can bring
together broad coalition of you know
white working-class voters black voters
Latino voters young voters for all the
fervor we've seen at his rallies though
those people have not turned out
especially young voters have not turned
out when it mattered on Election Day
Biden on the other hand we've seen you
know a surge unlike anything anyone had
expected we've seen black voters turn
out in droves for we've seen you know
especially these suburban nights who
were really really crucial here in
Michigan turnout for a bite and you know
is saying people vote with their wallets
the economy's doing well so what people
are focused on right now is who is the
best candidate to beat Trump that for
them seems to be biting well that's my
next question given that Biden does have
a commanding lead can we expect the
Democrats to come up with a common
strategy now rallying behind Biden to
beat Trump no that's awfully optimistic
questions Harry he's you know he's
racked up a long line of endorsements
from you know especially a lot of the
candidates who dropped out of the race
just most recently yesterday we saw
Andrew yang for instance who many
thought would maybe side with Sanders he
went for Biden not a lot of support left
in the Democratic Party
you know the establishment for Sanders
and so that does not bode well for for
Sanders definitely it bodes well for
Biden the problem is that a lot of
people on the Left are not excited about
by enough spoke to a lot of Sanders of
course you say they simply can't see how
they can back a guy like
by what about the coronavirus that has
exploded in the middle of this campaign
is it making itself felt on the campaign
trail well we've definitely seen them
scaled back that campaigns both but
Biden and Sanders have called off
rallies Tuesday evening there's a debate
coming up on Sunday that's been it's not
been cancelled but it's gonna be held
without a live audience
but turnout itself does not appear to
suffer so I think essentially what we're
seeing is you know the desire to beat
Trump is for now at least as big as the
desire to be the chrome virus Peter
thank you so much for now DW reporter
Peter Lillard ah thanks