Rahm Emanuel: Sanders is ‘stoppable’

Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) said Sunday that although Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is “the frontrunner” in the 2020 Democratic presidential race, he is “stoppable.”

Emanuel told ABC’s “This Week” that the Vermont progressive could falter if moderate voters “coalesce” around a candidate, instead of spreading their votes among former Vice President Joe Biden, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

“But I would say this, the moderates need to coalesce around one person,” he said. “If you have a divided field, we’ve seen this play out in the Republican primary in 2016, if there is not kind of a singular mano to mano, then he’s gonna get the delegate primary.”

Rahm Emanuel says that Bernie Sanders is now the “frontrunner,” but “he is stoppable,” although for Sanders not to win the nomination, moderate Democrats would “have to coalesce under one person.” https://t.co/nfhvxYle4Z pic.twitter.com/lCXL0RBMLj

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 23, 2020

ABC host George Stephanopoulos pointed out that “there’s no indication” any of these centrist candidates will drop out soon.

Emanuel, who served as former President Barack Obama’s White House chief of staff, responded, saying every candidate “still has a thread of a logic of why they should stay.”

“And as long as that happens, he will continue to have 45 percent,” the former mayor said, referring to Sanders.

{mosads}He also called attention to Sanders’s strategy, saying it “upends every electoral map” used by Democrats in the past couple of decades.

“It’s a different theory of the case never been tested before nationally and never been proven successful for any Democrat, either presidential or congressional majority,” he added. 

Sanders has had a successful start to the primary season, grabbing wins in Nevada and New Hampshire and second place in Iowa. The senator currently retains 31 delegates, although 26 delegates have yet not been distributed after the Nevada caucuses Saturday. 

The moderate candidates have been awarded a combined 35 delegates.