Bloomberg memo warns Sanders 'impossible to stop' unless Biden, Klobuchar, and Buttigieg drop out

Michael Bloomberg's campaign publicly postures that Bloomberg is in a two-man race for the Democratic presidential nomination, but it is worried about Bernie Sanders sweeping up enough delegates to be unstoppable unless centrist rivals bow out. An internal campaign memo between top Bloomberg aides dated Feb. 17 warns that any "serious delegate advantage" from the Super Tuesday primary contests on March 3 is likely to be maintained, and as the field stands now, the Vermont senator is set to hold a 400-delegate lead over second-place Bloomberg after Super Tuesday, with the bulk of remaining delegates spread across Bloomberg and the other centrist candidates: former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. "It will be all but impossible to stop him from getting to a plurality (or even majority) of pledged delegates," said the memo obtained by Axios. "The bottom line is that if Biden, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar remain in the race despite having no path to appreciably collecting delegates on Super Tuesday (and beyond), they will propel Sanders to a seemingly insurmountable delegate lead by siphoning votes away from [Bloomberg] with no upside for themselves."

The campaign manager for the former New York City mayor and ultrabillionaire further stressed the urgency of a strong, centrist alternative to Sanders. "The fact is if the state of this race remains status quo, with Biden, Pete, and Amy in the race on Super Tuesday, Bernie is likely to open up a delegate lead that seems nearly impossible to overcome," Kevin Sheekey told Axios. "I don’t think many people understand the dire circumstances here."

The alarm-sounding stands in contrast to public posturing from the Bloomberg campaign that the primary is already down to Bloomberg and Sanders. “Mike is quite clearly in a strong second place in this primary and rising rapidly above the rest of the field, which is either stagnant or declining quickly,” Bloomberg States Director Dan Kanninen said on a call with reporters Tuesday. “None of the other Democrats besides Mike or Bernie is in a position to amass delegates in a serious way on Super Tuesday.”

Biden's campaign shot back at the suggestion that Bloomberg is the strongest alternative to Sanders. "Mike Bloomberg has not yet endured a single debate. He has not been on the ballot in early states or won a single delegate to the convention,” a Biden spokesman said, adding that the Bloomberg campaign's assertion shows “a jarring but unsurprising level of arrogance.”

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