Although he acknowledged he couldn’t win the nomination, he stated his motion had received “the ideological battle.” And whereas he congratulated former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and pledged to work with him, he stated he would stay on the poll within the remaining contests to assist affect the platform on the Democratic Nationwide Conference.
Right here’s a full transcript of his speech.
Good morning and thanks very a lot for becoming a member of me. I wish to specific to every of you my deep gratitude for serving to to create an unprecedented grass roots political marketing campaign that has had a profound affect in altering our nation.
I wish to thank the lots of of hundreds of volunteers who knocked on doorways, tens of millions of them, within the freezing winters of Iowa and New Hampshire, and within the warmth of Nevada and in South Carolina, and in states all through the nation.
I wish to thank the 2 million People who’ve contributed financially to our marketing campaign and confirmed the world that we will tackle the corrupt marketing campaign finance system, and run a serious presidential marketing campaign with out the rich and the highly effective. Thanks in your 10 million contributions, averaging $18.50 a donation.
I wish to thank those that cellphone banked for our marketing campaign and people of you who despatched out tens of millions of texts. And I wish to thank the various lots of of hundreds of People who’ve been to our rallies, city conferences and home events from New York to California. A few of these occasions had over 25,000 individuals. Some had a number of hundred. Some had a dozen. However all have been vital. And let me thank those that made these many occasions attainable.
I additionally wish to thank our surrogates, too many to call. I can’t think about that any candidate has ever been blessed with a stronger and extra devoted group of people that have taken our message to each a part of this nation. And I wish to thank all of those that made the music and the artwork an integral a part of our marketing campaign. I wish to thank all of you who spoke to your mates and neighbors, posted on social media, and labored as exhausting as you possibly can to make this a greater nation.
Collectively we have now reworked American consciousness as to what sort of nation we will turn into, and have taken this nation a serious step ahead within the unending wrestle for financial justice, social justice, racial justice and environmental justice.
I additionally wish to thank the various lots of of individuals on our marketing campaign employees. You have been keen to maneuver from one state to a different and do all of the work that needed to be completed. No job was too huge or too small for you. You rolled up your sleeves and you probably did it. You embodied the phrases which might be on the core of our motion — not me, however us. And I thank every certainly one of you for what you’ve completed.
As a lot of you’ll recall, Nelson Mandela, one of many nice freedom fighters in fashionable world historical past, famously stated, “It at all times appears inconceivable till it’s completed.” And what he meant by that’s that the best impediment to achieve social change has every thing to do with the ability of the company and political institution to restrict our imaginative and prescient as to what’s attainable and what we’re entitled to as human beings.
If we don’t consider that we’re entitled to well being care as a human proper, we’ll by no means obtain common well being care. If we don’t consider that we’re entitled to respectable wages and dealing situations, tens of millions of us will proceed to reside in poverty. If we don’t consider that we’re entitled to all the schooling we require to satisfy our goals, many people will go away faculties saddled with enormous debt, or by no means get the schooling we’d like. If we don’t consider that we’re entitled to reside in a world that has a clear setting and isn’t ravaged by local weather change, we’ll proceed to see extra drought, floods, rising sea ranges, an more and more uninhabitable planet.
If we don’t consider that we’re entitled to reside in a world of justice, democracy and equity, with out racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia or spiritual bigotry, we’ll proceed to have large earnings and wealth inequality, prejudice and hatred, mass incarceration, terrified immigrants, and lots of of hundreds of People sleeping out on the streets within the richest nation on Earth. And specializing in that new imaginative and prescient for America is what our marketing campaign has been about and what, the truth is, we have now completed.
Few would deny that over the course of the previous 5 years our motion has received the ideological wrestle. In so-called crimson states and blue states and purple states, a majority of the American individuals now perceive that we should increase the minimal wage to not less than $15 an hour, that we should assure well being care with no consideration to all of our individuals, that we should remodel our vitality system away from fossil gas, and that greater schooling have to be obtainable to all, no matter earnings.
It was not way back that individuals thought-about these concepts radical and fringe. In the present day they’re mainstream concepts, and plenty of of them are already being applied in cities and states throughout the nation. That’s what we have now completed collectively.
By way of well being care, even earlier than this horrific pandemic we at the moment are experiencing, extra People understood that we should transfer to a “Medicare for all,” single-payer program. Through the major elections, exit polls confirmed in state after state a robust majority of Democratic major voters supported a single authorities medical health insurance program to interchange non-public insurance coverage. That was true even in states the place our marketing campaign didn’t prevail.
And let me simply say this. By way of well being care, this present, horrific disaster that we at the moment are in has uncovered for all to see how absurd our present employer-based medical health insurance system is. The present financial downturn we’re experiencing has not solely led to an enormous lack of jobs however has additionally resulted in tens of millions of People shedding their medical health insurance.
Whereas People have been advised again and again how great our employer-based non-public insurance coverage system is, these claims sound very hole immediately as a rising variety of unemployed staff wrestle with how they will afford to go to the physician or not go bankrupt with an enormous hospital invoice. We now have at all times believed that well being care have to be thought-about as a human proper, not an worker profit, and we’re proper.
Please additionally admire that not solely are we successful the wrestle ideologically, we’re additionally successful it generationally. The way forward for our nation rests with younger individuals. And in state after state, whether or not we received or whether or not we misplaced the Democratic primaries or caucuses, we obtained a major majority of the votes, typically an amazing majority, from individuals not solely 30 years of age or below, however 50 years of age or youthful. In different phrases, the way forward for this nation is with our concepts.
As we’re all painfully conscious, we now face an unprecedented disaster. Not solely are we coping with a coronavirus pandemic, which is taking the lives of many hundreds of our individuals, we’re additionally coping with an financial meltdown that has resulted within the lack of tens of millions of jobs.
In the present day households all throughout our nation face monetary hardship unimaginable just a few months in the past. And due to the unacceptable ranges of earnings and wealth inequality in our financial system, a lot of our associates and neighbors have little or no financial savings and are desperately attempting to pay their hire or their mortgage and even put meals on the desk.
This actuality makes it clear to me that Congress should handle this unprecedented disaster in an unprecedented approach that protects the well being and financial well-being of the working households of our nation, not simply highly effective particular pursuits. As a member of the Democratic management and the US Senate, and as a senator from the state of Vermont, that is one thing that I intend to intensely be concerned in over the subsequent variety of months, and that may require an unlimited quantity of labor. Which takes me to the state of our presidential marketing campaign.
I want I might offer you higher information, however I feel you understand the reality. And that’s we at the moment are some 300 delegates behind Vice President Biden, and the trail towards victory is nearly inconceivable.
So whereas we’re successful the ideological battle, and whereas we’re successful the help of so many younger individuals and dealing individuals all through the nation, I’ve concluded that this battle for the Democratic nomination is not going to achieve success. So immediately I’m asserting the suspension of my marketing campaign.
Please know that I don’t make this determination frivolously. In reality, it has been a really tough and painful determination. Over the previous few weeks, Jane and I, in session with prime employees and plenty of of our outstanding supporters, have made an trustworthy evaluation of the prospects for victory.
If I believed we had a possible path to the nomination, I will surely proceed the marketing campaign. But it surely’s simply not there.
I do know there could also be some in our motion who disagree with this determination, who would love us to combat on till the final poll solid on the Democratic conference. I perceive that place. However as I see the disaster gripping the nation, exacerbated by a president unwilling or unable to offer any type of credible management and the work that must be completed to guard individuals on this most determined hour, I couldn’t in good conscience proceed to mount a marketing campaign that can’t not win and which might intervene with the vital work required by all of us on this tough hour.
Let me say this very emphatically. As you all know, we have now by no means been only a marketing campaign. We’re a grass roots, multiracial, multigenerational motion which has at all times believed that actual change by no means comes from the highest on down, however at all times from the underside on up. We now have taken on Wall Road, the insurance coverage firms, the drug firms, the fossil gas trade, the army industrial advanced, the jail industrial advanced, and the greed of all the company elite. That wrestle continues.
Whereas this marketing campaign is coming to an finish, our motion isn’t. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us that “the arc of the ethical universe is lengthy nevertheless it bends towards justice.” The combat for justice is what our marketing campaign has been about. The combat for justice is what our motion stays about.
In the present day I congratulate Joe Biden, a really respectable man who I’ll work with to maneuver our progressive concepts ahead.
On a sensible be aware, let me additionally say this: I’ll keep on the poll in all remaining states and proceed to collect delegates.Whereas Vice President Biden would be the nominee, we should proceed working to assemble as many delegates as attainable on the Democratic conference, the place we can exert vital affect over the celebration platform and different features.
Then collectively, standing united, we’ll go ahead to defeat Donald Trump, essentially the most harmful president in fashionable American historical past. And we’ll combat to elect sturdy progressives at each degree of presidency from Congress to the college board.
As I hope all of you understand, this race has by no means been about me. I ran for the presidency as a result of I consider that as a president, I might speed up and institutionalize the progressive modifications that we’re all constructing collectively. And if we maintain organizing and combating, I’ve little question that that’s precisely what is going to occur. Whereas the trail could also be slower now, we’ll change this nation, and with like-minded associates across the globe, change all the world.
On a really private be aware, talking for Jane, myself and our complete household, we’ll at all times carry in our hearts the reminiscence of the extraordinary individuals we have now met throughout this nation. We frequently hear about the fantastic thing about America, and this nation is extremely stunning. However to me the sweetness I’ll bear in mind most, is the faces of the individuals we have now met from one nook of the nation to the opposite. The compassion and love and decency I’ve seen and it makes me so looking forward to our future. It additionally makes me extra decided than ever to work to create a nation that displays these values and lifts up all of our individuals.
Please keep on this combat with me. Allow us to go ahead collectively, as our objective continues. Thanks all very a lot.