‘This Primary Isn’t A Game’: Warren Swings At Sanders After He Campaigns In Her Home State

As the final results of the South Carolina Democratic primary continue to unfold, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has come out swinging against presumptive winner former Vice President Joe Biden, and Senator Bernie Sander (I-VT), the projected second-place finisher.

“Americans must ask themselves: Who do you trust to actually run this country? Donald Trump has already shown he’s not up to the task,” Warren told supporters Saturday at a rally in Houston, Texas, the evening of the South Carolina primary, according to a transcript of the remarks published by Politico on Twitter.

“This crisis demands more than a former vice president so eager to cut deals with Mitch McConnell and the Republicans that he’ll trade good ideas for bad ones,” said Warren – according to NBC News, Warren had congratulated Biden for his performance in South Carolina earlier in the evening.

“This crisis demands more than a senator who has good ideas, but whose thirty-year track record shows he consistently calls for things he fails to get done, and consistently opposes things he nevertheless fails to stop,” said Warren about Sanders, who she has previously neglected to criticize.

“I’ve said many times that any of the Democrats running would be a better president than Donald Trump, and that’s still true,” said Warren. “But this crisis is a reminder that this primary isn’t a game. We are picking a president, and we need someone whose core values can be trusted, who has a plan for how to govern, and who can actually get it done.”

While Warren has previously been hesitant to criticize Sanders, leading many pundits to believe she is auditioning for the self-avowed democratic socialist’s vice presidential position, Warren’s new attacks come amidst signs that she may lose Massachusetts, her own home state, to Sanders in the upcoming March 3 primary.

Furthermore, recent polling conducted in Massachusetts shows Sanders leading the field, by margins as high as eight points and as low as two points. In the three most recent polls, Warren is in second place.

The Sanders campaign has also been holding events in Massachusetts this week, including events at a music festival the campaign has dubbed “Berniepalooza,” reports Politico.

A former Sanders staffer who worked on the senator’s 2016 campaign in Massachusetts told the news agency that Sanders holding events in the state was not an indication that he was going after Warren’s supporters.

“The purpose of doing this is for the press and generating excitement. They’re not convincing any more voters at this stage of the game,” the staffer told the news agency. “This is a way to stay in two media markets all weekend long.”

However, exit polls from the South Carolina Democratic primary show that this may not actually be true, and that voters may remain more fluid late into the race. According to CNN, nearly one in three voters in the South Carolina primary decided on who they were supporting within the last few days. 

Although Warren has yet to win a single state primary contest, she currently holds eight delegates. According to The New York Times, Sanders leads the field with fifty-two.