Sanders pauses Facebook ads as he weighs ending presidential campaign
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}As Sen. Bernie Sanders mulls whether to pull the plug on his White House bid, his presidential campaign on Wednesday paused investing any new money in Facebook ads.
The move comes the morning after the progressive firebrand from Vermont was swept in Tuesday’s three Democratic presidential nomination primaries by Joe Biden. The former vice president’s overwhelming victory in Florida, his nearly 25-percentage-point defeat of Sanders in Illinois and his win in Arizona cemented his status as the presumptive Democratic nominee and all but shut the door to Sanders’ extremely narrow pathway to winning the nomination.
SANDERS MULLS PULLING PLUG ON PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The pause in Facebook ads raised eyebrows – as former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg each stopped running Facebook ads in the hours before they ended their presidential runs.
The news – first reported by Axios – sparked some incorrect rumors on Twitter that Sanders was suspending his campaign.
Sanders communications director Mike Casca took to Twitter and put out an email statement to clear the record.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Good afternoon, everyone. The tweet about an Axios 'report' is wrong. He's not suspending. Nothing has changed since this morning's statement. Thanks,” Casca wrote in his email to reporters.
At the Capitol, Sanders also personally denied he was dropping out.
“There's not going to be an election for another three weeks. We are talking to our supporters. Anybody who suggests at this point we're ending our campaign is not telling the truth,” he told Fox News' Sally Persons.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Earlier Wednesday, Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir explained in a statement to reporters: “The next primary contest is at least three weeks away. Sen. Sanders is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign.”
In a subsequent email to supporters, Shakir acknowledged there’s “No sugarcoating it, last night did not go the way we wanted.”