Sen. Elizabeth Warren isn’t ready to endorse former rivals Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders as the 2020 Democratic presidential primary narrows to a head-to-head matchup.
“Well, let’s take a deep breath and spend a little time on that,” Warren told reporters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, during a press conference Thursday. “We don’t have to decide that this minute.”
Flanked by husband Bruce Mann and golden retriever Bailey, the senator, 70, explained that her difficulty in deciding to bow out hours earlier was the impression it left girls regarding perceived sexism in politics.
“One of the hardest parts of this is all those pinky promises,” she said, referring to her habit of giving girls “pinky promises” and telling them running for the White House is what girls do. “And all those little girls who are going to have to wait four more years.”
Warren, who placed third in her home state of Massachusetts on Super Tuesday, was adamant her weak performance wasn’t embarrassing. She said she was “grateful” to her constituents.
“I was told at the beginning of this whole undertaking that there are two lanes: the progressive lane that Bernie Sanders is the incumbent for, and a moderate lane that Joe Biden is the incumbent for, and there’s no room for anyone else in this,” she explained. “I thought that wasn’t right, but evidently, I was wrong.”
In a call with her team on Thursday morning, Warren ran through ways she said she’d shaped the race with their help, including shunning billionaire and corporate political action committee donors. She had, however, accepted super PAC help in recent weeks. The former Harvard Law School professor also touted her takedown of Michael Bloomberg during the Nevada and South Carolina debates.
“In this campaign, we have been willing to fight, and, when necessary, we left plenty of blood and teeth on the floor. And I can think of one billionaire who has been denied the chance to buy this election,” she said.
The senator added, “I may not be in the race for president in 2020, but this fight — our fight — is not over. And our place in this fight has not ended.”
[Opinion: Elizabeth Warren’s persistent dishonesty killed her campaign]
