Joe Biden was optimistic on the morning of South Carolina’s 2020 Democratic primary, but he wouldn’t predict what his expected margin of victory would be.
Biden, 77, has been visibly happier on the campaign trail in South Carolina this week, with polling averages suggesting he has a 15-percentage-point-plus advantage on his rivals before voting closes Saturday night.
Though anticipating his first victory of the primary cycle, the two-term vice president refused to speculate on how big of a win he needed to cancel out his fourth- and fifth-place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, respectively. He came in a distant second in Nevada to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who leads in the race’s delegate count.
“I think it’s important to win, period. Obviously, the bigger you win anywhere, the better bump you get, but I don’t think there’s any number I have to have,” he told reporters in Greenville, South Carolina.
Biden’s campaign this week experienced its best day in fundraising after the South Carolina debate on Tuesday, bringing in $1.2 million. Although opponents such as Michael Bloomberg “have many more resources,” he revealed Saturday that the fundraising pace had continued throughout the week.
Looking ahead to Super Tuesday on March 3, Biden dismissed concerns Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York City mayor who’s competing with Delaware’s 36-year senator to dominate the primary’s center-left lane, was siphoning votes from his bid.
“I’ve always had support from working-class folks, I’ve always had support from African Americans and Latinos, and I’ve always had support from suburban women when I’ve run,” he said. “So I just don’t know how it cuts, all I know is that I think I’m going to do well here.”
He added, “But I don’t think it will even be over after Super Tuesday.”
While President Trump is trolling the 2020 Democrats by holding counterrallies in states hosting early nominating contests, Biden gave the impression he hadn’t been tuning in.
“He said what?” Biden asked a reporter who wanted to know the former vice president’s response to Trump calling the coronavirus Democrats’s “new hoax” against him. “Some of the stuff he says is so bizarre that you can laugh at it. When you say things like that, it just so diminishes the faith people around the world have in the United States.”
