Bernie Sanders hasn’t earned front-runner status despite earning the most votes in Iowa and New Hampshire, according to MSNBC host Chuck Todd.
On Wednesday, Todd argued on Meet the Press Daily that the Vermont senator was not the de facto leader just because he had earned the most votes in Iowa and New Hampshire. Todd said, “I don’t understand how Bernie is considered a front-runner.”
“This is a guy that had more — more people showed up to the polls. Highest turnout ever and his percentage went down, not up,” Todd argued. “His total number went down, not up.”
Sanders won the most total votes in both New Hampshire and Iowa, but he trails Pete Buttigieg in total delegates as the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor earned one more delegate in the Iowa caucuses’ final distribution and earned the same number of delegates in New Hampshire, despite trailing by nearly 4,000 votes there.
Todd also swatted down the argument that liberal Democrats will automatically jump from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who had a rough night in New Hampshire, to Sanders. He explained, “Bernie has an operation that knows how to get 25% in any state. Look, and the question is, can he get to 30, 35?”
“Pete Buttigieg looks like he has an operation that’s gonna last a while. It’s everybody else we’re not sure of yet,” Todd said, later adding, “I don’t buy that there’s 40 [percent of a base between Sanders and Warren]. I won’t combine it. Except there’s no evidence that Warren people go to Bernie.”
MSNBC has been criticized for its “Bernie cynicism.” One voter in New Hampshire told the network, on-air that she voted for Sanders because of the network’s negative coverage of his campaign.
