Joe Biden might be down after two shockingly poor performances in Iowa and New Hampshire, but the former Vice President isn’t ceding any ground on being the Democratic nominee just yet.
According to Politico, who obtained a recording of the Wednesday call with supporters, Biden insisted that the primary is “still wide open,” and expressing his confidence that his campaign can clinch a victory in South Carolina and Nevada.
“I’ll be damned if we’re gonna lose this nomination, particularly if we’re gonna lose this nomination and end up losing an election to Donald Trump,” Biden said on the 13-minute call.
Biden also noted that support for his campaign was still going strong, saying that “things haven’t changed” in terms of online contributions or endorsements since the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary.
“The point is that, I want you to know [is] that things haven’t changed in terms of responses we’re getting, in terms of whether it’s contributions online or whether it’s endorsements since both of those primaries have taken place,” he said.
The former vice president, who was long thought of as the front runner for Democrats before his poor performances, acknowledged that he would have “rather won both, don’t get me wrong,” however he pointed out Bill Clinton’s early losses in the 1992 primary as evidence that there’s still a race to be had.
He also took the opportunity to shed doubt on the more moderate candidates—like former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar who outperformed him in New Hampshire—and their future performance potential as voting moves south, and to more diverse states.
“I think it’s going to be fairly hard for people like [Pete] Buttigieg to go South. I think it’s going to be awful hard for Amy [Klobuchar] — and they’re good people — to go South,” he said according to the report.