United States presidential race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden intensifies

New York: Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the US presidential election has been set as a contest between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden after the socialist Senator Bernie Sanders dropped out of the Democratic race for nomination.

By conceding to Biden on Wednesday, Sanders will allow him and the party to focus on Trump and get an early start for a campaign directly against Trump stretching for the next seven months instead of spending resources for several months on infighting by party candidates for the nomination.

“I congratulate Joe Biden, a very decent man, who I will work with to move our progressive ideas forward,” Sanders said in his live-streamed announcement.

Biden said he realised “how hard a decision this was for him to make,” adding, “Bernie has put his heart and soul into not only running for president, but for the causes and issues he has been dedicated to his whole life.”

“I cannot in good conscience continue to mount a campaign that cannot win and which would interfere with the important work required of all of us in this difficult hour,” Sanders said finally recognising the changed environment in a nation ravaged by COVID-19. Sanders and Biden have not been able to hold rallies or even have house-to-house campaigns.

Trump, who has expressed preference for the self-described democratic socialist Sanders to be his rival, roiled the political waters claiming the nomination process was “rigged” against “Crazy Bernie.”

In an email to supporters soon after Sanders live-streamed his decision, Trump took a dig at his favourite targets: “It’s been obvious from day one that the Democrats, the Fake News Media, the Hollywood Elites, and the Deep State all want Sleepy Joe to be president no matter the cost.”

An aggregation of the national polls by RealClear Politics showed that Biden was leading Trump by 6.3 per cent, but there has been some concern in the Democratic Party with Trump’s approval rating for handling the coronavirus pandemic, although it has come down from a high of 50.6 last month to 46.8 on Wednesday.

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