The event, titled "Fighting Oligarchy," drew criticism for alleged "cynical use" of a public institution for campaign purposes.

For example, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a former member of the City University of New York Board of Trustees, claimed this was a "clearly political event." Moreover, other candidates, including incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Republican rival Curtis Sliwa, were not invited – heightening allegations of a lack of balance.

Question from "transgender Jew"

Among the questions at the event, one was directed by a student who introduced herself as a transgender Jew. She accused the college administration and security forces of "intimidation and exclusion" of students following anti-Israel protest encampments on campus, and of firing several faculty members who she said were dismissed solely for supporting the protests.

Mamdani responded by saying this represents "criminalization of solidarity for Palestinian rights." According to him, what happened at Brooklyn College is not an isolated case but "part of a broader phenomenon of suppressing the rights of academics and students across the US."

Mamdani addressed the deployment of police forces to campuses, particularly around the anti-Israeli demonstrations and encampments that were established last May. "Sending officers to student compounds does not restore security, but rather exacerbates insecurity," he emphasized. He even quoted current Mayor Eric Adams, who said, "New Yorkers shouldn't have to choose between security and justice," and promised to implement this in practice.

"I am committed to real security," Mamdani said, "not to slogans that serve to justify oppression. As mayor of New York, I will ensure that students can demonstrate and express their opinions without fearing excessive use of force." With this, the candidate tried to position himself as a direct alternative to Adams' current security policies.

Since October 7, a series of anti-Israeli demonstrations, some supporting Hamas and some including clear identification symbols with terror elements, including flags of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, have flooded campuses across the US. These protests, which tend to erupt into actual violence, frequently call for "intifada revolution," for additional attacks in the style of October 7, and even for Israel's destruction openly.

Protests of this type have often created a hostile and unsafe environment for Jews. In extreme cases, they have led to the deployment of police forces to clear the protests on campuses in cases such as "takeovers" of institutional buildings and failure to evacuate protest encampments.

Mamdani comes with a record of controversial statements regarding Israel and Jews in general. The mayoral candidate publicly supports the boycott campaign against Israel, opposes Zionism, defends statements that defined the war in Gaza as "genocide," and even refused to condemn the call to "Globalize the intifada," which is associated with anti-Jewish violence. Furthermore, he declared that as mayor, he would order the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he set foot on New York soil due to the arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

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US Senator Bernie Sanders introduced Thursday a resolution blocking a $735 million weapons sale to Israel, mirroring a symbolic action by the House of Representatives in response to the Israel-Gaza conflict.

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"At a moment when US-made bombs are devastating Gaza, and killing women and children, we cannot simply let another huge arms sale go through without even a congressional debate," Sanders said.

President Joe Biden's administration had approved the sale of $735 million in weapons to Israel this year, and sent it to Congress for formal review.

Sanders said Americans need to take a "hard look" at whether the weapons sales fuel conflict between Israel and Palestinians.

His resolution follows a measure introduced by US Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Mark Pocan and Rashida Tlaib, which has at least six other co-sponsors, including some of the most left-leaning Democrats in the House.

The conflict has prompted calls from some lawmakers for a more concerted US effort to stop the violence. The measures were unlikely to pass in either the House or Senate, where bipartisan support for arms sales for Israel has traditionally been strong.

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The Twitter account Florida for Bernie wrote Sunday, "Didn't know if we should share, but one of our grassroots Bernie offices in Florida was vandalized with swastikas. Sheriff sent a team to clean it up."

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Photographs of the scene show that in addition to the swastikas, the sentence "voting didn't stop us last time" was also scrawled on the window of the office.

Earlier this month, a man was kicked out of a Sanders rally in Arizona after he unfurled a flag emblazoned with the swastika symbol.

Didn't know if we should share, but one of our grassroots Bernie offices in Florida was vandalized with swastikas. Sheriff sent a team to clean it up. But Bernie is just another old white man, right? pic.twitter.com/zRFxdTBKKQ

— Florida for Bernie (@FL4Bernie2020) March 28, 2020

Sanders took to Twitter to condemn the incident: "I speak not only as a Jewish American – I think I can speak for the families of some 400,000 American troops who died fighting Nazism, fighting fascism – that it is horrific," Sanders told reporters.

"It is beyond disgusting to see that, in the United States of America, there are people who would show the emblem of Hitler and Nazism."

The Anti-Defamation League said it has identified the offender as Robert Sterkeson, a known white supremacist who has "harassed a range of Jewish and Muslim organizations and events."

This article was originally published by i24NEWS.

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The Vermont senator on Wednesday offered no further details on what his campaign may look like before or after he and Biden – the last two major candidates vying for the Democratic presidential nomination – spar Sunday night on stage in Arizona. The only thing on Sanders' public schedule was taping an appearance on Wednesday's "Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."

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And that will continue to raise questions – as unlikely as it may seem less than two weeks after losing his once-commanding front-runner status – about how long Sanders will persist against increasingly daunting odds, especially as the pressure within his own party increases exponentially.

Sanders addressed reporters in Burlington after offering no public statements Tuesday night, when he suffered a devastating defeat in Michigan and losses in Missouri, Idaho and Mississippi. Sanders noted that he won North Dakota and that the continuing count in Washington state remained close – but admitted he was trailing badly in the race to secure enough delegates to clinch the nomination before the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee.

"While our campaign has won the ideological debate, we are losing the debate over electability," Sanders said, meaning Democrats think Biden has a better chance of beating President Donald Trump in the fall. "That is what millions of Democrats and independents today believe."

He was quick to add that he thinks he's the stronger choice, and that he could show that during Sunday's debate. Sanders promised to press Biden for answers about millions of Americans who don't have health insurance, a criminal justice system he said unfairly targets and punishes minorities and raising the federal minimum wage.

After that, though, Democrats' desperate desire to defeat Trump could affect his calculus. Should Sanders get out soon, he could save Democrats months of a messy and expensive primary fight. But an early departure would also deprive the party's most passionate supporters, including many young people, of the one man who embodies the dramatic change they crave.

Sanders also noted that he was winning a greater percentage of young voters while Biden continues to run up the score with older ones.

"Today, I say to the Democratic establishment, in order to win in the future, you need to win the voters who represent the future of our country," Sanders said. "And you must speak to the issues of concern to them. You cannot simply be satisfied by winning the votes of people who are older."

Sanders has indeed been widely favored over Biden by voters under 30, but he has not delivered on his strategy of getting them to the polls in great numbers, according to AP VoteCast surveys of voters in Tuesday's Democratic primaries. Also problematic for him: Sanders showed no overwhelming strength with voters age 30 to 44, typically a larger share of the vote than the young, in Michigan and Missouri.

Sanders' mathematical path to winning enough delegates for the nomination is rapidly disappearing.

Sanders now needs 57% of the delegates not won so far to get to 1991, the magic number to win the nomination. Both delegate allocation math and voting history show how unlikely it is for Sanders to hit that goal and overtake Biden.

That Sanders was vowing to soldier on was hardly a surprise. The 78-year-old democratic socialist is nothing if not willing to take on the political establishment against all odds – and Sanders' closest allies are happy to see him stay in the race, even if the rest of the party is not.

"The process of unity isn't just this pie-in-the-sky, vague, butterflies-in-your-tummy type of feeling," New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of Sanders' highest-profile supporters, said Wednesday in an interview on Capitol Hill. "It requires real coalition building, and coalition building requires plans and commitments to electorates to figure out how we unify. And so I think that this is a good opportunity for us to come together."

RoseAnn DeMoro, former executive director of National Nurses United and a Sanders confidant, said Sanders "has a mandate not to abandon the movement."

"Heroes aren't made, they're cornered," DeMoro said. "He is cornered."

Four years ago, under similar pressure in a primary match-up against Hillary Clinton, Sanders fought on for months before ultimately backing Clinton in July. Sanders has repeatedly insisted that he and Biden are friends and that he will back the former vice president if he's the party's nominee - he just may not be ready to yet follow through on that promise.

Still, Sanders didn't say Wednesday where he plans to travel next. His campaign is opening five offices in Arizona on Wednesday night, using top supporters rather than the candidate himself.

Adding to the uncertainty is the spread of coronavirus, which forced both Sanders and Biden to cancel campaign events Tuesday night in Cleveland and prompted Sanders' team to say it would evaluate future events on a case-by-case basis.

Beyond the debate, the primary calendar could get even bleaker for Sanders. Next week, four more states vote and while he is hoping his support with Hispanic voters can lift him in Arizona, Sanders may struggle in two of the most important ones, Illinois and Florida - where some voters could be alienated by his recent comments defending Fidel Castro's communist government in Cuba.

"Trump must be defeated, and I will do everything in my power to make sure that happens," Sanders said. "On Sunday night, in the first one-on-one debate of this campaign, the American people will have the opportunity to see which candidate is best positioned to accomplish that."

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Biden again showed strength with working-class voters and African Americans, who are vital to winning the Democratic nomination. Sanders' narrow hopes for good news rested on North Dakota and Washington state. Washington's primary was too early to call, and because all votes there are cast by mail or by dropping them off in a ballot box, many ballots were marked for candidates who have since dropped out of the race.

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The six-state contest marked the first time voters weighed in on the primary since it effectively narrowed to a two-person race between Sanders and Biden. And the first four states on Tuesday went to Biden, a dramatic reversal for a campaign that appeared on the brink of collapse just two weeks ago. Now it is Sanders, whose candidacy was ascendant so recently, who must contemplate a path forward.

Addressing supporters in Philadelphia, Biden noted that many had "declared that this candidacy was dead" only days ago, but "now we're very much alive." He also asked Sanders supporters to back him going forward.

"We need you, we want you, and there's a place in our campaign for each of you. I want to thank Bernie Sanders and his supporters for their tireless energy and their passion," Biden said. "We share a common goal, and together we'll beat Donald Trump."

It marked a high point for the former vice president's staff. They sipped beer and broke into an impromptu dance party after his speech, which was held close to his Philadelphia headquarters.

Even as the contours of the race came into shape, however, new uncertainty was sparked by fears of the spreading coronavirus. Both candidates abruptly canceled rallies in Ohio that were scheduled for Tuesday night. That set the stage for Biden's remarks in Philadelphia, while Sanders flew home to Vermont and didn't plan to address the public.

Sanders' campaign also said all future events would be decided on a case-by-case basis given public health concerns, while Biden called off a scheduled upcoming Florida stop. Still, the former vice president said Tuesday night that he'd be announcing plans to combat the coronavirus later this week.

The Democratic National Committee also said that Sunday's debate between Sanders and Biden would be conducted without an audience.

Among former White House hopefuls and leaders of powerful liberal groups, however, Biden's momentum is now undeniable.

Bradley Beychok, president and co-founder of American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal super PAC, said his group "will be ALL IN to elect @JoeBiden as our next president." The organization is spending millions of dollars trying to win over people who backed US President Donald Trump in key states in 2016.

Guy Cecil, chairman of the flagship Democratic outside political organization Priorities USA, tweeted: "The math is now clear. Joe Biden is going to be the Democratic nominee for President and @prioritiesUSA is going to do everything we can to help him defeat Donald Trump in November."

There were other major warning signs for Sanders on Tuesday. He again struggled to win support from black voters. About 70% of Mississippi's Democratic primary voters were African American, and 86% of them supported Biden, according to an AP VoteCast survey of the electorate.

After Sanders upset Hillary Clinton in Michigan four years ago, his loss there Tuesday was particularly sobering. It undermined his argument that he could appeal to working-class voters and that he could expand the electorate with new young voters.

One of the few bright notes for Sanders was his strength among young voters, but even that has a downside because they didn't turn out enough to keep him competitive. Sanders won 72% of those under 30 in Missouri and 65% in Michigan, according to AP VoteCast. The senator was also about even with Biden among voters ages 30 to 44.

"There's no sugarcoating it. Tonight's a tough night," New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of Sanders' highest-profile supporters, said on Instagram. "Tonight's a tough night for the movement overall. Tonight's a tough night electorally."

Another top Sanders backer, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, tweeted: "Yes we are a family, united in restoring our democracy and committed to defeating Trump, but that doesn't mean we should stop fighting for the candidate that best represents our policy priorities in this Primary."

According to an Associated Press analysis, Biden had picked up at least 153 new delegates: 53 in Michigan, 40 in Missouri, 29 in Mississippi, five in North Dakota, 17 in Washington and nine in Idaho on Tuesday. Sanders got 89: 35 in Michigan, 23 in Missouri, two in Mississippi, seven in Idaho, five in North Dakota and 17 in Washington.

Although six states voted, Michigan – with its 125 delegates – got most of the attention. Trump won the state by only 10,704 votes during the general election, his closest margin of victory among Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Those states gave Trump the narrow edge in the 2016 Electoral College after Clinton won the popular vote.

Sanders has vowed not to drop out regardless of Tuesday's results and frequently railed against the "Democratic establishment" that he says has aligned against him.

In addition to the powerful groups now siding with Biden, the former vice president has picked up the endorsements of many of his former presidential rivals, including Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Cory Booker and, as of Tuesday, entrepreneur Andrew Yang. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, sometimes mentioned as a possible vice presidential choice, also endorsed Biden and campaigned with him ahead of Tuesday's primary.

Biden also gave a nod to all his former competitors, saying, "We're bringing this party together."

"That's what we have to do," he said.

Not every Democrat was lining up behind Biden, though. Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell, who represents a sprawling district from the college town of Ann Arbor to the Detroit suburbs, said Tuesday that she's staying neutral.

"I remember what it was like four years ago and the vitriol and the anger, the people mad at each other the whole election cycle. We can't afford that," Dingell said. "It's about getting out and voting in November."

Like Sanders, Biden has no public events scheduled for Wednesday. And though he's celebrating a growing delegate lead, he's still confronting voters who question his positions, which include a gun control plan that reinstates an assault weapons ban and includes a voluntary buyback program for assault weapons.

That issue was at the center of a testy exchange with a worker while Biden was rallying earlier Tuesday in Detroit. The man accused him of "actively trying to end our Second Amendment right." Biden shot back, "You're full of sh*t," but went on to say that while he supports the Second Amendment, "Do you need 100 rounds?"

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Sanders targeted Biden's record on trade, Social Security and fundraising just hours after billionaire Mike Bloomberg suspended his campaign and Elizabeth Warren confirmed she was privately reassessing her future in the race. The dramatic shifts signaled that the Democrats' once-crowded nomination fight had effectively come down to a two-man race for the right to face President Donald Trump in November.

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Sanders declared himself "neck and neck" with Biden as he faced reporters in his home state, Vermont, one of just four states he captured on the most consequential day of voting in the party's 2020 primary season. Biden won 10 states, assembling victories that transcended geography, race and class.

"What this campaign, I think, is increasingly about is, Which side are you on?" Sanders said.

The progressive candidate lobbed familiar attacks against the former vice president's record but ignored supporters' calls to be more aggressive and insisted his campaign would avoid any "Trump-type effort" that included personal criticism.

"I like Joe. I think he's a decent human being," Sanders said. "Joe and I have a very different vision for the future of this country."

Biden told reporters he would unify the country and, without naming Sanders, knocked the senator's frequent contention that he is beholden to an elite party establishment.

AIPAC attendees rage at Sanders' Netanyahu remarks

"The establishment are all those hard-working people" who voted on Tuesday, Biden told reporters in West Hollywood, California.

Elected officials and leading donors rallied around Biden after his Super Tuesday romp. Top Democrats have long been skeptical of the 77-year-old lifelong politician's political strength but raced to unite behind him to blunt Sanders' rise.

After suspending his campaign, Bloomberg became the fourth failed Democratic presidential contender this week to endorse Biden. Like the growing chorus of Democratic officials, Bloomberg called Biden the best chance to defeat Trump in the general election.

Warren's future was uncertain.

Sanders confirmed that he spoke to his progressive ally earlier in the day, though it was unclear whether she would endorse him – or anyone else – should she leave the race. Warren didn't win a single state on Super Tuesday and finished in third place in her home state of Massachusetts.

A resurgent Biden, meanwhile, was poised to finish Super Tuesday with more delegates than Sanders – a stunning shift. Sanders' team had hoped he would finish the night more than 100 delegates ahead of his next closest competitor. He'll likely finish dozens of delegates behind once all the votes are counted.

Biden's allies sought to quickly capitalize on his success and take on Sanders. Biden campaign co-chairman, Rep. Cedric Richmond, blasted Sanders for suggesting that the Democratic establishment was colluding against him. Richmond said Biden is earning his votes.

"I just did not know that African Americans in the South were considered part of the establishment," the Louisiana Democrat said, noting that Biden's overwhelming support among black voters gave him wide delegate gains in Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia, among other states.

The Sanders campaign announced it would begin airing three new campaign ads across states holding the next series of primary contests on March 10 and March 17: Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Washington state.

One new ad features archived footage of former President Barack Obama praising Sanders. It's a not-so-subtle attempt by the Vermont senator to undercut Biden's frequently spotlighting his closeness to Obama.

Despite the aggressive ad buy, there was new evidence of internal frustration with Sanders' strategy, which some believe has not been tough enough in courting high-profile endorsements or attacking Biden.

Pence to AIPAC: Sanders would be most anti-Israel president ever

Sanders prefers to focus his criticism on the former vice president's record on key issues, declining to lean into more divisive attacks that will almost certainly come up in a prospective general election match-up against Trump.

For example, there has been internal discussion about highlighting Biden's role in the 1991 confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, according to a person familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss strategy. As the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Biden allowed an all-male Senate panel to grill Anita Hill, who had accused Thomas of sexual harassment.

Sanders has largely avoided the subject.

Roseann DeMoro, a key Sanders ally and a former president of National Nurses United, said Biden's strong showing on Super Tuesday "caught people off guard." Sanders' struggle, she said, was likely tied to his "gentle" approach.

"Is Bernie too gentle on the Democratic Party? I think he's a gentleman, and they are not," DeMoro said. "Bernie's a statesman, and he's up against sharks. He needs to call people out for who they are."

Moumita Ahmed, co-founder of the independent group Millennials for Bernie, was also disappointed in Tuesday's outcome.

"I was thinking Bernie would do way better," she said, adding that the campaign needs a more effective strategy to connect with African Americans. "I would like to see a reassessment of how the campaign is run."

From his social media platform, Trump worked to fan the flames of growing frustration within Sanders' camp. The president amplified his long-running argument that the Democratic Party would move to stop Sanders from winning the nomination.

"The Democrat establishment came together and crushed Bernie Sanders, AGAIN!" Trump tweeted. He also called Warren "selfish" for staying in the race because it "hurts Bernie badly."

Biden's strong finish punctuated a dramatic turnaround in the span of just three days when he leveraged a blowout victory in South Carolina to score sweeping victories in 10 states that cemented his status as the standard-bearer for the Democrats' establishment wing.

The former vice president showed strength in the Northeast with victories in Massachusetts and Maine. He won delegate-rich Texas in the Southwest, Minnesota in the upper Midwest and finished on top across the South in Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas – in addition to Oklahoma.

Sanders scored the night's biggest delegate-prize in California but won just three other states: his home state of Vermont, as well as Utah and Colorado.

Biden racked up his victories despite being dramatically outspent and out-staffed. His moderate rival Bloomberg, for example, poured more than $12 million into television advertising in Virginia, while Biden spent less than $200,000.

The ultimate nominee must claim 1,991 delegates, which is a majority of the 3,979 pledged delegates available this primary season.

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Bloomberg announced his departure from the race after a disappointing finish on Super Tuesday in the slate of states that account for almost one-third of the total delegates available in the Democratic nominating contest. He won only the territory of American Samoa, and picked up several dozen delegates elsewhere. Biden, meanwhile, won big in Southern states where Bloomberg had poured tens of millions of dollars and even cautiously hoped for a victory.

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Two of his former Democratic rivals, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden as the moderate alternative to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders just the day before Super Tuesday.

Biden scored victories from Texas to Massachusetts on Super Tuesday, revitalizing a presidential bid that was teetering on the edge of disaster just days earlier. But his rival Bernie Sanders seized the biggest prize with a win in California that ensured he – and his embrace of democratic socialism – would drive the Democrats' nomination fight for the foreseeable future.

And suddenly, the Democratic Party's presidential field, which featured more than a half-dozen candidates a week ago, transformed into a two-man contest.

Biden and Sanders, lifelong politicians with starkly different visions for America's future, were battling for delegates as 14 states and one US territory held a series of high-stakes elections that marked the most significant day of voting in the party's 2020 presidential nomination fight.

It could take weeks – or months – for the party to pick one of them to take on US President Donald Trump in the November general election. But the new contours of the fight between Biden and Sanders crystallized as the former vice president and the three-term Vermont senator spoke to each other from dueling victory speeches delivered from opposite ends of the country Tuesday night.

"People are talking about a revolution. We started a movement," Biden said in Los Angeles, knocking one of Sanders' signature lines.

Without citing his surging rival by name, Sanders swiped at Biden from Burlington, Vermont.

"You cannot beat Trump with the same-old, same-old kind of politics," Sanders declared, ticking down a list of past policy differences with Biden on Social Security, trade and military force. "This will become a contrast in ideas."

Biden's victories were powered by Democratic voters who broke his way just days before casting their ballots – a wave of late momentum that scrambled the race in a matter of hours. In some states, the late-deciders made up roughly half of all voters, according to AP VoteCast, surveys of voters in several state primaries. He drew support from a broad coalition of moderates and conservatives, African Americans and voters older than 45.

Sanders' success proved he could deliver in perhaps the greatest test of his decades-long political career. His success was built on a base of energized liberals, young people and Latinos. But he was unable to sufficiently widen his appeal to older voters and college graduates who make up a sizable share of Democratic voters, according to AP VoteCast.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren finished in an embarrassing third place in her home state, and Bloomberg planned to reassess his candidacy on Wednesday after spending more than a half-billion dollars to score one victory – in American Samoa.

The balance of Super Tuesday's battlefield – with Biden winning nine states and Sanders four – raised questions about whether the Democratic primary contest would stretch all the way to the July convention or be decided much sooner.

Biden's strong finish punctuated a dramatic turnaround in the span of just three days when he leveraged a blowout victory in South Carolina to score sweeping victories on Tuesday that transcended geography, class and race. And lest there be any doubt, he cemented his status as the standard-bearer for the Democrats' establishment wing.

The former vice president showed strength in the Northeast with a victory in Massachusetts. He won delegate-rich Texas in the Southwest, Minnesota in the upper Midwest and finished on top across the South in Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas – in addition to Oklahoma.

Sanders opened the night as the undisputed Democratic front-runner and was in a position to claim an insurmountable delegate lead. And while he scored the night's biggest delegate-prize in California, he scored just three other decisive victories, winning his home state of Vermont, along with Utah and Colorado.

Biden racked up his victories despite being dramatically outspent and out-staffed. Moderate rival Bloomberg, for example, poured more than $12 million into television advertising in Virginia, while Biden spent less than $200,000.

The Democratic race has shifted dramatically as Biden capitalized on his commanding South Carolina victory to persuade anxious establishment allies to rally behind his campaign. Former rivals Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg abruptly ended their campaigns in the days leading up to Super Tuesday and endorsed Biden.

In Biden and Sanders, Democrats have a stark choice in what kind of candidate they want to run against Trump.

Sanders is a 78-year-old democratic socialist who relies on an energized coalition of his party's far-left flank that embraces his longtime fight to transform the nation's political and economic systems. Biden is a 77-year-old lifelong leader of his party's Washington establishment who emphasizes a more pragmatic approach to core policy issues like health care and climate change.

Across the Super Tuesday states, there were early questions about Sanders' claims that he is growing his support from his failed 2016 presidential bid.

Biden bested him in Oklahoma, though Sanders won the state against Hillary Clinton four years ago. In Virginia, where Democratic turnout this year surpassed 2016's numbers by more than 500,000 votes, Sanders' vote share dropped significantly. And in Tennessee, Democratic turnout was up more than 30% from 2016, but Sanders' raw vote total was only a few hundred votes greater than four years ago.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg was trying to look beyond the primary to the November election against Trump, who racked up easy victories in lightly contested Republican primaries across the country.

"We have the resources to beat Trump in swing states that Democrats lost in 2016," Bloomberg said Tuesday night while campaigning in Florida.

The billionaire former New York mayor, who threw more than a half a billion dollars into the Super Tuesday states, will reassess his campaign on Wednesday, according to a person close to his operation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.

Warren was also fighting to be optimistic.

Facing a roaring crowd in Michigan before news of her disappointing home-state finish was announced, she called on her supporters to ignore the political pundits and predictions as her advisers insist she's willing to go all the way to a contested convention in July even if she doesn't claim an outright victory anywhere.

"Here's my advice: Cast a vote that will make you proud. Cast a vote from your heart," Warren declared. She added: "You don't get what you don't fight for. I am in this fight."

With votes still being counted across the country, The Associated Press has allocated 453 delegates to Biden, 382 to Sanders, 50 to Warren, 44 to Bloomberg and one for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. The numbers are expected to shift as new states report their numbers and as some candidates hover around the 15% vote threshold they must hit to earn delegates.

The ultimate nominee must claim 1,991 delegates, which is a majority of the 3,979 pledged delegates available this primary season.

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Although the mood exiting the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, on Monday was largely upbeat, with attendees, who travel to the nation's capital to lobby their members of Congress on behalf of the US-Israel alliance, generally pleased about Benjamin Netanyahu's decisive election victory that day (although it remains uncertain if he can still form a government), when asked their feelings about Sanders's decision to shun this year's AIPAC policy conference, many expressed outrage.

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"I'm thrilled about Bibi's re-election," said Michael Elman, 64, a retina surgeon from Baltimore. "Hopefully, he'll be able to form a government. I support his policies. We think it's a good move for the Jewish people, and hopefully, they can get out of this paralysis."

He added that "Bernie is a wolf in sheep's clothing. With friends like that, we don't need enemies."

Sanders's decision to skip the conference, as well as his recent characterization on Twitter of the historically bipartisan advocacy group as providing a "platform … for leaders who express bigotry," coupled with his characterization of Netanyahu as a "reactionary racist" in last week's Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina, comes at a time when many Jewish-Americans are distressed about a rise in anti-Semitism associated with extremism at both ends of the political spectrum, and what they perceive as a Democratic Party increasingly populated by members who are hostile to Israel.

Both his comments and his absence reverberated throughout this year's event, with speakers ranging from US Vice President Mike Pence to House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to former New York City Mayor and Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg making reference to them.

In his speech on Monday, Pence said if elected, Sanders would be "the most anti-Israel president in the history of this nation." And in reference to Sanders's remarks, he said, "it is wrong to boycott and slander Israel. It is wrong to boycott and slander AIPAC."

Bloomberg called Sanders "dead wrong" to describe AIPAC as a "racist platform."

Attendees by and large strongly echoed these sentiments, although there were a small number of dissenters.

"To associate pro-Israel advocacy with bigotry, [Sanders] is advancing anti-Semitism," said Robin Hanerfeld of Bethesda, Md. "He's emboldening anti-Semites to start using the word to describe us."

Anne Brody Elovic, 58, a homemaker from the heavily Jewish village of Skokie, Ill., said "Bernie Sanders is a putz. If you want to run this country, have the chutzpah to come stand here and tell us what you think."

Some who expressed disappointment in Sanders self-identified as Democrats.

"Among this crowd, there's a resounding agreement that Bernie made a bad decision," said Gaby Cosgrove, a dentist from Los Angeles. "As a very devoted Democrat, I feel he's embarrassed me."

Referring to Democratic candidates who either spoke or addressed the conference by satellite, Cosgrove added that she thought Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) "were wonderful." She said the same of Bloomberg, who was there in person.

'Extremism tends not to be good for minorities'

Among those taking strong exception to Sanders's recent statements claiming AIPAC provides a "platform for leaders who express bigotry" were non-Jewish African-American and Hispanic Israel-supporters in attendance. Many had traveled from across the country at their own expense to show their support for Israel and the values they believe Israel upholds.

"If AIPAC promotes bigotry, then why am I here? Why is there a whole constituency group led by African-Americans here?" said London Camel, 20, a student at Florida Agricultural Mechanical University in Tallahassee, Fla.

"The organization is bipartisan and about dialogue, so why not come, Senator Sanders?" posed Landen Coles, 19, a student at the University of Miami.

Older African-American Israel-supporters echoed the younger generation's sentiments and added some of their own. "Senator Sanders should keep in mind that extremism tends not to be good for minorities," said Eric McLendon, 56, of New York, who works in commercial real estate.

Nonetheless, two of about two-dozen AIPAC attendees interviewed expressed some degree of qualified support for Sanders, saying that although they disagreed with his recent statements about Netanyahu and AIPAC, they supported his right to make them and would consider voting for him to be the next president.

"Israel's important to me, but I'm not a one issue voter," said Jonah Dubin, 21, a student at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa. "Bloomberg is standing in a better place on Israel, [but] lot of people feel Sanders would be better on health care."

But, added Dubin, "It influences my decision to vote for Sanders in a negative way that he didn't come here."

Some cited the values of debate and discussion in voicing their disapproval of Sanders's choice to rebuff AIPAC.

Originally from Venezuela, Veronica Figoli of Denver, Colo., says life back home "became broken" when people ceased being able to have civil conversations. A lifelong Democrat, she says she disagrees with Sanders's characterization of AIPAC and decision not to attend, emphasizing that she believes "the most dangerous conversation is the one which never happens."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Making the case for US President Donald Trump's re-election, Pence warned that if elected, Senator Bernie Sanders would be the complete opposite of Trump as it pertains to the US-Israel relationship.

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"We must ensure that the most pro-Israel president in history must not be replaced by one who would be the most anti-Israel president in the history of this nation," said Pence at the annual AIPAC Policy Conference, where he slammed Sanders for calling Israel "a racist state" and defaming AIPAC as "a platform for bigotry."

On February 23, Sanders announced that he would skip the AIPAC conference.

"If we can agree on one thing, it should be this: Those who side with Israel's enemies must never be allowed to call themselves friends of Israel," said Pence. "It is wrong to boycott and slander Israel. It is wrong to boycott and slander AIPAC."

Pence also said that "anti-Semitism is anti-Zionism."

The US vice president also said it was troubling that none of the Democratic candidates challenged Sanders on the stage during a recent Democratic debate "when Bernie Sanders smeared Israel."

In his speech, Pence touted Trump's pro-Israel achievements, including recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moving the US embassy there; withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal; closing the PLO mission in Washington, D.C.; defunding US assistance to the Palestinian Authority for rewarding terrorists and their families; defunding US funding for UNRWA; combatting anti-Israel bias at the United Nations; deeming Israeli neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria as not illegal; signing an executive order to combat anti-Semitism on college campuses; and eliminating Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also addressed the conference ahead of Israel's vote on March 2.

On the US side, the timing was also sensitive, as Pence's comments came ahead of Super Tuesday, with the stage set for a clash between Sanders, the current front-runner, and Joe Biden, whose campaign was revitalized with a solid performance in South Carolina and the support of former candidates Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, who withdrew from the race on Monday.

AIPAC has traditionally worked as a bipartisan platform, but in the recent months, it was forced to apologize over a contentious Facebook ad jabbing at "radicals" among Democrats seeking to sabotage the US-Israeli ties.

The conference concludes on Tuesday.

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The urgency of the moment reflected deep concerns from the Democratic establishment that Bernie Sanders, a polarizing progressive, was positioned to seize a significant delegate lead when 14 states and one US territory vote on Tuesday.

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Klobuchar suspended her campaign and endorsed Biden Monday, a day after Buttigieg announced his exit. Both Klobuchar and Buttigieg, who had been Biden's chief competition for their party's pool of more moderate voters over the last year, declared their public support for Biden at evening events in Dallas. They were joined by another former competitor, former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who also backed Biden on Monday.

"I'm looking for a leader, I'm looking for a president, who will draw out what's best in each of us," Buttigieg said alongside Biden. "We have found that leader in vice president, soon-to-be president, Joe Biden."

Speaking at a Biden rally later in the night, Klobuchar called for unity: "If we spend the next four months dividing our party and going at each other, we will spend the next four years watching Donald Trump tear apart our country," she said. "We need to unite our party and our country."

The dramatic developments came at a key crossroads in Democrats' turbulent primary season as the party struggles to unify behind a clear message or messenger in its urgent quest to defeat President Donald Trump. Yet as a field that once featured more than two dozen candidates shrinks to just five, the choice for primary voters is becoming clearer.

On one side stands Biden, a 77-year-old lifelong politician who represents a pragmatic approach to governing that emphasizes bipartisanship and more modest change. He's clearly relishing the swift improvement of his political fortunes in recent days. On the other stands Sanders, a 78-year-old democratic socialist who has for decades demanded aggressive liberal shifts that seek to transform the nation's political and economic systems. He is working to maintain the momentum he built coming out of the earliest voting states.

Yet the primary isn't currently a two-man race.

New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg, in particular, could create problems for Biden's establishment appeal. The former New York City mayor, who will appear on a 2020 ballot for the first time on Tuesday, has invested more than a half billion dollars into his presidential bid and racked up many high-profile endorsements of his own.

And Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has struggled for delegates and momentum over the last month, has vowed to stay in the race until the party's national convention in July.

On the eve of Super Tuesday, however, Biden received a significant boost following his resounding victory over the weekend in South Carolina.

He posted his best two-day fundraising haul in more than a year, raising roughly $10 million over the last 48 hours. And the former vice president added to his considerable endorsement lead in recent days as elected officials began to coalesce more meaningfully behind him. He has long been the favorite of many elected officials even as he struggled through the first three primary contests of the year.

Biden's new backers feature a who's who of current and former Democratic officials across the nation: former Nevada Sen. Harry Reid; Obama national security adviser Susan Rice; Arizona Senate candidate Mark Kelly; former Colorado Sen. Mark Udall; former California Sen. Barbara Boxer; Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va.; and Rep. Gil Cisneros, D-Calif.

Virginia Rep. Don Beyer, the first member of Congress to endorse Buttigieg, said he planned to endorse Biden and expected Buttigieg to as well.

"I do think it's the most logical," Beyer said of a Biden endorsement, given his echo of the former vice president's call for civility, a mantra of the Buttigieg campaign. "I think Joe is the next best possibility."

Perhaps the most powerful endorsement would come from former President Barack Obama, who has a relationship with most of the candidates and has talked with several in recent weeks as primary voting has begun. He spoke with Biden to congratulate him after his South Carolina victory, but still has no plans to endorse in the primary at this point.

Campaigning in Klobuchar's home state of Minnesota on Monday night, Sanders discouraged the crowd from booing Biden and welcomed his rivals' supporters to join his campaign.

"To all of Amy and Pete's millions of supporters, the door is open. Come on in," Sanders said. "We all share the understanding that together we are going to beat Donald Trump."

Sanders' senior adviser Jeff Weaver was less polite earlier Monday.

"It's becoming increasingly clear that the candidates funded by big money and super PACs are coalescing behind Joe Biden, and that's not a surprise," he said.

And while Biden's momentum is undeniable, not everyone in his party's moneyed establishment is convinced.

Some major donors preferred to wait until after Super Tuesday to decide whether to join the Biden movement. And even some of his more loyal fundraisers remain frustrated by disorganization within the campaign.

For example, the former vice president has struggled to raise money in Silicon Valley, where many wealthy donors prioritize organization and a data-driven plan. The inability of Biden's team to demonstrate such competence pushed many donors toward his rivals, and others are taking a wait-and-see approach.

"We need to see what happens tomorrow, which is going to be very telling," said Alex Sink, a Democratic donor and former Florida gubernatorial candidate who endorsed Bloomberg.

And the former vice president's strategy for the coming days, which relies on media coverage and dispatching his new collection of surrogates, reflects a stark reality: Compared to Sanders and Bloomberg, Biden is understaffed, underfunded and almost out of time as he fights to transform his sole South Carolina victory into a national movement.

Biden announced he raised $18 million in February, compared to an eye-popping $46.5 million for Sanders and $29 million for Warren.

Sanders has struggled to win over his colleagues in Congress but earned a high-profile endorsement of his own on Monday from Democracy for America, a national grassroots organization originally led by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean that boasts thousands of members across the county.

"The overwhelming support for Bernie we saw in our member vote should be a wake-up call to the broken, visionless, corporate Democratic establishment," said the organization's chair Charles Chamberlain. "Americans want fundamental change in Washington, not a return to the status quo."

Some Democrats also bemoaned the distinct lack of diversity in the shrinking field.

The National Organization for Women's political action committee endorsed Warren on Monday. The group's president, Toni Van Pelt, said she's alarmed about the lack of attention paid to the female candidates, who have often had to defend their "electability."

"It's time to support a woman," she said. "We want to make sure we're not looking at all these old white men again."

Through four primary contests, the AP allocated 60 delegates to Sanders, 54 to Biden and eight to Warren.

The first four states were always more about momentum more than math. Super Tuesday states offer a trove of 1,344 new delegates based on how candidates finish. Just 155 delegates have been awarded so far.

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