WASHINGTON, Mar 6: US President Joe Biden from the Democratic Party and his Republican predecessor Donald Trump have swept in their Presidential nomination primaries held in 15 States across the country, ensuring a rematch between them in November and forcing Indian-American Republican Nikki Haley to quit the race.
After Super Tuesday’s election results, Trump, 77, established a commanding lead in the delegate count and vanquished his only Republican opponent, Haley.
Haley, 52, the former US envoy to the UN failed to make a mark Tuesday even as she showed strong support in the states of Vermont, where she won.
That victory, however, will do little to dent Trump’s primary dominance.
Hours later, Haley announced that she had suspended her election campaign.
“The time has now come to suspend my campaign. I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have done that. I have no regrets,” she said today in South Carolina. “Although I will no longer be a candidate, I will not stop using my voice for the things I believe in.”
Haley congratulated Trump but stopped short of endorsing him.
“In all likelihood, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee when our party convention meets in July. I congratulate him and wish him well. I wish anyone well who would be America’s president. Our country is too precious to let our differences divide us,” the Indian-American politician said.
Haley added, “It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him. And I hope he does that.”
On Tuesday, Trump prevailed in most Super Tuesday states: California, Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Utah, Minnesota, Colorado, Arkansas and Maine.
Super Tuesday is an important phase of presidential primaries when the early contests are over, and voters from multiple states cast ballots in primaries timed to occur on the same date. Almost all the results were one-sided in favour of Trump except for Vermont, where the winning difference was about one per cent.
More than a third of all the Republican delegates were at stake on Super Tuesday, the biggest haul of any date on the primary calendar.
To win the presidential nomination of the Republican party, either of the two candidates needs 1,215 delegates, who are elected during the primaries. Before Super Tuesday, Trump had 244 delegates in his kitty, while Haley had just 43.
Speaking from Palm Beach, Florida, Trump claimed that “we have a very divided country,” and vowed to unify it soon.
“This was an amazing night and an amazing day, it’s been an incredible period of time in our country’s history,” Trump said at his election night watch party at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.
“We have a very divided country. We have a country [where] a political person uses weaponisation against his political opponents,” he said.
He compared the state of the US political system to “third-world countries”.
“Never happened here. It happens in other countries, but they’re third-world countries. And in some ways, we’re a third-world country.”
Talking up some of his achievements from his time in office, notably the half-built border wall between the US and Mexico, Trump claimed he delivered “the safest borders in the history of our country” and went on to rail against what he described as “migrant crime”, without citing any evidence.
“And so the world is laughing at us, the world is taking advantage of us,” he said.
Seeking re-election, President Biden, 81, swept almost all the Democratic primary states.
He lost to Jason Palmer in American Samoa.
Earlier, Biden touted the work his administration has accomplished in its first term in office while issuing a stark warning that a second Trump term would mean a return to “chaos, division, and darkness.”
“Four years ago, I ran because of the existential threat Donald Trump posed to the America we all believe in,” Biden wrote in a statement, highlighting progress under his administration on jobs, inflation, prescription drug prices, and gun control.
He then warned that if Trump returns to the White House, the progress his administration has made will be at risk.
“(Trump) is driven by grievance and grift, focused on his own revenge and retribution, not the American people,” Biden noted.
“President Biden and former President Donald J Trump romped through the opening contests of Super Tuesday, piling up wins in states including Texas, the second-largest delegate prize of the night, as they moved inexorably toward their parties’ nominations and a rematch for the White House in November,” The New York Times reported.
“Former president Donald Trump and President Biden are dominating Super Tuesday contests with roughly one-third of the delegates at stake that will determine the Republican and Democratic party nominations. Voters in 15 states are participating in primaries or caucuses,” The Washington Post said. (PTI)
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