Harris or Trump? Millions vote in tense, tight US election

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) speaks during his final campaign rally at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the early hours of November 5, 2024, and US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (R) speaks during a campaign rally on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 4, 2024. Jeff Kowalsky and Andrew Caballero-Reynolds, AFP  

The volatile, dramatic US presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump headed to an unpredictable finish Tuesday, with millions of Americans casting their votes in one of the tightest elections of modern times.

The result -- which may be known overnight or not for days -- carries major consequences, either making Harris the first woman in arguably the world's most powerful job or handing power back to Trump and his nationalist "America First" agenda.

As voters formed long lines across the country, several bomb threats were reported at polling stations, while police at the US Capitol -- where Trump's supporters rampaged following his 2020 defeat -- arrested a man who smelled like fuel and was carrying a flare gun.

Both the FBI and Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger said the bomb threats, while not credible, appeared to originate from Russia.

Polls show one of the tightest races in modern times between Democratic Vice President Harris, 60, and Republican Trump, 78, who would be the first felon president, the oldest ever to take office and only the second to serve non-consecutive terms.

Harris made a late, dramatic entrance into the race when President Joe Biden dropped out in July, while Trump has ridden out two assassination attempts and a criminal conviction.

Tens of millions of voters were expected to cast their ballots Tuesday, on top of the 83 million who have already voted early, and both candidates put in a final word to try to sway the last undecided voters.

After criss-crossing the country, Harris returned to Washington where she called in to radio stations in swing states and took a few calls personally at a phone bank for voters.

"We've got to get it done. Today is voting day, and people need to get out and be active," Harris told Atlanta station WVEE-FM.

She described her opponent as "full of vengeance. He's full of grievance. It's all about himself."

'IF IT'S A FAIR ELECTION'

Trump voted in Florida near his Mar-a-Lago residence, saying he felt "very confident" and that he wanted to be "very inclusive."

But he aired concerns about the vote count -- heightening fears he will reject the result and cite fraud if he loses.

"If it's a fair election, I would be the first one to acknowledge it," he said.

Trump has repeated baseless claims of election fraud while saying he should "never have left" the White House in 2021.

Casting a ballot in Arizona, Trump backer Camille Kroskey, 62, said she was voting in person due to concerns about voting fraud.

"I want to make sure I drop my ballot where it's going to actually land somewhere," she told AFP.

"Now, will it get counted?" she asked. "I don't know."

US stance on West PH Sea won’t change even with new president — analyst

In perhaps the most crucial battleground state, Pennsylvania, Harris voter Marchelle Beason, 46, said the lines were "way, way, way more" than in the last election.

"We're so divided right now, and she's about peace. And everything that her opponent has to say is really negative," she added.

MAJOR CONSEQUENCES

At the same school, 56-year-old Darlene Taylor, wearing a homemade Trump shirt, said her main issue is to "close the border."

Trump has vowed an unprecedented deportation campaign of millions of undocumented immigrants if elected.

The election is being watched closely around the world including in the war zones of Ukraine and the Middle East.

Harris has vowed to keep up support for Ukraine against Russia's invasion and to put a greater effort in ending the Gaza war, although she has also voiced support for Israel.

Trump has promised a quick end to the Ukraine war, likely by pressing Kyiv into concessions, and has made clear he will give freer rein to Israel, which relies on US support.

"We can fix every single problem our country faces and lead America -- indeed, the world -- to new heights of glory," Trump told his closing rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Harris hammered home her opposition to Trump-backed abortion bans in multiple states -- a vote-winning position with crucial women voters.

Control of Congress is also at stake, with Republicans widely expected to win back control of the Senate.

US election: When will we know who won?

Agence France-Presse

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris named Time 'Person of the Year'

NEW YORK - US President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have been chosen as Time magazine's 2020 "Person of the Year," the publication announced Thursday.

The Democratic pair were chosen ahead of three other finalists: frontline health care workers and Anthony Fauci, the racial justice movement, and President Donald Trump who Biden defeated in November's election. 

Time's magazine cover has a picture of Biden, 78, and Harris, 56, with the subtitle "Changing America's story."

Biden beat Trump by 306 electoral college votes to Trump's 232 to end the real estate tycoon-turned-politician's presidency after one term.

Biden received roughly seven million more votes than his Republican adversary, who is yet to concede, claiming widespread fraud of which there is no evidence. 

Time magazine's award -- handed out annually since 1927 -- honors the person or people who most impacted the news, for better or worse, during the calendar year.

Earlier Thursday, Time named basketball superstar LeBron James Athlete of the Year for his achievements on and off the court.

The 35-year-old Los Angeles Lakers player was honored for battling voter suppression among Black citizens in a year when he won his fourth NBA title. 

K-Pop sensation BTS was named Entertainer of the Year.

Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg was Time's Person of the Year last year, while Trump won in 2016. 

Agence France-Presse

MLB: Nationals invite Biden to throw out first pitch

The Washington Nationals invited President-elect Joe Biden to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day of the 2021 season.

"We're excited to continue the long-standing tradition of sitting Presidents throwing out the first pitch at the home of the national pastime in our nation's capital," the team announced Saturday night.

The "long-standing tradition" has been absent of late. 

President Donald Trump becomes only the second sitting chief executive to not throw out a first pitch on Opening Day at a Major League Baseball game since William Howard Taft began the tradition in 1910. 

Fellow one-term President Jimmy Carter was the other.

The Nationals are scheduled to open the season at Nationals Park on April 1 against the New York Mets.

-reuters-

Biden vows immediate, science-based action on virus

WILMINGTON, US - President-elect Joe Biden vowed Saturday immediate action to contain the United States' coronavirus crisis, signaling science would dominate the national response once Donald Trump leaves the White House.

Biden's pledge, in his first national address since defeating Trump, followed three days of record infections in the United States and came as the nation's death toll surpassed 237,000.

Europe's second-wave woes also deepened, with Greece becoming the latest European nation to enter a lockdown on Saturday and Poland introducing new restrictions on people's movement.

In France, where a dramatic increase in infections has heaped pressure on hospitals, 306 new confirmed fatalities took the national death toll above 40,000.

The United States has long been the worst-hit nation.

Critics of Trump have blamed this on his chaotic response, which has seen him discredit the top US infectious disease expert, discourage face masks and speak at crowded campaign rallies.

At Biden's victory event, which took into account social-distancing guidelines, the president-elect announced top scientists would be appointed to his coronavirus task force on Monday.

"On Monday, I will name a group of leading scientists and experts as transition advisors to help take the Biden-Harris plan and convert it into an actual blueprint that will start on January 20, 2021," Biden told supporters.

Earlier in the day, he had emphasized the urgency he placed on beating the pandemic.

"I want everyone, everyone, to know on day one we're going to put our plan to control this virus into action," Biden said before he had been declared the winner.

Unlike Biden, Trump held massive campaign rallies ahead of the November 3 vote, insisting the US was "rounding the turn" despite the virus surges.

Trump campaigned after contracting the virus himself.

Senior members of his administration have also contracted the virus recently. Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, was the latest to test positive, media said late Friday.

EUROPEAN EPICENTER

Global infections have surged past 49 million, with Europe in recent weeks becoming the new pandemic epicenter.

Under the new measures in Greece, people can only leave home if they make a mobile phone request and receive authorization. 

Essential shops can stay open, including supermarkets and pharmacies.

Hairdressers have also been allowed to stay open, but just for two more days, and they were booked out.

"I want to have my hair done so that what I see in the mirror every morning during lockdown won't cause me sadness," said Petrina, ahead of her Sunday appointment.

The measures follow the imposition of tough restrictions in Italy, France, Ireland and Britain, while Germany and other nations have also imposed new measures.

Britain on Saturday banned entry to all non-resident foreigners coming from Denmark after a mutated version of the coronavirus linked to mink farms was found in humans.

Germany reported record daily figures on Saturday with 23,399 new cases and 130 deaths.

But demonstrators, few of whom wore masks, protested against new restrictions in the eastern German city of Leipzig.

Organizers put the turnout at 20,000 while police said some attacked them after being told to disperse.

"I simply see the collateral damage that these measures cause: the isolation of people, the bankruptcy that threatens them," protester Robert Koehn, 39, told AFP.

Fellow protester Anne, 65, said that "for me there is no virus, they cite the coronavirus crisis as a motive, but there are other things behind this".

Demonstrators and the police have also clashed in parts of Italy and the Czech Republic in recent weeks.

In the mainly Catholic Philippines, home to the world's longest Christmas festivities that start in September, people were trying to get into the festive spirit despite public gatherings being banned and night-time curfews imposed.

"With or without COVID we have to celebrate Christmas whatever it takes, this is a Filipino tradition," said Cecilia Moore, wearing a mandatory mask as she paid 2,500 pesos ($52) for festive lights to decorate her home. 

Agence France-Presse

Investors celebrate Biden winning US presidency

NEW YORK - Investors and financial executives took a big sigh of relief on Saturday after major networks declared Democrat Joe Biden winner of the US presidential election, offering some certainty after days of conflicting reports about who might run the White House next term.

Although current President Donald Trump said he would fight the results in court, Wall Streeters who offered comments felt there was little doubt Biden would ultimately succeed after election predictors including the Associated Press, NBC and Edison Research, upon which Reuters relies, called the presidency for Biden.

"Biden is good news for the markets," Christopher Stanton, chief investment officer at Sunrise Capital Partners, said on Saturday. "We're all so tired of the whipsaw that came with the Trump tweets."

Republicans have filed several lawsuits over ballot counting already and Trump said his campaign will file more. The Republican National Committee has been trying to raise at least $60 million to fund legal challenges brought by Trump, Reuters reported on Friday.

Apart from those battles, investors have been worried about the people Biden might appoint to his Cabinet, and whether the U.S. Senate would go to Republicans or Democrats.

A Republican Senate would offer a check on Biden's appointments, forcing him to opt for more moderate selections. Expected run-offs in two Senate races in Georgia could muddy that scenario.

For now, though, investors said they were happy with the election finally being called after what seemed like unending tension as ballots were counted following Election Day on Tuesday.

"Markets are going to like it because Biden is not going to go too far left," said Jim Awad, senior managing director of Clearstead Advisors. "It’s going to be a centrist government, not a government by tweet."

The financial industry was not reacting in a bubble: major cities from New York to San Francisco erupted in celebration on Saturday. Though Trump undoubtedly has significant support throughout the country, including on Wall Street, 2020 has been a difficult year for the United States.

The coronavirus pandemic has taken a huge toll on the country, killing some 236,250 people so far, while social unrest over the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, has only hardened divisions that already existed.

Many voters were hoping for a decisive election that would offer some calm, whichever candidate they cast ballots for.

JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, who heads the largest U.S. bank and is a leading voice for the financial industry, called for unity and calm.

"Now is a time for unity," Dimon said in a statement. "We must respect the results of the U.S. presidential election and, as we have with every election, honor the decision of the voters and support a peaceful transition of power."

Robert Wolf, a major Democratic donor and former UBS Group AG executive who now runs 32 Advisors, was less demure: "I am ecstatic, relieved and deeply hopeful for the future of this country," he said in a text message.

During his campaign, Biden issued a series of left-of-center policy proposals that made Wall Street cringe regarding taxes and regulations. The proposals were seen as a carrot for progressive voters who preferred other candidates, but few now believe he will actually get them passed, since Republicans may win the Senate and Biden is not showing a landslide win.

As such, it is not clear whether Biden's Cabinet choices will be seen as market-friendly. The picks are important, because some of those officials will likely be involved in economic stimulus packages the White House will have to negotiate with Congress and will have extensive powers to craft Wall Street regulations.

Current US Federal Reserve governor and former McKinsey consultant Lael Brainard's name has been floated as a potential Treasury Secretary, while Biden has already tapped former derivatives market regulator and Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker Gary Gensler for advice on financial regulation.

Major US stock indexes registered their biggest weekly gains since April this week, as investors bet that Biden would win and Republicans would hold onto the Senate, a scenario that could prevent any major tax increases or regulatory tightening that pinches companies.

Nonetheless, investors have worried that the candidates could contest results for weeks or months. If Trump gains traction with his challenges, it could shake asset prices.

"Investors need to be prepared for some volatility," said Jason Ware, chief investment officer at Albion Financial Group. "There is certainly a risk to stock prices if we get bad tweets. The good news is that it would be short-lived and we are changing hands to someone who I believe is a lot more capable."

-reuters-

Twitter flags 'president-elect Biden' posts as premature

Twitter on Friday flagged as premature posts referring to Joe Biden as "president-elect," as the vote count continued in the knife-edge US election with the Democrat leading Donald Trump in several key states.

Tweets referring to the former vice president with the victor's title and his running mate Kamala Harris as "vice president-elect" were tagged with messages saying counts were not yet final.

"Official sources may not have called the race when this was tweeted," read a message below a post from Democratic Coalition co-founder and podcaster Scott Dworkin using the two titles for Biden and Harris.

The notice came with a link to information about the status of the election.

Twitter and Facebook have been scrambling to flag, mask and limit the spread of premature claims of victory or false attacks on the voting process since the polls closed late Tuesday.

"As votes are still being counted across the country, our teams continue to take enforcement action on tweets that prematurely declare victory or contain misleading information about the election broadly," Twitter said.

"This is in line with our civic integrity policy and our recent guidance on labeling election results."

Unfounded claims by Trump regarding the voting process as well as premature claims of victory about either candidate in the race have been flagged or masked, with links provided to reliable sources of information.

Twitter's action made the comments less visible, and users seeking to read the posts were required to click through a warning.

'STRONG MANDATE TO LEAD'

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, on Friday called Biden the "president-elect" of the United States after he pulled ahead in key election results.

"This morning it is clear that the Biden-Harris ticket will win the White House," Pelosi told reporters after Biden overtook President Donald Trump in the potentially decisive state of Pennsylvania.

"President-Elect Biden has a strong mandate to lead," she said.

It is "a happy day for our country. Joe Biden is a unifier, because he is determined to bring people together."

Pennsylvania would be enough to put Biden past the magic number of 270 votes in the state-by-state Electoral College, which determines the presidency.

Biden also took a razor-thin lead in votes counted from Georgia, which Trump until late in the campaign did not consider to be in play.

The Democrat has stopped short of declaring victory but said he expected that he and his vice presidential pick Harris would triumph.

Trump has angrily made unsubstantiated claims of fraud and sought to halt vote counting after prematurely declaring victory himself following the close of polls Tuesday.

Biden's performance came despite projections that Democrats will lose several seats in the House of Representatives, a major disappointment for the party which had hoped to expand its majority.

Pelosi played down the losses but said that the next House election in 2022 "will be a steeper climb" without Trump on the ballot.

The party of the president nearly always loses seats in Congress in the first midterm election.

Agence France-Presse

LGBT+ candidates score series of historic wins in U.S. elections

LGBT+ candidates scored a series of historic wins in the U.S. elections, including Sarah McBride becoming the first openly transgender person to win a State Senate seat.

At least 117 of a record 574 LGBT+ candidates on the ballot had won at the time of publication, nine of them trans, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which backs LGBT+ candidates.

"It's a huge milestone for members of the LGBTQ community," said Stephanie Byers, who became the country's first trans Native American state legislator in the Kansas House of Representatives.

"Gender is no longer the only thing that someone sees when we run for office ... they also realise that we run more broadly, not just on LGBT issues," the 57-year-old retired music teacher told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

While data on other LGBT+ candidates is still emerging, other victors included Ritchie Torres and Mondaire Jones, respectively the first out gay Afro-Latino and Black men elected to Congress.

"Tonight's wins for LGBTQ people of colour and transgender Americans across the country are historic and long overdue," said Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the LGBT+ rights organisation GLAAD, in a statement.

"Their victories represent a leap forward for LGBTQ acceptance and a demand for more of the progress and equality that their very presence demonstrates."

OUTSTANDING VICTORY

McBride, who became the first trans person to address a major party convention when she spoke at the Democrat National Convention in 2016, is the country's highest ranking openly trans official after winning the Delaware State Senate race.

The 30-year-old tweeted that she hoped her victory "shows an LGBTQ kid that our democracy is big enough for them, too".

Veteran human rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, who last year travelled with McBride to Australia and New Zealand, said her election marked "an outstanding victory for trans people".

Other landmark victories included Mauree Turner, who identifies as non-binary, or as neither male or female, and became Oklahoma's first Muslim state representative, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund.

"Conversion therapy and trans students not getting the opportunity to play the sport that they would like to play ... that's the type of things that we're combatting when we show up," said 27-year-old Turner in an interview on Wednesday.

Michele Rayner became the first Black openly LGBT+ woman to be elected to Florida's state legislature, while Shevrin Jones became the state's first Black LGBT+ state senator. Georgia got its first openly LGBT+ state legislator, Kim Jackson.

"Having visible LGBTQ people in positions of political power is crucial to ensuring that LGBTQ people across America are championed," said Eloise Stonborough, associate director of policy and research at Stonewall, Europe's largest LGBT+ organisation.

QUEER SIBLINGS

A National Election Pool exit poll conducted by Edison Research indicated that LGBT+ voters represent 7% of the 2020 electorate, higher than the estimated 4.5% of the adult population.

LGBT+ voters made up 6% of the electorate in the 2018 midterm elections, and 5% in the 2016 presidential elections.

"The more of us that run, the better," said Jabari Brisport, a newly elected New York state senator and the state's first openly LGBT+ Black lawmaker.

"We have to keep pushing and open the door wider and wider for more of our queer siblings to enter politics as well and fight for an agenda that uplifts us as equal citizens like everyone else."

As the 2020 presidential election result teetered on a knife edge, with millions of votes still uncounted, LGBT+ rights groups said the early wins showed the growing political importance of the community.

"Over the last three elections, the share of LGBTQ voters has continued to increase, solidifying our community as a key rising constituency that politicians must court," Human Rights Campaign (HRC) president Alphonso David said in a statement.

"Our issues matter, our votes matter and politicians around the country have taken notice."

Alan Wardle, director of the Global Equality Caucus, a network of LGBT-supporting parliamentarians around the world, said the elected representatives sent out "a strong signal that LGBT+ people belong in public life".

-reuters-

US networks break from live Trump address due to 'lies'

WASHINGTON - Several US TV networks late Thursday halted live coverage of Donald Trump's first public appearance since election night after concluding that the president was spreading disinformation.

Trump unleashed a flood of incendiary and unsubstantiated claims in a 17-minute address, insisting that Democrats were using "illegal votes" to "steal the election from us."

The president spoke as late vote counting in battleground states showed Democrat Joe Biden steadily closing in on victory.

"OK, here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the president of the United States but correcting the president of the United States," said MSNBC anchor Brian Williams, as the network quickly ended its live coverage.

NBC and ABC News also pulled the plug on their live coverage of Trump.

"What a sad night for the United states of America to hear their president say that, to falsely accuse people of trying to steal the election," said CNN's Jake Tapper.

He described it as "lie after lie after lie about the election being stolen," with no evidence, "just smears."

Agence France-Presse

'Worrying calls for violence' prompt Facebook to remove pro-Trump group

Facebook Inc. on Thursday said it had taken down a rapidly growing group where some supporters of US President Donald Trump posted violent rhetoric and baseless claims that Democrats were stealing the election.

On Thursday afternoon, the "Stop the Steal" group, which called for "boots on the ground to protect the integrity of the vote," was adding 1,000 new members every 10 seconds and had grown to 365,000 members in a single day.

"The group was organized around the delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group," a Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement.

She said the move was in line with the "exceptional measures" Facebook was taking during "this period of heightened tension."

Unfounded and debunked claims about the integrity of the US election have been spread on social media by Trump and high-profile Republican accounts and the hashtag #StopTheSteal has gained momentum.

The "Stop the Steal" group had prepared for Facebook to take action, directing new members to an email sign-up page "in the event that social media censors this group."

Another group using the same name but with different administrators, told its members that no threats would be allowed and that they should take precautions like using images with words rather than text. This group, which had more than 2,000 members, also said it would shift to become private in a few days.

Public Facebook groups can be seen, searched and joined by anyone on Facebook, while only members can see posts in private groups.

Facebook has billed groups as community forums for shared interests but watchdog organizations and social media researchers have argued that they can be hotbeds for hyper-partisan misinformation.

"Facebook has been enabling and amplifying the infrastructure that's now being used to attack our democratic process," said Arisha Hatch, executive director of the racial justice group Color Of Change.

Facebook, which normally recommends groups to users that they may want to join based on their activity on the site, last week suspended these recommendations for political groups and new groups around the election.

The now-removed "Stop the Steal" group was run by the Trump action group Women for America First. The non-profit organized protests against COVID-19 restrictions and supported Trump during his impeachment hearing.

On Twitter, one of the Facebook group's administrators, Amy Kremer, said: "The left is trying to steal an election and Social media is complicit," she said. "This is outrageous!"

Facebook's rules ban statements of intent or advocating for violence due to voting, voter registration or the outcome of an election.

-reuters-

2.2 million Facebook and Instagram ads rejected ahead of US vote: FB

PARIS - A total of 2.2 million ads on Facebook and Instagram have been rejected and 120,000 posts withdrawn for attempting to "obstruct voting" in the upcoming US presidential election, Facebook's vice president Nick Clegg said in an interview published Sunday.

In addition, warnings were posted on 150 million examples of false information posted online, the former British deputy prime minister told the French weekly Journal du Dimanche.

Facebook has been increasing its efforts to avoid a repeat of events leading up to the 2016 US presidential election, won by Donald Trump, when its network was used for attempts at voter manipulation, carried out from Russia.

There were similar problems ahead of Britain's 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union.

"Thirty-five thousand employees take care of the security of our platforms and contribute for elections," said Clegg, who is vice president of global affairs and communications at Facebook. 

"We have established partnerships with 70 specialized media, including five in France, on the verification of information", he added.

AFP is one of those partners.

Clegg added that the company also uses artificial intelligence which has "made it possible to delete billions of posts and fake accounts, even before they are reported by users".

Facebook also stores all advertisements and information on their funding and provenance for seven years "to insure transparency," he said.

In 2016, while he was still deputy prime minister, Clegg complained to the Journal du Dimanche that Facebook had not identified or suppressed a single foreign network interfering in the US election.

On Wednesday, President Trump rebuked Facebook and Twitter for blocking links to a New York Post article purporting to expose corrupt dealings by election rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine.

A day earlier, Facebook announced a ban on ads that discourage people from getting vaccinated, in light of the coronavirus pandemic which the social media giant said has "highlighted the importance of preventive health behaviors."

Agence France-Presse

Debunking 3 viral falsehoods about Kamala Harris

As Joe Biden announced that he had selected Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., as his vice presidential running mate, internet trolls got to work.

Since then, false and misleading information about Harris has spiked online and on TV. The activity has jumped from two dozen mentions per hour during a recent week to over 3,200 per hour in the last few days, according to the media insights company Zignal Labs, which analyzed global television broadcasts and social media.

Much of that rise is fueled by fervent supporters of President Donald Trump and adherents of the extremist conspiracy movement QAnon, as well as by the far left, according to a New York Times analysis of the most widespread falsehoods about Harris. On Thursday, Trump himself encouraged one of the most persistent falsehoods, a racist conspiracy theory that Harris is not eligible for the vice presidency or presidency because her parents were immigrants.


“Sadly, this wave of misinformation was predictable and inevitable,” said Melissa Ryan, chief executive of Card Strategies, a consulting firm that researches disinformation.

Many of the narratives are inaccurate accusations that first surged last year during Harris’ campaign to become the Democratic presidential nominee. Here are three false rumors about Harris that continue circulating widely online.

The ‘PizzaGate’ Conspiracy Theory

On Wednesday, a day after Biden announced his selection, the falsehood that Harris is connected to a child-trafficking conspiracy known as PizzaGate was published on the conspiracy-mongering website Infowars, which set off a round of sharing on social media.

PizzaGate hinges on the baseless notion that Hillary Clinton and Democratic elites ran a child sex-trafficking ring through a Washington pizza restaurant. According to the rumors about Harris, she is tied to the conspiracy because her sister was invited by John Podesta, Clinton’s presidential campaign manager, to a “Hillary pizza party” in 2016.

By Friday morning, more than 4,200 tweets discussed the unfounded theory about Harris’ connection to PizzaGate, according to Dataminr, a social media monitoring service.


On Facebook, users in dozens of QAnon groups and pages posted about the rumor. The falsehood reached up to 624,000 people, according to The Times’ analysis. On Instagram, which Facebook owns, 77 more posts tried to spread the lie further.

And on YouTube, a QAnon channel with over 100,000 followers pushed the conspiracy, too.

“Remember, we know what pizza was code language for,” Daniel Lee, a YouTube personality popular in conspiracy circles, told his audience. The video was viewed 30,000 times.

A Facebook spokeswoman, Liz Bourgeois, said in an email Friday that “it’s up to our fact-checking partners to determine which claims they rate, and they take a number of factors into consideration.” She acknowledged that as of Friday afternoon, there were no fact-checks so far on the widely shared posts falsely tying Harris to PizzaGate.

Twitter said Friday that it permanently suspended people associated with QAnon who used many different accounts or tried to evade a previous suspension.

“We deploy a number of tools to add context to and address misinformation,” including applying labels, not recommending tweets and limiting the reach of tweets, a Twitter spokesman, Trenton Kennedy, said.


YouTube said Friday that it was reducing the spread of borderline content on the video site, including QAnon content, but that the video flagged by The Times did not violate its guidelines.

Harris’ Heritage

Falsehoods about Harris’ heritage — in particular that she is “not Black” — were among the most widely spread misinformation that Zignal Labs tracked. Since Tuesday, the argument had been mentioned over 40,000 times, the company found.

“Kamala Harris is not an American Black,” said one tweet that collected 2,300 likes and shares after it was first posted Wednesday. “She is half Indian and half Jamaican. She is robbing American Blacks of their history. Kamala is as Black American as Obama.”

In a Facebook post Tuesday night, Candace Owens, a right-wing commentator, posted a widely shared post questioning Harris’ heritage. “I am SO EXCITED that we get to watch Kamala Harris, who swore into congress as an ‘Indian-American,’ now play the ‘I’m a black a woman’ card all the way until November,” she wrote.

Facebook soon added a fact check to Owens’ post, requiring users to click past a label noting that third-party fact checkers found “this information has no basis in fact.”


Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, was born in 1964 in Oakland, California, a few years after her parents arrived in the United States. According to The Associated Press, Harris has long identified as Black; she was not sworn into Congress identifying only as Indian American. In interviews, Harris has regularly spoken about how her mother, who was from India, raised her as Black.

Owens did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Still, on Facebook, other memes labeling Harris as “Kamala Dolezal” were liked and shared thousands of times, according to the Times analysis. The posts referred to Rachel Dolezal, a former official at the NAACP who was later revealed to be white and was charged in 2018 with welfare fraud.

Whitney Phillips, an assistant professor at Syracuse University who teaches digital ethics, said she was “absolutely not surprised” by the viral misinformation questioning Harris’ heritage.

“Regardless of political party, sexism and racism have long been fixtures in American public life,” Phillips said.

Jussie Smollett


One of the most convoluted lies that has spread on social media involves actor Jussie Smollett and the baseless allegation that Harris is his aunt and knew in advance that Smollett was planning to stage an assault against himself early last year.

According to the unsubstantiated narrative, when the Chicago Police Department and the FBI investigated the alleged assault, Harris appeared in Smollett’s phone records, so she must have been in on the hoax.

The right-wing website True Pundit published an article pushing this argument in November. The article gained new prominence on social media this week, shared nearly 2,000 times on Twitter and reaching 180,000 people, according to CrowdTangle, a tool to analyze interactions across social networks.

A February 2019 article on FactCheck.org concluded that there was no relation between Harris and Smollett, and that evidence of her role in the hoax was nonexistent.

Harris did initially condemn the news of the apparent attack on Smollett, but when police said the assault had been staged, she put out a new statement saying she was “sad, frustrated and disappointed” by the development.

-Davey Alba, The New York Times

Facebook launches US voting information center

SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook on Thursday launched a voting information center as part of its campaign to help millions of voters register for November's US presidential election and counter misinformation.

The hub accessed from the menu on Facebook and Instagram "will serve as a one-stop shop to give people in the US the tools and information they need to make their voices heard at the ballot box," the social media giant said.

It is the latest effort by the platform to prevent a repeat of the online disinformation that marred the 2016 US election.

Facebook said the voter information tool would also help people navigate the changes to voting procedures being brought in by various states due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"It is also important that we help protect the integrity of our elections," the San Francisco-based social media giant said.

Facebook and Instagram users can use the tool to check if they are registered to vote and how to do so if they are not.

The social media group said it would from Thursday add labels to voting-related posts on Facebook and Instagram, after last month rolling them out for politicians.

It is also launching a "Voting Alerts" feature to help state and local election authorities communicate with voters about election-related updates.

"This will be increasingly critical as we get closer to the election, with potential late-breaking changes to the voting process that could impact voters," Facebook said.

"Only pages from a government authority, not the personal page of an individual election official, are eligible to participate in this feature."

Facebook's latest moves come amid concerns over campaigns by governments aimed at influencing elections and public sentiment in other countries through media outlets that disguise their true origins.

State-led influence campaigns were prominent on social media during the 2016 US election and have been seen around the world.

Facebook said the Voting Information Center was another layer in its line of defense against election interference.

"By providing clear, accurate and authoritative information to people, we will continue to reduce the ability of malicious networks to take advantage of uncertainty around the pandemic to interfere with the election.

"We encourage people in the US to use this new resource and make their voices heard by voting this fall."

Agence France-Presse

Biden brands Trump 'absolute fool' for mocking mask use

WASHINGTON - Joe Biden attacked President Donald Trump as an "absolute fool" Tuesday for belittling his election rival over recently wearing a mask, an issue that has become a partisan flashpoint during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Democratic Party's presumptive 2020 presidential nominee had a series of choice words for the Republican incumbent, telling CNN in his first in-person interview since March that Trump has become increasingly erratic.

The interview, conducted in Biden's garden and with social distancing measures in place, followed Memorial Day ceremonies Monday in which Biden wore a mask and Trump was bare-faced.

Trump retweeted a photograph of Biden and an accompanying message that mocked the former vice president for wearing a mask.

"He's a fool, an absolute fool, to talk that way," Biden said. "Every leading doc in the world is saying you should wear a mask when you're in a crowd."

Asked whether wearing a mask projected weakness or strength, Biden chose a different description.

"It presents and projects as leadership," Biden said. "Presidents are supposed to lead, not engage in folly and be falsely masculine."

Trump, who is 73, and Biden, 77, are both at high risk from COVID-19 because of their age.

Trump has refused to appear in public wearing a mask, and many of the Americans who are bare-faced at demonstrations calling for states to immediately reopen are supporters of the president.

"This macho stuff," Biden added, has "cost people's lives."

An hour before the interview aired, Trump questioned why Biden would wear a mask outdoors, in "perfect conditions, perfect weather," while he does not wear a mask in his home with his wife.

"So I thought it was very unusual that he had one on," Trump said at the White House.


Trump has repeatedly mocked Biden as too old or gaffe-prone to wrest the White House from him in November's election. 

Biden said he did not want to engage in name-calling with a president who is all-too-willing to do so, but he did not hesitate to point out Trump's apparent anxiety over slippage in the polls.

"He seems to get more erratic, the more he feels like he's behind the curve," Biden said.

On Tuesday Biden changed the profile image on his Twitter feed to a photograph of him wearing a black mask.

mlm/dw

Agence France-Presse

Biden and Sanders enter key phase in Democrats' race

ST. LOUIS — Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders on Saturday began what amounts to a fresh campaign for the Democratic nomination for president, as the septuagenarians prepare to go head-to-head at the polls for the first time since the field narrowed to two credible candidates.

Biden, the 77-year-old former vice president, spoke to a large crowd of supporters in Missouri, one of 6 states that will hold Democratic primaries on Tuesday, one week after the "Super Tuesday" elections brought about a dramatic reversal of fortunes in his favor.

Standing on an outdoor stage on a sunny day in St Louis, at times wearing his signature aviator sunglasses, the politically moderate Biden savored his spectacular revival in the race for the White House. 

"What a difference a day makes," he exulted. "This time last week I was in South Carolina and the press and the pundits had declared Biden's campaign dead."

"But South Carolina had something to say about that, and then came Super Tuesday. And today there are 11 victories behind us and we're leading both in delegates and national votes."

With the monumental Gateway Arch -- a symbolic entryway to the American West -- in the background, the former vice president mentioned Sanders only indirectly. 

Biden, having gained key backing from erstwhile rivals Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Michael Bloomberg, said he was best positioned to "unite this party," promising not to turn "this primary into a campaign of negative attacks." 

"That will only re-elect Donald Trump if we go that route," he said. 

Sanders, speaking to an equally enthusiastic crowd in Chicago, underlined his differences with Biden, without directly attacking him.

"Joe Biden is a friend," he said. "I have known him for many years. But we have records, we have a different vision. The American people will hear about it."

With the primary now "down to 2 people," the progressive Vermont senator said, "it is important for the American people to understand the differences between us -- in terms of our record, in terms of our vision for the future."

Sanders is a democratic socialist who wears his uncompromising positions -- government-run health care for all, higher taxes on the wealthy and free university tuition -- proudly on his sleeve.

Biden is a centrist who prides himself on his ability to work with Republicans. He is more middle-of-the-road on key issues like health care, where he favors expanding existing insurance programs, and less punitive additional taxes on the wealthy. 

In addition to Missouri, Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, North Dakota and Washington will hold Democratic primaries on Tuesday.

The state of Illinois, where Sanders was speaking, does not hold its primary until March 17. 

That falls 2 days after the next Democratic debate, to be held in Phoenix, Arizona. 

Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is still on Democratic ballots, but trails so badly that she has not qualified for the debate.

That would leave Sanders and Biden in their first head-to-head encounter of the long campaign season.

Agence France-Presse

Bloomberg ends US presidential campaign, endorses Biden

US media tycoon Michael Bloomberg said Wednesday he was quitting the Democratic primary race and instead endorsing front runner Joe Biden for the White House after being snubbed by voters on Super Tuesday.

"Three months ago, I entered the race for president to defeat Donald Trump. Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump -- because it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult," he said in a statement.

The billionaire former mayor of New York spent hundreds of millions of dollars on his presidential run, but failed to win any of the 14 states on offer on Super Tuesday -- the most important day in the Democratic primary season.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

A Biden boom, Bloomberg bust: What the early Super Tuesday returns suggest

WASHINGTON - With the dramatic winnowing of the Democratic presidential field, the 14 nominating contests held on Tuesday largely came down to a single question: Could former Vice President Joe Biden amass enough delegates to slow US Senator Bernie Sanders’ path to the nomination?

As polls closed in the eastern United States, the emerging answer appeared to be "Yes." Polls showed Biden, whose candidacy was buoyed this week by a wave of high-profile endorsements, outperforming expectations.

The Super Tuesday contests offer the biggest one-day haul of the 1,991 delegates needed to win the party’s nomination at its national convention in July, with about 1,357 delegates, or nearly one-third of the total number, up for grabs.

Here are some initial takeaways from Super Tuesday voting.

A BIDEN COALITION

It appeared clear early on that Biden benefited from the last-minute endorsements from former presidential contenders Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar. The Democratic establishment increasingly is coalescing around him as an alternative to Sanders, a democratic socialist.

North Carolina and Virginia were called for Biden immediately when polls closed, with exit polls suggesting Biden was headed for decisive wins.

Those polls suggested Biden was building the broad coalition needed for a presidential nominee. Beyond Biden's longstanding support among African-American voters, he looked to be beating Sanders in both states among white voters who did not graduate from college – a traditional Sanders stronghold.

Perhaps most important for the Democratic race, Biden was easily outperforming Sanders with women voters. More than half of the women in the US now identify with the Democratic Party, according to recent studies.

THE DELEGATE MATH

For Biden, the goal on Tuesday was to draw as near to Sanders in terms of overall pledged delegates to the Democratic national convention as possible. Going into Super Tuesday, Sanders held a slight lead over Biden because of his success in earlier primaries, or nominating contests.

It remained unlikely that Biden would be able to pull even with Sanders. Still, a strong showing might slow Sanders’ momentum enough to allow Biden to catch him in upcoming primaries.

Virginia and North Carolina offered 209 delegates between them, with the delegates awarded proportionally based on the candidates' share of the electorate.

Both Sanders and Biden will finish Tuesday with fewer than 1,000 each, still short of the 1,991 delegates needed to secure the nomination.

A BITTER PILL FOR BLOOMBERG

The result in Virginia is a particularly bitter disappointment for former New York mayor and media mogul Mike Bloomberg, who made winning the state a top priority.

It was the first state where he held a campaign event after announcing his candidacy, and recent polls showed him competitive in the state.

Final vote totals had Bloomberg finishing below the 15 percent threshold needed to win delegates, shutting him out in that state. He appeared to be in slightly better shape in North Carolina.

Even so, such a disastrous showing in what appeared to be winnable states will likely intensify calls for the billionaire, who spent more than $200 million of his own fortune on ads for Super Tuesday, to exit the Democratic race in favor of Biden.

BEATING TRUMP

The exit polls appeared to bolster Biden’s claim that he is best positioned to defeat President Donald Trump in the general election in November.

Polls from North Carolina and Virginia gave him a clear advantage over Sanders among voters who said they would rather have a nominee who can beat Trump than who agrees with them on major issues. In Virginia, for example, 64% of those who prioritized beating Trump backed Biden compared to just 16% for Sanders.

Such results appeared to suggest a growing belief within the party that nominating Sanders would hand Trump a second term.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Biden has strong Super Tuesday showing, Sanders captures biggest prize of California

WASHINGTON — A resurgent Joe Biden rode a wave of momentum to win at least 8 large states on Super Tuesday, but Bernie Sanders won the biggest prize of California to set up a long one-on-one battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Biden rolled to wins across the South, Midwest and New England on the biggest day of the Democratic campaign, as Americans in 14 states voted for a Democratic challenger to Republican President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election.

"They don't call it Super Tuesday for nothing," Biden, the former vice president who had performed poorly in the first 3 nominating contests but broke through with a win in South Carolina, told roaring supporters in California.

"We are very much alive," he said.

Sanders, the one-time front-runner who had hoped to take a big step toward the nomination on Tuesday, was projected by Edison Research to win in his home state of Vermont, Colorado and Utah. Fox News and AP projected Sanders won California.

Edison Research projected Biden the winner in Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia.

More than one-third of the delegates who will pick the eventual nominee at a July convention were up for grabs in the primaries on Tuesday, which provided some clarity at last in a muddled race for the White House.

Without naming him, Sanders took direct aim at Biden during a rally with supporters in Vermont, criticizing his 2002 vote to authorize the war in Iraq and his support for global trade deals that Sanders opposed.

"We're going to win the Democratic nomination and we are going to defeat the most dangerous president in the history of this country," Sanders said.

The results left Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York mayor who spent more than half a billion dollars on advertising, largely out of the running, with his only victory coming in the US territory of American Samoa.

Bloomberg campaign officials said he would reassess whether to stay in the race on Wednesday, but that did not mean he would drop out.

Biden's burst of momentum after his blowout win in South Carolina on Saturday fueled a flurry of endorsements from a flood of prominent party officials and former rivals.

BROAD BIDEN COALITION

Biden accomplished his main Super Tuesday goal of muscling aside Bloomberg and consolidating support from moderates to turn the race into a one-on-one contest against Sanders.

Biden's showing in the Super Tuesday states was fueled by strong support among a broad coalition of voters including women and men, white and black, those with or without college degrees, and those who considered themselves liberal or moderate.

The results were particularly disappointing for US Senator Elizabeth Warren, who finished well behind Sanders and Biden in most states and was trailing them in her home state of Massachusetts.

Edison Research forecast a record turnout of 1.3 million voters in Virginia, well ahead of 986,203 in 2008 and 785,041 in 2016.

Early exit polls by Edison Research showed Biden was winning large majorities of African-American voters in the South, including 72 percent in Alabama, 71 percent in Virginia, 63 percent in North Carolina and 62 percent in Tennessee.

In Virginia, Biden won the votes of more than 4 of 10 white college educated women, compared to about 2 in 10 each for Sanders and Warren.

Bloomberg was a wild card heading into the voting, as he joined the competition for the first time. In early results, he was winning more than 15 percent of the vote, enough to pick up some delegates, in Tennessee, Texas, Colorado and Arkansas.

The moderate Bloomberg skipped the first four contests and bombarded Super Tuesday and later voting states with ads, but saw his poll numbers slip after coming under fire during Democratic debates over past comments criticized as sexist and a policing policy he employed as New York's mayor seen as racially discriminatory.

Biden is trying to build a bridge between progressive Democrats' desire for big structural change and more moderate Democrats yearning for a candidate who will be able to win over enough independents and Republicans to oust Trump.

FRESH MOMENTUM

That effort gained fresh momentum on the eve of Tuesday's voting as moderate presidential rivals Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, endorsed Biden after withdrawing from the race.

The pace of the Democratic race begins to accelerate after Super Tuesday, with 11 more states voting by the end of March. By then, nearly two-thirds of the delegates will have been allotted.

Sanders headed into Tuesday with 60 delegates to Biden's 54 in the state-by-state nominating fight. Sanders managed a virtual tie with Buttigieg in Iowa and wins in New Hampshire and Nevada.

Besides leading in polls in California, Sanders also is ahead of Biden by a smaller margin in polls in Texas. Sanders' strength with Hispanics should pay dividends in that state, where Latinos comprise one-third of the Democratic electorate.

Biden, whose South Carolina win affirmed his popularity with black voters, hoped to win five states where African Americans make up at least a quarter of the Democratic electorate: Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas.

The next contests, on March 10, will be in Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington state.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

US elections: Klobuchar, Buttigieg to join Biden on Super Tuesday eve

DALLAS -- Former Vice President Joe Biden's Democratic presidential bid picked up steam on Monday with the endorsements of two former 2020 rivals - Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar - who planned to join him on the stage at a rally on the eve of the Super Tuesday primary elections

But Biden still faces a challenge from billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg among voters hoping the party will nominate a moderate.

Klobuchar, a senator from Minnesota, will become the third 2020 candidate in as many days to drop out of the race when she announces the suspension of her campaign in Dallas, where she will also publicly back Biden, a Klobuchar aide said.

Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who ended his White House bid on Sunday, also plans to endorse Biden in Dallas, a top adviser said.

Biden is fresh off a resounding victory in Saturday's South Carolina primary and is aiming for a strong showing on Super Tuesday against Senator Bernie Sanders, the national frontrunner and a self-described democratic socialist from Vermont.

The Super Tuesday contests offer the biggest one-day haul of the 1,991 delegates needed to win the party's nomination at its national convention in July, with about 1,357 delegates, or nearly one-third of the total number, up for grabs.

Fourteen states - California, Texas, Virginia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Vermont, Colorado, Utah, North Carolina and Maine - as well as American Samoa and Democrats living abroad cast ballots on Tuesday. (The primary for expatriate Americans is scheduled to run through March 10.)

Bloomberg, a late entrant to the race, will make his ballot-box debut. He is betting the $500 million of his own money he has poured into his campaign will allow him to make up for not competing in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina.

Five candidates - Biden, Bloomberg, Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and US Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii - remain in the running for the nomination to take on Republican President Donald Trump in November's election, down from more than 20 earlier in the campaign.

Bloomberg and Biden have emerged as the main contenders for the votes of moderate Democrats, while Sanders is the progressive front-runner nationally, eclipsing Warren.

BIDEN'S MOMENTUM

Biden's high-stakes triumph in South Carolina, where his campaign had said his popularity with black voters would propel him to victory after early disappointing finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, helped winnow the field.

Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer also gave up his campaign on Saturday night after a third-place finish in the Southern state in which he had invested most heavily.

One of Buttigieg's top fundraisers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some of his supporters planned to donate to Biden's campaign.

Sanders' momentum might not be easily slowed. On Monday, his campaign downplayed the efforts by moderates to present a united front.

"The establishment is nervous, not because we can't beat Trump, but because we will," said Sanders' campaign manager, Faiz Shakir. "And when we do, the Democratic Party will again be a party of the working class."

It was not immediately clear who would immediately benefit from the departures of Buttigieg and Klobuchar. A Morning Consult poll taken Feb. 23 to 27, for example, before Buttigieg exited the race, showed that 21 percent of his supporters named Sanders as their second choice, 19 percent picked Biden, another 19 percent chose Warren and 17 percent favored Bloomberg.

Biden still lags his rivals in spending and organization in Super Tuesday states and beyond, but his campaign said on Sunday it had raised more than $10 million over the preceding two days.

Endorsements of the former vice president from elected officials and community leaders poured in on Monday as Democrats who believe a moderate is the best candidate to defeat Trump tried to circle the wagons around Biden.

Backing from Ohio Democrats including Representative Marcia Fudge and former Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory added to endorsements from Senator Tim Kaine and state House of Delegates Majority Leader Charniele Herring of Virginia. In Colorado, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock has backed Biden. In California, Representative Gil Cisneros is supporting the former vice president.

On Wednesday, Hollywood mogul Sherry Lansing is hosting a fundraiser for Biden featuring Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Supporters of Sanders and Warren also rushed to weigh in for their candidates. The progressive magazine "The Nation" endorsed Sanders, and the women's fundraising organization Emily's List endorsed Warren.

Former President Barack Obama planned to wait until after the primaries to endorse a candidate, a source familiar with his thinking said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

'Mayor Pete' Buttigieg ends improbable US presidential bid

DETROIT -- Pete Buttigieg, who entered the Democratic presidential race as a relative unknown and positioned himself as the future of the party during an improbable rise to the top tier of a crowded field, ended his White House bid on Sunday.

Buttigieg, 38, a former two-term mayor of South Bend, Indiana, an Afghanistan war veteran and the first openly gay candidate to make a competitive run for the US presidency, narrowly won the Iowa caucuses that kicked off the nominating race in February and finished a close second in New Hampshire.

But his early momentum from those rural, mostly white states did not translate into electoral success in the more diverse states of Nevada and South Carolina.

After finishing a distant third in the Nevada caucuses, Buttigieg came in fourth on Saturday in South Carolina, where he won support from just 3 percent of African-American voters.

The centrist Democrat's withdrawal from the race could help former Vice President Joe Biden, a fellow moderate who got a much-needed victory on Saturday and now is looking to wrest momentum from liberal front-runner Bernie Sanders in this week's 14-state Super Tuesday nominating contests.

Speaking in South Bend, Buttigieg said his campaign began its "unlikely journey" with a staff of four, no big email lists and no personal fortune.

"We got into this race in order to defeat the current president and in order to usher in a new kind of politics," Buttigieg told a crowd of supporters. Now, he said, it was time to "step aside and help bring our party and our country together."


In a tweet, Biden said Buttigieg had run a “trail-blazing campaign based on courage, compassion, and honesty,” adding: “This is just the beginning of his time on the national stage.”

Buttigieg had sought to unite Democrats, independents and moderate Republican voters, arguing his status as a Washington outsider could rebuild a majority to defeat Republican President Donald Trump in November's election.

But he faced persistent questions about his ability to win over black voters, a core Democratic voting bloc.

Buttigieg's tenure as South Bend mayor, which ended on Jan. 1, drew scrutiny for a lack of diversity on the local police force and a fatal shooting of a black resident by a police officer. He also lacked Biden's national profile or long-standing relationships with the black community.

HISTORIC CAMPAIGN

Buttigieg would have been the first openly gay major-party presidential nominee in US history. He did not make his sexuality a centerpiece of his candidacy, although his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, a teacher he married in 2018, regularly accompanied him on the campaign trail.

Buttigieg, often referred to simply as "Mayor Pete," promised a departure from the politics of the past. As a "proud son" of Indiana, he argued he could speak directly to voters struggling economically in crucial swing states such as Michigan and Wisconsin that handed Trump the presidency in 2016.

A US Navy veteran who often spoke of his military service and Christian faith, Buttigieg was critical of Sanders' uncompromising liberal proposals, which Buttigieg warned could alienate moderate Democratic voters ahead of "the fight of our lives" to unseat Trump.

At the televised debate ahead of the South Carolina primary, Buttigieg said Sanders' shifting estimates to fund proposals such as a government-run healthcare system for all would doom the Democratic Party in November.

"I can tell you exactly how it all adds up. It adds up to four more years of Donald Trump," Buttigieg said.

Buttigieg had considerable early success in fundraising, proving popular with the Hollywood and big-tech money scenes. He came under fire from Democratic competitors, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, who questioned whether he was beholden to his big-money donors and criticized his ritzy, closed-door fundraiser in a wine cave in California.

His campaign, however, faced tighter purse strings after heavy investments in the first two voting states and raised only $6 million in January. Sanders, by comparison, raised $25 million the same month.

Before Biden's South Carolina win, Buttigieg had argued he was the only candidate who had proven he could beat Sanders in state contests. His campaign had laid out a strategy to get through Super Tuesday contests and focus on later primaries where it believed it had an edge.

That changed as the race remained outsized and questions mounted about possibly non-viable contenders splitting moderate votes to give Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, an easy path to the nomination. A campaign aide told Reuters that Buttigieg was not going to be a "spoiler" who helped Sanders win.

Still, his decision to drop out before Super Tuesday caught some supporters by surprise. Buttigieg spent the day in Selma, Alabama, commemorating a landmark civil rights march in 1965. A big crowd had gathered later on Sunday for the candidate's scheduled event in Dallas when they learned he was no longer coming.

source: news.abs-cbn.com