DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Latest on the 2020 presidential campaign (all times local):
2:20 p.m.
Bernie Sanders says he’ll support the Democratic nominee for president no matter who emerges from the field of contenders. The Vermont senator is trying to preach unity at a time when some of his supporters feel the political establishment is out to get them.
Sanders tells a crowd in Indianola, Iowa, that if he isn’t the nominee, “we will support the winner and I know that every other candidate will do the same.”
Sanders says the Democratic primary field is, in his words, “united in our understanding that we must defeat Donald Trump.”
His comments come a day after one of his highest profile supporters, Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, led a crowd at a concert for Sanders in booing Hillary Clinton. That followed Clinton’s suggestion that Sanders didn’t do enough in 2016 to help her, as the Democrats’ presidential nominee, beat Donald Trump.
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1:25 p.m.
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is skipping her signature “selfie” line so she can pack in more events into the final weekend before the Iowa caucuses on Monday.
Her campaign announced at a rally in Cedar Rapids that the Massachusetts senator had to dash to Iowa City and couldn’t stay for pictures. For months, she has stayed after events to pose for selfies with all who wanted one. Sometimes that’s lasted for hours.
Warren has taken 100,000-plus selfies during more than a year of campaigning. The snippets of conversation she has with those who pose alongside her are a centerpiece of her campaign.
Staying behind for pictures in Cedar Rapids was Bailey, Warren’s golden retriever. Bailey has campaigned across Iowa while Warren was in Washington for President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate.
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12:45 p.m.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s high-profile endorsers are emphasizing his perceived general election strength against President Donald Trump and his “coattails” for other Democrats as they make late appeals before Monday’s Iowa caucuses.
One of those Biden supporters is John Kerry, the 2004 presidential nominee and former secretary of state and senator. Kerry is making an appeal for moderation, telling would-be caucusgoers in North Liberty that 2020 isn’t just about the presidency but about down-ballot races.
Kerry says the 2020 election is “about restoring to another branch of government a sense of duty.”
With the Republican-controlled Senate nearing the expected acquittal of President Donald Trump in his impeachment trial, Kerry says the November vote is also about “holding accountable those senators who put party, president and personal power over the Constitution and our country.”
Kerry calls former Vice President Biden “a candidate with coattails.”
And there’s support also from Harold Schaitberger, the president of the International Associated of Firefighters. He says Biden has a unique appeal among Democrats from working-class, union households.
An Iowa congresswoman, Abby Finkenauer, notes that Biden had helped her flip a Republican-held congressional district in 2018. Finkenauer is one of dozens of first-term members of the House for whom Biden campaigned or endorsed in 2018.
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12:20 p.m.
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg wants Iowa voters to “do something different” when they hold their leadoff presidential caucuses on Monday.
The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, says recent criticism by 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton of her Democratic rival in that race, Bernie Sanders, is a reminder of tensions that remain in the party.
Buttigieg says he “didn’t much enjoy as a Democrat living through the experience of 2016.” He says he wants to make sure that “2020 resembles 2016 as little as possible.”
Buttigieg is headlining seven campaign events on the closing weekend before the first contest of the 2020 race.
He said during a stop in Waterloo that questions about lingering ill will between Clinton and Sanders supporters point out the need to rally behind a candidate who can unite the party.,