Senator Warren's departure from the presidential race means there are no major candidates left who are women. Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has failed to qualify for any recent debates and won just two delegates on Super Tuesday, but she told The Hill she has no plans to drop out.
REP. TULSI GABBARD: Everywhere we go, we're continuing to draw large numbers of people who are really hungry for the truth, for strong leadership and a candidate that's raising the issue that I am about the need for a commander-in-chief who will have the courage to bring about a sea change in our foreign policy and these wasteful regime change wars, new Cold War, nuclear arms race, all of which are not making us any safer, and actually get our priorities straight.
AMY GOODMAN: This comes as Sanders and Biden are fiercely competing for votes in half a dozen states in upcoming primaries: Michigan, Washington, Missouri on March 10th; a week later, Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio.
For more now, we go to Raquel Willis, journalist and activist, former executive editor of Out magazine. She endorsed Elizabeth Warren, as she's joined us previously to talk about. And in Berkeley, California, we're joined by Norman Solomon, co-founder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org, which is supporting Bernie Sanders. His latest column for Common Dreams headlined "A Profound and Historic Question for Elizabeth Warren: Which Side Are You On?"
We want to welcome you both to Democracy Now! Raquel Willis, let's go first to you. You're a major supporter of Senator Warren. She has just dropped out. Your thoughts on her run and her withdrawal?
RAQUEL WILLIS: Absolutely. I think that Senator Warren had a great run. I think that all of us who supported her, not to speak for other folks, but just from what our conversations have been about, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to support a once-in-a-lifetime candidate, and that we stick behind everything we did. We have no regrets about supporting her, her policies and her vision and her outreach. I think she did a phenomenal job, as well, with outreach to particularly thought leaders of marginalized communities. But it's definitely very sobering, very disheartening, but after Super Tuesday, I don't think that it came as a surprise at all to many of us.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to go back to Senator Warren's press conference Wednesday, where she addressed the issue of sexism.
REPORTER: And I wonder what your message would be to the women and girls who feel like we're left with two white men to decide between?
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: I know. One of the hardest parts of this is all those pinkie promises and all those little girls who are going to have to wait four more years. That's going to be hard. " Gender in this race, you know, that is the trap question for every woman. If you say, "Yeah, there was sexism in this race," everyone says, "Whiner!" And if you say, "No, there was no sexism," about a bazillion women think, "What planet do you live on?" I promise you this: I will have a lot more to say on that subject later on.
AMY GOODMAN: Raquel Willis, if you can respond to Senator Warren on sexism?
RAQUEL WILLIS: Yeah, I mean, I definitely understand that for a lot of people, they don't kind of think about or want to think about and confront how sexism plays a part in everything that we do. I mean, the patriarchy is everywhere. And so, I have to be clear. I think what Senator Warren, all things being equal with male candidates, with her liabilities, because every candidate has liability, I think she would have had a different run if she had a different gender experience. And so, we have to continue to confront those issues. I think a lot of it is about political education that needs to happen on the ground about all of these systems of oppression, so people understand what implicit bias really is, how that played a part in who determined who was electable and who was not in this race. At the end of the day, I will always feel like and know in my heart that Senator Warren was the most capable, most effective and most impactful candidate in this race.
AMY GOODMAN: Raquel Willis, what about her decision, at least yesterday, not to throw her support to either Biden or Sanders? And I want to also ask where you're headed in terms of your support.
RAQUEL WILLIS: Yeah. So, I respect her decision not to make a formal endorsement just yet. I think that there's so much volatility right now. And when I think about the base and the folks that I know, there are people more like me, who supported her, who were more progressive. There are people who would be considered more moderate but appreciated her pragmatic approach to progressive policies and ideals. And so, I think that you know, I don't think that an endorsement would necessarily go the way that many Bernie supporters think that it would go. I don't think that that shakeout would happen exactly the way that they think it would. I also think that she has to consider what her best chance at being impactful in politics and being impactful in this race is, and maybe that means not weighing in until the convention, until we get a little bit closer down the road and see what can happen.
As well, let's be clear, you know, I think that, yes, we say it's neck and neck between Bernie and Biden, and that's great, but there are a lot of things that I think the Sanders campaign is reckoning with and they need to get a grip on. Particularly for me, I'm very concerned about the approach to black voters, particularly in the South. You know, the news came out yesterday that Sanders was forgoing a stop in Mississippi to go to Michigan. And I think that that has really concerned a lot of folks who were hoping that there would be a better push towards black Southern voters and black voters in general. And so that concerns me.
So, I get it. I understand why she hasn't endorsed. I think, for me, it's, at the end of the day, always about values and policies. And so, if we're thinking about the vision, the most progressive vision that I would like to see in the world and many of the folks that I am in community with, that vision is you know, if we can't have Warren, then I think it is time to rally around the policies and the vision that Bernie is putting forward.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to Norm Solomon right now. Norm, you just wrote a piece. You're national coordinator of RootsAction.org, which is supporting Bernie Sanders. And your piece is about pushing Senator Sanders to support Bernie Sanders -- Senator Warren to support Bernie Sanders. You're saying, "A Profound and Historic Question for Elizabeth Warren: Which Side Are You On?"
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