Updated at 3:49 p.m.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has suspended his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, bringing to a close his relentless and dogged pursuit of the presidency on a platform of progressive ideals for health, income and equality.

Despite a promising start for Sanders in the primary season and strong support from young people, Vermont's junior senator had faded in recent weeks, beginning with a disappointing Super Tuesday showing on March 3.
The slide continued into Tuesday’s primary in Wisconsin, a contest Sanders was expected to lose to former vice president Joe Biden, now the presumptive Democratic nominee. Sanders won that state's primary in 2016 during his unsuccessful bid for the nomination against Hillary Clinton.

The U.S. House on Friday signed off on a $2 trillion relief package meant to provide emergency assistance to individuals, businesses and states coping with the coronavirus outbreak.

The bill, which cleared the Senate on Wednesday, passed the House by voice vote and was signed by President Donald Trump later Friday.

House leaders had hoped to approve the legislation without calling many members back to the Capitol. But after Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) threatened to derail the proceedings if a quorum was not present, many lawmakers scrambled to return.

Welch was not among them.

"Peter is trying to respect the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] public health guidelines prohibiting large gatherings, so he will not be traveling to DC unless a roll call vote is called and he is needed by leadership to pass the bill," spokesperson Lincoln Peek wrote in an email Friday morning. "Peter strongly supports the bill and expects it to pass by voice vote today."

Gov. Phil Scott on Friday urged President Donald Trump to utilize the Defense Production Act to manufacture ventilators and other "critical equipment and supplies."

In a letter sent to Trump shortly before 2 p.m., Scott wrote that Vermont was "particularly concerned about being able to secure enough ventilators for critically ill patients."

The Defense Production Act allows the president to force businesses to take action in support of the national defense.

"Please, Mr. President, use the DPA to order the expedited production of ventilators, and other essential supplies," Scott wrote. "Doing so will help us save many American lives."

Updated at 5:05 p.m.

A massive federal relief package could direct nearly $2 billion to Vermont, according to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

The $2 trillion bill, approved late Wednesday by the U.S. Senate, is intended to shore up the economy and provide direct relief from the coronavirus pandemic. It passed by a vote of 96 to zero, with Leahy and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) voting in the affirmative. The U.S. House is expected to sign off on it Friday with a voice vote.

The stimulus package — the largest of its kind in U.S. history — includes $1,200 checks for most Americans, an expansion of unemployment benefits, support for major industries and small businesses, and grants to hospitals and state governments.

Vermont's two U.S. senators both played prominent roles in the bill's drafting and passage.

As the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Leahy negotiated the spending provisions in the legislation, as well as those in two previous coronavirus relief packages. He worked to apply a small-state minimum funding formula to a $150 billion provision intended to support state and county governments, his office said. As a result, Vermont is slated to receive $1.25 billion through the program.

During a campaign livestream Sunday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) railed against a $1.8 trillion package meant to prop up the economy and deliver relief from the coronavirus pandemic.

"I do have to say that I was really stunned to read aspects of the Republican bill that has been proposed," he told his viewers.

But an hour earlier, when that same bill came up for a key vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Sanders was nowhere to be seen. Unlike most of his colleagues, who were in Washington, D.C., Sanders was back home in Vermont, preparing to address supporters from his Burlington campaign office.

Republicans needed 60 votes on Sunday to advance the bill, which would provide $1,200 cash payments to most Americans, extend unemployment benefits, and bail out businesses, states and local governments. The procedural vote ended in a 47-47 tie. Vermont's other U.S. senator, Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), opposed it.

Updated at 5:16 p.m.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is reconsidering his role in the presidential race, campaign manager Faiz Shakir said in a written statement Wednesday morning.

"The next primary contest is at least three weeks away," Shakir wrote. "Sen. Sanders is going to be having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign."

In the meantime, Shakir continued, the senator "is focused on the government response to the coronavirus outbreak and ensuring that we take care of working people and the most vulnerable."

Asked by a CNN reporter at the U.S. capitol on Wednesday for more details about the state of his candidacy, Sanders said, “Anybody who suggests that at this point we are ending the campaign is not telling the truth.”

Later on Wednesday, Sanders erupted at a group of reporters when asked again about his campaign. “I’m dealing with a fucking global crisis,” he said, adding, “Right now, I’m trying to do my best to make sure that we don’t have an economic meltdown and that people don’t die. Is that enough for you to keep me busy for today?”

The remarks came a day after former vice president Joe Biden defeated Sanders in Florida, Illinois and Arizona, widening his lead by at least 133 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Biden now has 1,147 pledged delegates, and Sanders has 861.

In recent days, several states have delayed primaries in response to public health concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. Puerto Rico is currently scheduled to hold a primary on March 29, and Alaska, Hawaii and Wyoming are slated to vote April 4.

The Sanders campaign has suspended all television and digital advertising for the time being in order to conserve resources, according to spokesperson Mike Casca.

In an email to supporters Monday morning, Shakir was blunt. “No sugarcoating it, last night did not go the way we wanted,” he wrote. “And while our campaign has won the battle of ideas, we are losing the battle over electability to Joe Biden.”

According to Shakir, Sanders and his wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, plan to return to Vermont after he casts votes on a coronavirus relief package. “Once there, they’ll begin holding conversations with supporters to get input and assess the path forward for our campaign,” Shakir wrote.
As Seven Days reported this week, the outbreak has complicated Sanders' hopes of staging a comeback after falling behind on Super Tuesday. "He's gotta figure out how he wins something," said Mark Longabaugh, who served as a senior adviser on Sanders' 2016 campaign.

Though Sanders has not publicly indicated he would drop out of the campaign, he also has not vowed to fight on to its conclusion. Often in politics, statements that a candidate is reassessing his or her role in a race are followed by the candidate’s withdrawal.

On Tuesday night, Sanders delivered remarks from his campaign office in Washington, D.C., outlining several policy proposals to address the coronavirus crisis. Those included a $2,000 monthly payment to every American, free healthcare for the duration of the outbreak and stronger enforcement measures to crack down on price gouging.

For the second week in a row, Sanders did not immediately respond to the day’s election results.

They greeted each other with an elbow bump and discussed their personal hygiene strategies. They were asked whether they would order a national lockdown or deploy the military to fight a disease. Their every cough and face-swipe drew notice.

For a time at Sunday’s Democratic presidential debate — broadcast from an audience-free studio in Washington, D.C. — nothing seemed normal. With a global pandemic sweeping through the United States, former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) sought to meet the gravity of the moment and offer a contrast to President Donald Trump, whose response to the spread of coronavirus they criticized.

“We need unprecedented action right now to deal with the unprecedented crisis,” Sanders said.

“We're at war with a virus,” Biden said. “In a war, you do whatever is needed to be done to take care of your people.”

It didn’t take long, however, for the candidates to return to more familiar terrain, with Sanders arguing that, under his "Medicare for All" plan, Americans would be better prepared to fight the outbreak. “Let’s be honest and understand that this coronavirus pandemic exposes the incredible weakness and dysfunctionality of our current health care system,” he said.

Speaking from Burlington on Friday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made his case that the unfolding coronavirus pandemic has exposed the "absurdity" of the country's economic and health care systems. 

"In this moment of crisis, more and more people understand that we need fundamental changes to our economy, we need fundamental changes to our heath care system," he told reporters at Hotel Vermont, where he has delivered remarks every day since Wednesday.

On Thursday, Sanders compared the pandemic to a world war and called for proportional emergency response. Friday's comments signaled that the Democratic presidential candidate sees coronavirus as a chance to broaden the appeal of "Medicare for All" and other proposals that his opponents for months have cast as too radical.
"If this isn't a red flag for the current dysfunctional and wasteful health care system, frankly, I don't know what is," Sanders said.

The coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe is "on the scale of a major war," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Thursday, calling for swift action aimed at protecting the vulnerable from the fallout.

"If there ever was a time in the modern history of our country when we are all in this together, this is that moment," Sanders told reporters at Hotel Vermont in Burlington. "Now is the time to come together with love and compassion for all, including the most vulnerable people in our society who will face this pandemic from a health perspective or face it from an economic perspective."

Sanders and former vice president Joe Biden both heavily criticized President Donald Trump's handling of the epidemic following his prime time address Wednesday night in which he announced a ban on travelers from Europe. Each spoke as lawmakers on Capitol Hill scrambled to put together a broad aid package and canceled a scheduled U.S. Senate recess.

Updated at 4:17 p.m.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Wednesday afternoon that he would continue his fight for the Democratic presidential nomination — at least through Sunday's debate in Arizona.

Speaking to reporters at Burlington’s Hotel Vermont, Sanders conceded that he was “currently losing the delegate count” to former vice president Joe Biden, who has emerged in recent weeks as the prohibitive frontrunner.

“Last night, obviously, was not a good night for our campaign from a delegate point of view,” Sanders said, referring to his losses Tuesday in Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi and Idaho. As of Wednesday afternoon, Biden had claimed at least 860 delegates compared with 710 for Sanders.

The senator also acknowledged that he was “losing the debate over electability," saying that many voters had told his campaign that they supported his policies but believed Biden was better suited to take on President Donald Trump.

“Needless to say, I strongly disagree with that assertion, but that is what millions of Democrats and independents today believe,” he said.