Not just for Pete Buttigieg, for a lot of these campaigns as they look forward to super tuesday when a third of the delegates are at stake. Sources inside the campaign and close to the campaign tell me they looked at the situation and believed there was no path forward for Pete Buttigieg. He was not going to be able to compete in a way that would make him more likely to be the democratic nominee and one of the big concerns that he had, according to a source i spoke to, is he would stand in the way of a potential stronger candidate being able to cut into any kind of delegate lead that senator Bernie Sanders would be able to accumulate on super tuesday. Right now the way that the situation stands is that Bernie Sanders stands to accumulate a huge haul. What buttigieg had been saying on the campaign trail for some time, for several days now, has been that the goal his goal and that the of other candidates must be to limit that haul as much as possible. Buttigieg believe sanders inflexible approach is not the right one. At the end of the day thats what it came down to. On saturday aides talked to reporters and said they believe in order to be successful on super tuesday they needed to be able to compete everywhere. They needed to be able to get that 50 15 delegate threshold in as many places as possible. The problem is, when they really looked at the situation, they knew that was not going to be likely. Particularly when they looked at what happened in South Carolina, they saw buttigieg underperformed his polling in a way that would not bode well for him on super tuesday. All of that played a role. He made that decision today as he was in ambassador ambassador. He was in georgia, georgia meeting with former president jimmy carter and his wife. And then redirected his plane from texas going to south bend now tonight to, were hearing, suspend his campaign for president. David, are you surprised . No. I think it was inevitable. Pete buttigieg, what people learned about him, if nothing else, is a guy that thinks with great clarity and knows how to read a spreadsheet. The fact of the matter is, it wasnt there for him. His campaign has been quite remarkable in that he began with an obscure small mayor from midwest city, openly gay man to run for president. He had a plan and that plan was to win the Iowa Caucuses and leverage that into perhaps winning the New Hampshire primary and hoping that would give him a good look at nevada and South Carolina. Well, he did win the delegates in iowa but didnt get the boost off it because the iowa results got reported days late. In New HampshireAmy Klobuchar had a great debate going into New Hampshire. Had a mini surge and he ran a close second. Really when those two things happen, a lot of air went out of Pete Buttigiegs balloon. Of course, the great challenge has always been, could he attract minority voters. And particularly black voters in South Carolina, which was always going to be a big test for him when he didnt get the escape velocity he needed from iowa and New Hampshire, i think this day was inevitable. The real question to me now is, will he endorse a candidate . Will he endorse Vice President biden tonight . I think thats what ill be listening for. As abby pointed out, the reason thats important is there are districts in this country where joe biden is straddling viability where Bernie Sanders may be strong but joe biden could get delegates if he gets over 15 of the vote. With buttigieg out of the race, he should be able to breisch breach that goal in several of these districts where he might not have had buttigieg not gotten out. Will he take the extra step and endorse him . Well have to see. There is still go ahead. Just to jump in here. Some reporting to the point david is making, a source told me today that there has been some staff level contact between the biden and buttigieg campaigns today but that we should not expect an endorsement tonight but clearly as david as said, things are sort of seeming to sort of lean in this direction where the candidate that seems the most likely to put up the strongest fight against Bernie Sanders would be a joe biden and another sign is biden and buttigieg have traded voice mails after this news broke tonight. They have not been able to connect. But thats definitely something we are keeping an ear to the ground on. As david says, were getting to the point where all of these candidates need to decide, do they put their weight behind one person and i think thats going to be a key moment if or when, perhaps, that happens between now and super tuesday. As abby has been reporting, it sounds like buttigieg was concerned about sanders candidacy specifically, but given so many states have early voting, especially super tuesday, like california, millions have already voted, do you think this is going to hurt sanders in a couple days from now . Youre right. California started voting on february 3rd. Some other states have early voting as well. That dissorts the picture a little. Whats interesting is in a state like california, the percentage of absentee ballots, mailin ballots that have been returned is much lower than it has traditionally been. That suggests people are waiting to make a judgment about who theyre going to vote for. They wanted to see how this race played out. You know, i expect youll see a lot of late ballots come in, and certainly at the polling place youll see people factoring in buttigiegs exit, factoring in what happened in South Carolina. The reason this is so important, ana, is it may be there will be no majority for any candidate going into the Democratic Convention in 2020 in july. So, the issue here is, can you hold down sanders number as the frontrunner if euro posed to him and keep and can biden stay close to him . And so a decision like this may make that more possible. David, its interesting, though, because the president seems to be suggesting this is the establishment against an antiestablishment candidate like Bernie Sanders. Hes already tweeting about his reaction to Pete Buttigieg leaving the race, saying Pete Buttigieg is out, all of his super tuesday votes will go to sleepy joe biden. Great timing. This is the real beginning of the dems taking bernie out of play. No nomination again. Whats your reaction . This is a big project of the Trump Campaign and the president himself. They want to drive a riff between democrats and speak to those very devoted sanders supporters and suggest perhaps the process was rigged against him. The rules are clear you have to have a majority. Four years ago Bernie Sanders argued against the notion if you had a plurality, didnt get a majority, you should be in a nominee. But hes in a different position now. So, trump is trying to stir that pot. Believe me, if sanders were nominated, his solicitude for bernie would disappear pretty quickly. Its clear what theyre trying to do. I do think theres a danger for joe biden. If he allows himself to become merely a status quo candidate. There are a lot of young add ylists supporting Bernie Sanders because they feel strongly about climate change, income inequality and some things that demand attention in this country. And just saying, im here to stop Bernie Sanders is not a compelling message. Biden was very good last night talking about the absence of decency and humanity and empathy, which are his strengths. And i think those are valueladen arguments, not tactical arguments. He should stick to those arguments if hes going to get to where he wants to go. People respond to idealistic valueladen arguments not tactical arguments. Weve learned buttigieg and biden have traded voice mails. They have not spoken. I wonder about the bloomberg factor in all of this. While buttigieg steps out, bloomberg is still there. He hasnt been on the ballot yet. Theres this conventional thinking he and biden will also be taking votes from the same pool out there. How does this, i guess, impact that . It has impacted the calculus. A source told me it did impact Pete Buttigiegs decision because it changed the map for him in a lot of ways. The bloomberg factor has added yet another candidate into this race by siphoning votes away from the nonBernie Sanders category, which has made it much more difficult for him and for other candidates to get a minimum of 15 in a lot of these states. And on top of thats not even thats in part because he has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in all of these states drowning out any other messages that could possibly exist. I think what it does at this moment is creates a sense of urgency for a lot of these other candidates. They have to make some tough decisions about whether or not there is value in remaining in this race. Our jeff sdmrel azeleny reporte is an argument for Amy Klobuchar to remain on the minnesota ballot, for example. That is her home state. This is potentially poised to do very well there. If she does do well there, she could take a majority of delegates or a large portion of delegates such has it would cut into Bernie Sanders delegate lead. There are some tactical decisions people are making about what value can i add in terms of the delegate map and where am i subtracting . I think a lot of these other states, Pete Buttigiegs home state is not on the super tuesday clralendar. When were looking at the big delegate hauls in texas and california, it becomes a big problem for a lot of these candidates if there are four or five of them accumulating votes but not accumulating any delegates. What that will mean is whoever does accumulate more than 15 or if Bernie Sanders is at 30 , he could get a lions share of the delegates and then he could run away with this nomination. That is the concern some of these other candidates have on a strategic level right now. You mentioned klobuchar, while she might stay in this race in order to win minnesota, perhaps, Bernie Sanders won minnesota last time around, 2016 when he was up against hillary clinton. We also have Elizabeth Warren and massachusetts, in that same boat, right, where shell be competing in her home state come super tuesday. I wonder about her candidacy because weve talked about in the past when you look at the demographics and polling, some of the same demographics who are supporting Pete Buttigieg were the same people that were splitting that level of support with Elizabeth Warren. Do you think she, too, would see a boost out of this . Yes. They were competing for in particular College Educated white voters. She might pick up a point or two here. Both she and Amy Klobuchar are faced with a reality they have not finished higher than third in any of these contests. They did poorly yesterday. Elizabeth warren has more encouragement from some of the National Polling but not enough to suggest that she would be really competitive moving forward. And i think some people are going to have to make tough assessments come wednesday morning, not the least of which is Michael Bloomberg. Hes invested 500,000 in this race. Its very possible bloomberg will finish a distant third on super tuesday. He pronounced himself as a candidate running to ploy a center left alternative to the sanders candidacy. It was based on the belief biden would fail coming out of the first four contests. Now that that hasnt happened, hell have to sit down on wednesday morning, see where hes at. If he finishes well behind biden, if its worth investing further in his campaign or if he might throw in with biden in this campaign. A lot of very tough decisions will be made, i support, in the next few days. Pete buttigieg is leading the way but others will have to make similar decisions. Tom steyer ended his Campaign Last night. Thats right. So, Pete Buttigieg out, how are other campaigns responding . We have reaction next. Plus, buttigieg is expected to speak live in the next hour from south bend, indiana. Well bring that to you live right here in the cnn newsroom. Yes yes. Yes. Yeah sure. Yes yes. Yeah, yeah no problem. Yes. Yes, yes a thousand times yes discover. Accepted at over 95 of places in the u. S. Discover. Whoh no, that looks grossit. What is that . You gotta try it, its terrible. I dont wanna tray it if its terrible. Its like mango chutney and burnt hair. No thank you, i have a very sensitive palate. Just try it hey guys, i think we should hurry up. If you taste something bad, you want someone else to try it. Its what you do. I cant get it out of my mouth if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. Its what you do. Dog, dog, dog. Stay two nights and get a free night for your next stay. One night, two nights, free night. Book now at bestwestern. Com. Free night. woman no matter what business you are in, Digital Transformation never stops. 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You expect this will be good news for joe biden, who has been struggling to consolidate what you might call the anttiBernie Sanders vote in the democratic primary. This will help clarify for democratic voters who maybe dont want to support Bernie Sanders, who is going to be the strongest option for them and obviously this could not come at a better time for joe biden as he rides this wave after his victory yesterday in South Carolina. A victory much larger than many people predicted, and certainly most of the polling predict the. I dont know if you can hear behind me, but the crowd of supporters who are awaiting biden here in norfolk, virginia, are singing along singing aint no stopping now and that gives you the buyant feeling. They now have the opportunity to appeal to people who were maybe looking at former mayor Pete Buttigieg and now this opening to choose someone else. Its an open question as to whether buttigieg will endorse biden. As you mentioned, they have traded voice mails. Buttigieg has been outspoken that he believes sanders is not the right choice in this campaign. Our cnn reporting also suggesting that that was a consideration for him, that he did not want to help sanders on super tuesday consolidate delegates in those contests. So, well see if he is explicit about coming out and supporting biden or maybe just vouching his support for a more modern diction for the party. Certainly a very upbeat mood here as we await the former Vice President. Well see if he comments on the former mayor of south bend, Pete Buttigiegs decision. Well keep you updated from here in norfolk, virginia. Rebecca buck, well check back. Thank you. Want to take you to paul in los angeles. Youre standing by at an upcoming sanders event. What are you hearing about all of this from the Sanders Campaign . Reporter ill tell you right now, ana, this he are ramping up for a next level rally at the convention center. Well have public enemy, chucky and others and well hear from Sara Silverman and hear from Dick Van Dyke. More on that in a second. The Sanders Campaign blanketing california right now. They say theyve knocked on a million doors, theyve made 5 million phone calls. This effort to get a bigger crosscut of voters, they believe if they can do that here in california, this could deliver a heavy blow to their rivals. So, Dick Van Dyke has gone to twitter, hes 94 years old and telling older voters why they should vote for sanders. I dont think age really is a matter except for experience. And the years hes put in. I cant understand why, according to the polls, hes having problems with older citizens, like me. Why wouldnt an older citizen vote for somebody with that kind of a record and with that kind of experience and honesty and trust . It just doesnt make sense to me that hes not getting my generation. And i want to urge my generation to get out and vote for him, pl