Bernie Sanders hospitalised: will he still run in 2020?

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has been hospitalised after chest complaints, and has undergone a procedure for a blocked artery, his campaign revealed.

The Vermont senator, 78, will be cancelling all campaign events indefinitely, but is said to be in good spirits after a successful procedure to insert two stents following his admission into hospital in Las Vegas on Tuesday night.

“During a campaign event yesterday evening, Senator Sanders experienced some chest discomfort,” said Jeff Weaver, a longtime adviser to Sanders, in a statement on Wednesday.

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“Following medical evaluation and testing he was found to have a blockage in one artery and two stents were successfully inserted. Senator Sanders is conversing and in good spirits. He will be resting up over the next few days. We are canceling his events and appearances until further notice, and we will continue to provide appropriate updates.”

Sanders, a firebrand self-identified socialist, has made a name for himself campaigning for “Medicare for all”, free higher education, and against elites in Washington and Wall Street. He was travelling to attend a gun forum in Vegas, and speaking in front of a crowd of 250 when he apparently said to Ari Rabin-Havt, a deputy campaign manager, “Ari, can you do me a favour? Where’s Ari? Get me a chair up here for a moment. I’m going to sit down here. It’s been a long day here.”

Messages of support soon came in for Sanders.

“Bruce, Team Warren, and I are sending all our best wishes for a speedy recovery to @BernieSanders,” Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote on Twitter, reffering to Bruce Mann, her husband. “I hope to see my friend back on the campaign trail very soon.”

Another of Sanders’ competitors in the Democratic primary, Senator Kamala Harris, tweeted, “If there’s one thing I know about him, he’s a fighter and I look forward to seeing him on the campaign trail soon.”

News that his health may be in jeopardy has led some to question his capacity for the role. “Sanders’ age has been raised as an issue by critics in the past,” writes Molly Olmstead in Slate.

The New York Times notes that many Democratic voters have long been uncomfortable with nominating a candidate in their 70s and “Sanders’s heart difficulties will likely refocus attention on age as a factor in a race where the three leading candidates are in their 70s”.

The newspaper points to a Pew survey from May that found only 3% of Democratic voters thought the 70s were the best age range for a president. It adds: “One of Mr. Sanders’s chief rivals, Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is 76, has drawn attention to his age because of his sometimes rambling discourses and uneven answers at debates.”

However, writing in The Atlantic, James Hamblin moves quickly to dispel inevitable concerns before they proliferate.

“Coronary stenting is one of the most common procedures in the United States... The fact that only one of Sanders’s arteries was stented is likely meaningful. If multiple blood vessels are involved, the disease is usually more serious,” Hamblin writes. “If all goes as well as expected, Sanders would be unable to appear on a debate stage in 12 days - and much less that he would be unable to campaign or perform the duties of the office of the president.”

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The Washington Post says that before the hospital visit Sanders had been “making plans to plow ahead in the key early nominating states”. His team had announced a “hefty” $25m third-quarter fundraising haul and was planning its first TV commercial of the campaign.

However, “it abruptly decided to put off plans for a $1.3 million investment to air the ad in Iowa on Wednesday”, continues the newspaper.

CNBC notes that “the senator had committed to releasing his medical records before the primary voting contests started”, adding: “During his 2016 presidential campaign against Hillary Clinton, the senator released a letter from his doctor saying Sanders was in good health and did not have a history of heart disease.”