Senator Bernie Sanders and his presidential ambitions hit a major roadblock as he suffered heart-attack like symptoms and was forced to suspend his campaign “until further notice.”
According to NBC News:
“During a campaign event yesterday evening, Sen. Sanders experienced some chest discomfort. Following medical evaluation and testing he was found to have a blockage in one artery and two stents were successfully inserted,” Jeff Weaver, a senior adviser to the Sanders campaign, said in a statement.
“Sen. 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,” Weaver added.
Sanders had been in Las Vegas for a candidates’ forum on gun safety co-hosted by MSNBC. Sanders will no longer participate in the forum, the campaign said.
But it isn’t just events that are being cancelled. The Sanders campaign also cancelled a major 1.3 million dollar ad buy in Iowa that was set to begin running later this week.
The campaign is not conceding that this health scare could spell the end of the campaign. They told NBC that the cancellations were merely a ‘postponement” and inferred that they would be back on track when Sanders and his doctor are confident he can return to the trail.
Sanders has been running in the “top tier” of candidates so far, although he has seemed to have run into another roadblock in the form of Senator Elizabeth Warren who has seemed to steal much of his thunder on issues that made Sanders popular during the 2016 campaign that saw him give a major challenge to Hillary Clinton.
whether or not this will permanently sideline Sanders and his campaign remains to be seen. For his part, Sanders has promised to release his health records upon returning to active campaigning.
