By Alexander Burns and
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Michael R. Bloomberg ended his campaign for president and endorsed former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday, concluding that his own path to the Democratic nomination had evaporated after he spent hundreds of millions of dollars and won no states on Super Tuesday.
After courting moderate voters across the map and briefly rising to a prominent place in national polls, Mr. Bloomberg’s candidacy unraveled in just a few weeks: His numbers plunged after a debilitating clash with Senator Elizabeth Warren in a debate last month, and much of his support appeared to flee to Mr. Biden over the past few days.
Mr. Bloomberg, who was elected mayor of New York City as a Republican before becoming one of the Democratic Party’s biggest financial backers, is said to be weighing his plans to spend heavily for Mr. Biden and other Democrats in the 2020 general election.
According to a person briefed on his deliberations, Mr. Bloombergreached the decision to withdraw from the race on Wednesday morning, after meeting with his inner circle of advisers at the Upper East Side townhouse that is the headquarters of his political and philanthropic empire — several miles away from the Times Square campaign office where in just a few months he assembled an enormous team of aides in a late-starting bid for the presidency.
But the likelihood that he would exit the race was already apparent on Tuesday night, as election returns showed Mr. Bloomberg falling into third place or worse in states he had once hoped to win outright. He carried only one contest, in American Samoa.
MỪNG CHO NGUYỄN ĐẠT THỊNH HOUSTON ĐÃ ĐỘI QUẦN VIẾT BÀI CA TỤNG BLOOMBERG ĐÃ KIẾM ĐƯỢC KHÁ NHIỀU CHÁO BÀO NGƯ THUM THỦM./-TCL
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Mr. Bloomberg’s aides told political allies late on Tuesday that he would reassess his candidacy in the morning, and acknowledged that the picture emerging from the March 3 primaries was not an encouraging one. They began informing some of his top supporters of his intention on Wednesday morning.
Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Biden spoke by phone on Wednesday morning, a person briefed on the call said. Shortly after Mr. Bloomberg announced his exit, Mr. Biden posted an appreciative tweet saying he would be counting on Mr. Bloomberg’s help to defeat President Trump.
