Sen. Cory Booker, who was seeking to win the Democratic Party’s nomination to run for president in 2020, has dropped out of the race, he announced on Monday.
“I got in this race to win, and I’ve always said I wouldn’t continue if there was no longer a path to victory,” Booker said in a statement announcing his exit, the New York Times reported.
The senator from New Jersey explained that campaign cash was an obstacle to his winning the race.
“Our campaign has reached the point where we need more money to scale up and continue building a campaign that can win — money we don’t have, and money that is harder to raise because I won’t be on the next debate stage and because the urgent business of impeachment will rightly be keeping me in Washington,” Booker said.
Upon his announced exit from the race, President Donald Trump tweeted out a sarcastic statement about Booker, claiming within the posting that he never saw the candidate as a threat.
Really Big Breaking News (Kidding): Booker, who was in zero polling territory, just dropped out of the Democrat Presidential Primary Race. Now I can rest easy tonight. I was sooo concerned that I would someday have to go head to head with him!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2020
“I can rest easy tonight. I was sooo concerned that I would someday have to go head to head with him!” Trump wrote in his tweet.
Several users on social media took Trump to task for his statement, with many pointing out that his immature tweet seemed like it was more suited for a child to write than the commander-in-chief.
Trump’s sarcasm celebrating Cory Booker dropping out of the presidential race is really lame. It’s like a mean girl tweet from high school except Trump is like sooo much more like immature omg.
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) January 13, 2020
I am SO sorry that Trump’s grandchildren will forever be ashamed of the legacy that he is leaving them as the Worst And most criminal President in our History! #No3
— Marilyn Perkins (@Mommypies) January 13, 2020
The president* of the United States once again does something on social media that children get suspended from school for…
— DrJ_3Club (@DrJ_3Club) January 13, 2020
This looks like something a child would tweet
— phillip armstrong (@phillipgarmstro) January 13, 2020
Booker didn’t garner big numbers throughout his presidential run. In a Quinnipiac University poll from last month, Booker took in about 3 percent of support from Democratic voters. According to RealClearPolitics tracking of his polling data, Booker never got higher than 6 percent support.
Ahead of the Iowa caucuses, four candidates appear to be in the “top-tier” level of competitiveness — former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.