After losing to Hillary Clinton in Tuesday's New York primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) took an unscheduled trip back to Vermont to "recharge." Sanders did not travel with the press.
And before polls closed in New York, @BernieSanders boarded a plane in State College, PA for Vermont, leaving his entire press corp behind.
— Danny Freeman (@DannyEFreeman) April 20, 2016
When he landed in Burlington, Sanders said that he still believes that he can win the race.
Meanwhile, there's mixed messages coming out of the Sanders campaign. One senior advisor said that the campaign will assess their situation after next week's primaries in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania; but Sanders' campaign manager insisted on MSNBC that the senator would not be dropping out any time soon.
This seems newish for now from @taddevine, via AP: campaign will see how it does in Penn, Md, Del, RI and CT and then "assess where we are."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 20, 2016
WATCH: Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver tells @SteveKornacki they're going all the way to the convention. https://t.co/HKKMi1P60i
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) April 20, 2016
Regardless of what Sanders is doing, taking a surprise trip to Vermont is not the best optics for his campaign. Sanders is not doing well in the (albeit extremely limited) polling of the upcoming states. This could be the beginning of the end for Sanders.