There's a narrative out there that after South Carolina, Dem donors and leaders forced consolidation of the race and unification behind Biden, depriving voters of a competitive primary to deny Bernie the nomination. That's both true and not true, so let's go for a thread. 1/x

The bulk of the party for whom Bernie was absolutely the last choice was not settled on Biden, and gave everyone a lot of looks. Buttigieg was the primary beneficiary. Warren got a lot of looks too. After Iowa, even Klobuchar got a surge of money, media and enthusiasm. 2/x

But then, two things happened. One, Biden finished a stronger second in Nevada than expected, as Buttigieg couldn't take advantage of IA and NH momentum. And then, Biden crushed South Carolina. 3/x

4/x at this point in the race, neither Klobuchar nor Buttigieg had any money to keep going, and they were both polling mid single digits in Super Tuesday states. Their campaigns were over for all practical purposes.

5/x at that point, Buttigieg and Klobuchar had two choices: stay in the race they had zero chance of winning and be blamed for a split field that could allow Bernie Sanders to win, or drop out, maintain good grace with the establishment, and unite behind the strongest alternative

6/x and that was Joe Biden, who a) had a polling lead ahead of Bloomberg entering Super Tuesday, and b) had not been roasted alive on national TV by one Elizabeth Warren.

7/x after South Carolina there were only four viable candidates: Bloomberg, Biden, Bernie and (barely) Warren, who was counting on reaching viability in large states as a cause for continuing.

8/x the idea that Klobuchar and Buttigieg were forced to act against their own self-interest by a donor class eager to stop Bernie isn't a fact based conclusion. Sure the donor class was eager to stop Bernie. But B and K shared that same interest and they had zero shot themselves

9/x the fact that they dropped out to support Joe isn't some grand conspiracy. It was the only choice for them that made sense from both an ideological and a career standpoint. They weren't obligated to stay in the race so Bernie could have a split field.

10/x the much more interesting question is, would that same consolidation have happened with such urgency if Warren had been leading the field instead of Bernie? I don't think so, because Warren didn't center her campaign on crushing the Democratic establishment.

11/11 again though, that's just speculation. What's fact, though, is that Biden became the nominee not because of a grand conspiracy, but because he was the last viable non-Bernie candidate standing, and the majority of the party was not going to vote for Bernie Sanders.