MARIANNE WILLIAMSON

Biden's first term shows the irresponsibility of 'casting' a VP by checking identity boxes.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Marianne Williamson, who made an unsuccessful bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, has thrown her support behind former rival Bernie Sanders, appearing at a rally in Texas with the progressive senator. Bernie Sanders has been taking a stand for a very long time, she told the Sanders rally in Austin. Were here and were with Bernie.Sanders appears to be gaining momentum in the Democratic nominating contest after winning in both New Hampshire and Nevada. Williamson, a self-help guru, has a faithful following but failed to gain traction beyond her more devout fans. They now have an additional worry that he may soon be unstoppable in his quest to win the nomination.

The author and spiritual leader has been soliciting donations to pay off her campaign debt since dropping out of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary earlier this month. Supporters received an email from Williamson on Jan. 27 inviting them to participate in a "love and power" seminar to raise money for campaign debt relief. Williamson did not reply to a request for comment from CNBC on the size of her campaign debt. The Federal Election Commission specifies that a candidate may continue to collect funds after suspending their campaign to repay debt. There's no difference between a campaign saying a candidate is "quitting" and "suspending" their campaign, but candidates may use the latter to continue inviting potential donors who can help repay debt, Gross said.

Marianne Williamson suspended her presidential campaign on Friday, just over a week after the author and spiritual adviser laid off her entire campaign staff. After firing her campaign staff on January 2, Williamson issued a statement confirming she was still campaigning, saying she "cannot afford a traditional campaign." "I am not suspending my candidacy, however; a campaign not having a huge war chest should not be what determines its fate," Williamson said. Williamson appeared at the first Democratic presidential debates over the summer, but failed to meet the fundraising and polling thresholds to appear at later debates. So reparations carries an emotional and psychological and even and spiritual force," Williamson told Garrett in June.

But the new Monmouth poll confirms other recent polling suggesting a far tighter race for the Democratic nomination. Sanders and Biden are also viewed favorably by around three-quarters of Democratic voters, but their unfavorable ratings were higher (around one-in-five found each unfavorable). Trump's favorability was the worst among registered voters (compared to the top Democratic candidates), with 43% favorable and 56% unfavorable. The Monmouth University Poll was conducted by telephone from September 23 to 29, 2019 with 1,161 adults in the United States. The results in this release are based on 1,017 registered voters and have a +/- 3.1 percentage point sampling margin of error.

(CNN) - Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson once entertained 9/11 conspiracy theories on a radio show hosted by a prominent "truther" who claimed that the World Trade Center attacks were orchestrated by a "Zionist organized crime outfit." Williamson was a guest on Truth Jihad, a radio show hosted by conspiracy theorist Kevin Barrett. Williamson responded: "So you think that the Zionist organized crime unit were the ones who did 9/11?" Barrett's theories that falsely posit a conspiracy involving Israeli complacency in the 9/11 attacks have deeply anti-Semitic roots. All three have individually pushed and promoted conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11 on their programs, though Williamson did not discuss any theories surrounding the World Trade Center attacks during her appearances, according to a review conducted by CNN's KFile.

(CNN) - Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson posted and then deleted a tweet Wednesday morning that suggested the "power of the mind" could deter Hurricane Dorian from slamming into the U.S."The Bahamas, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas...may all be in our prayers now. Millions of us seeing Dorian turn away from land is not a wacky idea; it is a creative use of the power of the mind. Though she removed the post, Williamson defended herself against criticism on social media. Hurricane Dorian pulverized the Bahamas for two days, leaving the islands in apocalyptic wreckage and devastating destruction. As of Wednesday morning, Hurricane Dorian remains a category 2 hurricane as it heads toward a possible landfall in the Carolinas.

(CNN) - The third round of Democratic primary debates, hosted by ABC and Univision, will take place the second week of September. Presidential candidates have until late August to reach polling and grassroots fundraising thresholds set by the Democratic National Committee. Candidates must receive contributions from at least 130,000 individuals, coming from at least 400 unique donors in 20 or more states. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, billionaire Tom Steyer and author Marianne Williamson have reached the fundraising threshold, but still need to hit their polling minimum to qualify. Steyer has received three of his four necessary polls, Gabbard has two and Williamson has one.

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Marianne Williamson came to the Iowa State Fair on Friday with a simple request: Take me seriously. Democratic 2020 U.S. presidential candidate and author Marianne Williamson speaks at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., August 9, 2019. And love is radical.If elected president, she would not operate a top-down leadership paradigm but instead would co-create with the public. At the fair, Williamson suggested powerful forces were trying to keep her off the debate stage. You are the power.Mark Gerstein of Ames, wearing a t-shirt that read Love Wins, said Williamson is underestimated.

Marianne Williamson made a splash on the stage at Tuesday night's Democratic debate. In one particularly talked-about moment, Williamson appeared to yodel, her voice cracking as she passionately discussed health care. Another instance saw her evoke "Seinfeld" as she dropped a "yada, yada, yada" while discussing gun control. In the three-hour debate, she spoke just nine minutes, but those minutes made an impact. Her dire warning about a "dark psychic force" also generated search interest.

REUTERS/Mike SegarLOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The second debate among Democrats running for U.S. president attracted 18.1 million television viewers across three networks, a record audience for a Democratic primary face-off, NBC News said on Friday. The previous record for a Democratic debate was 15.8 million viewers, set in October 2015. Republican candidates set the all-time record for a primary debate audience in August 2015, when 24 million tuned in for the first performance by Donald Trump in a debate on Fox News Channel. The debate was the second of two with Democratic candidates aiming to challenge Trump. An estimated 15.3 million television viewers tuned in on Wednesday to watch Elizabeth Warren, Beto ORourke and eight other challengers, NBC said.

Sen. Kamala Harris, followed by Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg, was the most-searched candidate on Google in the majority of states by the end of the second Democratic debate Thursday night. For a while, Harris was the top-trending topic in search on all of Google in the U.S. That's a sharp contrast from before the debate, when Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Harris and Andrew Yang were the most-sought-after candidates on the search engine. Harris stood out from the stage of 10 most remarkably during an exchange with former Vice President Joe Biden over segregation and busing. Harris pointed out that Biden was opposed to some types of busing to help integrate schools, to which Biden responded that he opposed the Department of Education's intervention in busing.

Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio rocked his own food theme at his South Florida debut, opting to scoop ice cream, his favorite comfort food, for patrons at a Bonita Springs shop. Ryan is one of two candidates in the race whose writings on mindfulness and meditation give them a jump on the yoga vote. The other, Los Angeles author Marianne Williamson, took debate week as an opportunity to let reporters know how she would not like to be described. Not her occupation: Spiritual guru (or any type of guru), said a whimsical bio her campaign distributed to reporters. It also requested she not be described as Oprahs BFF or Oprahs guru.