After a private Oval Office meeting with President Obama, Sen. Bernie Sanders said today he expects to “work together” with Hillary Clinton to defeat Donald Trump while vowing to continue campaigning up to the Washington, D.C., primary next Tuesday.
Sanders arrived at the White House this morning for the meeting with President Obama, two days after Obama effectively declared Sanders' opponent, Hillary Clinton, the winner of the Democratic primary contest.
"I look forward to meeting with her in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump," he said after the meeting.
While Sanders vowed to compete in next week's primary, he promised to carry only his platform to the Democratic convention this summer.
"These are some of the issues that many millions of Americans have supported during my campaign,” Sanders said. “These are the issues that we'll take to the Democratic national convention in Philadelphia at the end of July."
Sanders also thanked Obama and Vice President Biden for not putting their “thumb on the scales” during the Democratic primary, though offered no review of his hour-and-a-half-long meeting with Obama.
Hardly two hours after the president released his Tuesday evening statement congratulating Clinton, Sanders took to a stage in California to inform supporters of his plans to stay in the race until the party's convention in Philadelphia in July.
In perhaps a preview of their meeting today, Obama told attendees at a fundraiser in New York on Wednesday night, “We just ended or sort of ended our primary season,” raising the question of whether he would be able to convince Sanders of the same.
Other top Democratic supporters of Sanders have similarly told ABC News of their readiness to rally behind Clinton.
But the White House maintained Obama would not call on Sanders to drop out of the race and he still has not made his official endorsement of Clinton, which White House officials say is imminent.
"At this point, the president believes that Sen. Sanders has more than earned the right to make his own decision about the course of his campaign," White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday.
Regardless, the conversation was expected to center on shaping a new role for Sanders and his policy proposals in a party establishment roiled by the self-proclaimed Democratic socialist's calls for a political revolution.
Sanders has been outspoken on his issues of disagreement with Clinton, saying he will stand firm on his push for the party to adopt a $15 per hour minimum wage and paid family and medical leave as platform positions.
After his meeting with Obama, Sanders was expected to take a short trip to Capitol Hill to meet with other top Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.
from ABC News: Politics http://ift.tt/1XIl4eu
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