US President Barack Obama formally endorsed fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton for president on Thursday, describing himself as eager to get out and campaign for her, days after she gained the delegates needed to secure the party’s White House nomination.
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US Senator Elizabeth Warren was all smiles as she left a meeting at Hillary Clinton’s home in Washington on Friday.
In the face of a mathematical loss and despite a meeting with Obama Thursday, Clinton’s Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders has clung fast to his place in the race.
Obama defeated Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary and she went on to serve as secretary of state in his first term.
“I will be meeting, as I understand it on Tuesday night with Secretary Clinton, and I will get a sense from her about the nature of the Democratic platform”, he said, naming issues like income inequality, health care and student loan debt as top issues on the agenda for him.
The progressive Senator’s support for Clinton was anticipated, a political move saved for after the President’s own endorsement earlier that day.
“I don’t think there has ever been someone so qualified to hold this office”, Mr Obama said in a video released by the Clinton campaign. I’ve seen her toughness. Ms Clinton has repeatedly said she chose “not to keep” some 30,000 emails her lawyers deemed personal.
Sanders, 74, who would continue till the last primary in Washington DC next Tuesday, told reporters that he would work with Clinton, 68, to defeat Trump.
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, reacted quickly on Thursday, tweeting that Obama’s endorsement means he “wants four more years of Obama-but nobody else does!”
Trump was highly critical of Obama’s endorsement.
While Mr. Sanders fell short of blocking Mrs. Clinton from becoming the presumptive nomination, his impact on the Democratic race has been profound. “I think he brings a lot to the table for discussion that we’ve all been talking about and that we all want”.
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Clinton’s argument on Trump, the aide said, will be that he says different things depending on who he is talking to, the aide added, noting that while he talks up his respect for women, he also said in 2004 that pregnancy can be an “inconvenience” for employers. “We’ll build on the progress we’ve made and win a brighter future for this country that we love”, Obama says.
