The California presidential primary is on Tuesday, home to the largest number of pledged delegates at stake for either Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.
Advertisement
All signs point toward a negative campaign as Clinton accuses Trump of being temperamentally unfit to serve and the NY billionaire charges Clinton has a dark past with shades of corruption and a weak record as President Barack Obama’s first-term secretary of state. White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters the president was waiting for New Jersey and California to vote on Tuesday before weighing in.
Though Obama has not expressed a preference for Clinton or Sanders publicly, the president said last week in IN that he expected “there’s going to be plenty of time for me to step in and campaign” ahead of the general election.
Clinton added, “And do I think it will make a very big difference for a father or a mother to be able to look at their daughter, just like he can look at their son and say you can be anything that you want to be in this country including president of the United States”. “I think that the issue is, first of all, our focus right now is running and winning right here in California”, Sanders said. In a letter to fellow Senate Democrats, Sanders said the House bill to create a federal control board and allow some restructuring of the territory’s $70 billion debt would make “a awful situation even worse”.
Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said the campaign’s job is to convince the superdelegates that the Vermont senator is “by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump”.
Sanders, who is relying on a win to California to give his campaign a new burst of momentum, has maintained that the Democratic convention will be contested and that, with the support of superdelegates, he has a chance to win the nomination.
But Ms Clinton had already won New Jersey, South Dakota and New Mexico, according to U.S. networks, and was leading Mr Sanders by a substantial margin in California.
On Monday, Clinton noted the timing has symbolic weight: Tuesday marks eight years since her concession speech and endorsement of Obama after their 2008 primary showdown.
Polls suggest a matchup with Trump could be close, with Clinton ahead by just 2 points in the RealClearPolitics polling average, though Democrats are hoping the former secretary of State can increase her margin as the party unites behind a single candidate. But Obama had more votes and more delegates and superdelegates were rallying around the clear choice of Democratic voters.
Clinton is holding her fire on Bernie Sanders.
She would be the first woman nominated for president by a major USA political party.
On Monday in Long Beach, Calif., Clinton said she was on the brink of a “historic, unprecedented moment” but urged voters to still get out and vote.
Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said they were pushing supporters and volunteers to “stay at this” as California, New Jersey, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and New Mexico hold nominating contests. But since the start of the AP’s survey in late 2015, no superdelegates have switched from supporting Clinton to backing Sanders.
Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of IL says Donald Trump’s comments about a USA federal judge of Mexican heritage are un-American and he can not support the presumptive presidential nominee. With superdelegates, Clinton has 2,357 delegates to Sanders’ 1,556 delegates.
“If we can win, and win big here in California and in the other states, and in Washington D.C., we are going to go into the Democratic convention with enormous momentum”, Sanders told listeners during a rally outside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Mr Trump has said Judge Gonzalo Curiel can not be impartial in a legal case involving the businessman because his parents were born in Mexico and Mr Trump wants to build a wall along the border.
Republicans had appeared unified after Trump vanquished his last opponents about a month ago.
In Sacramento, one Sanders supporter’s view of Trump suggested Clinton’s best hope of unifying the party may be the NY billionaire.
Analysts say Americans should not expect an uplifting contest between Clinton and Trump. Trump, a real estate developer, has regularly stirred up controversy on the campaign trail.
Advertisement
“I’m gonna do everything I can to unify the Democratic party, and I certainly am going to be reaching out to Senator Sanders and hope he will join me in that”, she said.
