On Friday morning, he indicated on MSNBC he would vote for Clinton in November.
Advertisement
A brief moment of unity did come at the beginning of the meeting, when members hailed dramatic tactics employed this week by House Democrats to press for votes on gun control.
“What I am trying to do now is, number one, to do everything I can to defeat Donald Trump”, he said.
During the interview, Sanders didn’t address the status of his campaign.
“Think of what this country has had to go through since its inception, since we had slavery and discrimination, what we’ve done to the Native American people, the prejudice against the Irish, the Italians, the Jews”, Sanders said.
Bishop, like many other Sanders supporters at the speech concedes that she will likely vote for Hillary Clinton, if only to try to prevent Donald Trump from wining the presidency.
Some of the state’s 16 pledged delegates declined to attend, said Shyla Nelson, who was among those who stayed away. “I’m going to do everything I can to prevent that”.
In response to a question about the United Kingdom vote Thursday to exit the European Union, Sanders said he worries about the “breakdown in worldwide cooperation” that took shape after World War II.
Clinton earlier this month clinched the delegates required to carry the Democrats’ banner against Trump.
When asked if his decision to remain in the race hindered Clinton’s chances in the general election, Sanders said, “You talk about disunity, I talk about people in the political process and wanting to have a government and party that represents all of us”.
He described the former secretary of state as “very intelligent”, saying that Clinton has had to fight “a lot of sexism” and that she’s far ahead of Trump in command of policy.
“Election days come and go, but what is much more important is that political and social revolutions continue”, he said.
But Sanders dismissed the idea that he should withdraw from the race. He implicitly acknowledged one of the top Clinton campaign criticisms: That he was underexposed to the gritty American reality as a white senator from an overwhelmingly white state. “I hope that he can influence the convention because obviously his message resonates with many people”.
The rally is part of a two-day swing through New York state that included a visit Thursday to New York City.
The new phase the Sanders campaign embarked on this week is all about making clear what he’s after. Sanders’ campaign manager has previously said there was no active effort to flip superdelegates, and Sanders himself gave another sign that he recognized the end was near when he told C-SPAN that it doesn’t “appear” he would be the nominee.
Deliberating late into the evening, the group considered the document’s language on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, an issue that has divided Democrats.
Advertisement
“My job right now as a candidate is to fight to make sure that the Democratic Party not only has the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party, but that platform is actually implemented by elected officials”, he said.
