Bernie Sanders officially endorsed Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, capping off a contentious presidential primary and solidifying the former secretary of state's hold on the Democratic Party.
"I have come here to make it as clear as possible as to why I am endorsing Hillary Clinton," Sanders said while standing next to Clinton at an event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. "This campaign is not really about Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders. This campaign is about the needs of the American people and addressing the very serious crises that we face," Sanders said. "And there is no doubt in my mind that as we head into November, Hillary Clinton is far and away the best candidate to do that." Sanders did not formally suspend his campaign, however, for procedural reasons related to the upcoming Democratic National Convention. When he first took to the stage, Sanders touted the success of his campaign, noting that he garnered 1,900 delegates during the primaries "far more than almost anyone thought we could win," Sanders said. But Sanders conceded, "Secretary Clinton goes into the convention with 389 more pledged delegates than we have and a lot more super delegates." "Secretary Clinton has won the democratic nominating process. And I congratulate her for that," Sanders said to a cheering crowd in a city and state he won by wide margins."She will be the Democratic nominee for president, and I intend to do everything I can to make certain she will be the next president of the United States." The event will help to fuse two wings of the Democratic party together that, despite their real differences, seem to be closer together than their counterparts across the aisle. Many of Trump's primary challengers have yet to endorse him. Sanders attacked Trump several times during his speech, comparing the Republican candidate's stances to Clinton's. "While Donald Trump is busy insulting Mexicans and Muslims and women and African Americans and our veterans, Hillary Clinton understands that our diversity is one of our greatest strengths," Sanders said. But he didn't shy away from noting the dissension that surfaced between himself and Clinton during the primaries. "It is no secret that Hillary Clinton and I disagree on a number of issues, that is what this campaign has been about," Sanders said. "This is what democracy is about." "There was a significant coming together between the two campaigns and we produced by far the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party," he added. After embracing Sanders, Clinton took to the podium to thank him for endorsing her and for energizing Democratic voters during his campaign. She then focused on positions she and Sanders both champion raising the minimum wage, helping college students avoid debt and implementing tougher restrictions on Wall Street. "I can't help but reflect how much more enjoyable this election is going to be now that we are on the same side," Clinton said. "Because you know what we are stronger together," she said, employing her campaign slogan. "And now with your help, we are joining forces to defeat Donald Trump and win in November," she said. Trump quickly responded to the endorsement with a flurry of tweets. "I am somewhat surprised that Bernie Sanders was not true to himself and his supporters. They are not happy that he is selling out," one read. He left an open invitation to Sanders supporters to join his camp. Sanders' decision to stay in the race has baffled many and alarmed others, who worry he might help Trump by fracturing the Democratic Party. But this weekend's meeting of the Democratic Platform Committee showed that in defying norms, Sanders notched real victories and advanced his so-called "political revolution." Sanders and Clinton are not particularly close, and they have not seen each other face-to-face since a private meeting at a Washington hotel last month. But they have been on the same side of political fights before. Never as ideologically pure as his stereotype suggests, Sanders backed Clinton's health reform plan when he was a congressman in the 1990s, even though it fell far short of his favored single-payer plan. Sanders appeared on stage with Clinton at an event supporting the effort in Vermont. "Thanks for your commitment to real health care access for all Americans," Clinton wrote underneath a photo of the two of them from 1993. They overlapped in the Senate for only two years, but it was enough time to serve together on the Health Committee and team up some legislation, including successful green jobs training legislation dubbed The Sanders-Clinton amendment. Clinton donated $10,000 to help Sanders get elected to the Senate, through a PAC. And he praised her as "one of the brightest people in Congress" when President Obama chose her to be secretary of state. Related: Democrats Advance Most Liberal Platform Ever But whatever relationship they had was tested during the primary as both campaigns accused the other of underhanded tactics and unfair attacks. The tension culminated in early April, when Sanders declared of Clinton, "I don't think you are qualified" to be president. He walked back the statement, but the damage was done, and the line popped up in some of Trump's stump speeches. And it reflected the bombs Sanders continued to lob at Clinton long after it was clear he would lose the nomination. Since voting ended in June, Sanders has eased himself into supporting Clinton. First he acknowledged he would not be the nominee, then he said he would vote for Clinton and on Tuesday finally suggested others should too. It's a much longer route to unity than Clinton took in 2008, when she conceded the race just four days after Obama secured the necessary delegates. The idea for Tuesday's event was derivative of 2008, when Clinton and Obama appeared together for the first time after the primaries in the town of Unity, New Hampshire. Clinton's campaign is hoping Sanders can serve as a bridge to progressives and young people, whom Sanders consistently won with margins as high as six-to-one throughout the primary. Related: The Latest in the Veepstakes But his most concrete assist may come in New Hampshire, where Sanders dominated in the primary. Sanders won the Granite State by 22 percentage points, giving him the largest win in the history of the state's Democratic primary. That outcome rattled Clinton's campaign, but it ended up presaging little. For the rest of the primary, Sanders found it impossible to win outside of caucus states or ones where whites made up at least 70 percent of the vote. Unity has been slow but steady in the 34 days ago since Sanders lost the nomination. On Monday, three progressive groups that either endorsed or were sympathetic to Sanders announced support for Clinton. "We urge progressive activists across America to support Secretary Clinton for president, join the fight to defeat Donald Trump," the political arm of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, whose co-chairs backed Sanders, said in a statement. Negotiations are ongoing between the Clinton and Sanders campaign about exactly what role he will play and how much he will campaign for his former rival, but Sanders has said, "I'm going to do everything I can to defeat Donald Trump."
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WASHINGTON -- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she doesn't want to think about the possibility of Donald Trump winning the White House, and she predicts the next president - "whoever she will be" - will have a few appointments to make to the Supreme Court.
In an interview Thursday in her court office, the 83-year-old justice and leader of the court's liberal wing said she presumes Democrat Hillary Clinton will be the next president. Asked what if Republican Donald Trump won instead, she said, "I don't want to think about that possibility, but if it should be, then everything is up for grabs." That includes the future of the high court itself, on which she is the oldest justice. Two justices, Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer, are in their late 70s. "It's likely that the next president, whoever she will be, will have a few appointments to make," Ginsburg said, smiling. She didn't sound as though she is preparing to step down soon and shows no signs of slowing down. Ginsburg said she has been catching up on sleep since the court finished its work last week before a busy summer of travel that will take her to Europe and, as is her custom, to see as much opera as she can fit in. In the wide-ranging interview, Ginsburg reviewed the just-ended term during which she lost her best friend on the court and, partly as a result, was on the winning side of most of the high-profile cases. Justice Antonin Scalia died in February, depriving his conservative allies of a reliable vote and leaving eight justices to decide nearly five dozen cases. President Barack Obama has nominated Judge Merrick Garland for the ninth seat, but Senate Republicans have refused to hold a hearing or vote on Garland's nomination, arguing the next president should have the right to name Scalia's replacement. Even if the Senate were to confirm Garland after the election, the court probably would hear three months of cases without him, Ginsburg said. And if there's no action in a post-election, lame-duck session of Congress, the vacancy could last the entire term, she said. She said court majorities this term moved to shut down tactics used by opponents of abortion and of affirmative action in higher education in two major cases. Ginsburg said she doesn't expect to see any more such cases after the court upheld the use of race in college admissions in Texas and struck down Texas abortion-clinic regulations that the state said were needed to protect patients. "It seemed to me it was a sham to pretend this was about a woman's health," rather than about making it harder to get an abortion, Ginsburg said. She disputed reports that the court is taking on only relatively unimportant cases while waiting for a ninth justice. "It isn't so. We haven't selected them with a view to dodging challenging cases. We take them as they come to us," she said. But she did suggest that the court probably would not take up a major challenge to the death penalty any time soon. She joined Breyer's opinion a year ago that called for considering outlawing capital punishment. "There are only two votes so far to have asked for it so I don't think it's likely, if there is such a challenge, that it would get four votes to grant cert," she said, using court shorthand. It takes four justices to vote to hear a case, or grant certiorari. Looking back over the term's cases, Ginsburg said Scalia's death essentially broke a tie in the affirmative action case, which ended with a 4-3 decision in favor of Texas' admissions plan. Justice Elena Kagan did not take part because she earlier worked on the case when she served in the Justice Department. Ginsburg wrote a short separate opinion in the abortion case to complement Breyer's majority opinion. "I fully subscribed to everything Breyer said, but it was long, and I wanted something pithy," she said. "I wrote to say, 'Don't try this anymore.' " She said she misses the colorful, outspoken Scalia, whom she described as charming. "The public got the wrong impression of him," she said. Among the many pictures and mementos in her office is one of the two of them atop an elephant in India many years ago. Without him, she said, the court is "a paler place." But she thinks she and her colleagues did well to divide 4-4 in only four cases, including one that effectively killed Obama's plan to help millions of immigrants who are living in the country illegally. Another consequence of Scalia's death was an increase in the number of dissenting opinions written by Justice Clarence Thomas, she said. Thomas wrote 18 dissents. Justice Sonia Sotomayor was next, with eight. "Thomas always wrote a lot of dissents, but I think he was kind of making up for Scalia not being here. He wrote so many," she said. |
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