Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who lost to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary race, said he “hoped to endorse her,” “but at his moment, we are not quite yet there.”
Mr. Sanders was responding to a statement by Vice-President Joe Biden who said Mr. Sanders has promised to endorse Ms. Clinton. “I spoke to Joe three weeks ago. I said, right now my hope is that we can reach an agreement and I hope it happens,” Mr. Sanders said, adding that his team and Ms. Clinton’s campaign managers were thrashing out an agreement on the Democratic platform.
‘Working with her campaign’
“We are working with Secretary Clinton’s campaign. We have got around 12-13 million votes in the primary. What they want to see is….moving toward making public colleges tuition free, towards a universal health care ... these are the issues that we are working with Secretary Clinton. We hope that we could be successful in this,” Mr. Sanders said.
Mr. Sanders also responded to repeated claims this week by the Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump that he and Mr. Sanders were on the same page on trade. “Bernie says all nasty things about me … but I know what he thinks inside, about Hillary. He hates her [Ms. Clinton]. And trade is one thing we are in complete accord. He has been saying that we are being ripped off. I have been saying that we are being ripped off. We have been saying this for years,” Mr. Trump said.
I differ with her but don’t hate her
“Trump is lying as he always does. No, I don’t hate Secretary Clinton. I have known for her 25 years and I have a lot of respect for her. We have disagreements over issues. But to say that I hate her is absolutely untrue,” said Mr. Sanders, in an interview.
Mr. Sanders indicated that he would campaign for Ms. Clinton though he did not commit himself to that. Asked whether he would make speeches seeking votes for Ms. Clinton, Mr. Sanders said: “I will do everything that I can to see that Donald Trump is defeated.”
Mr. Sanders said he and President Barack Obama disagreed on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) when they met a few weeks ago. The Washington Post has reported that Mr. Obama leaned on Democratic leaders to reject the proposal to oppose the TPP in the party platform. “This country will have deep gratitude for President Obama for his leadership. But on this issue [TPP] we have a fundamental disagreement. TPP is a continuation of the disastrous trade practices we have been following,” said Mr. Sanders.
