Hillary Clinton to become presumptive Democratic nominee

Both Sanders and Clinton had pledged to help as the island’s government tries to restructure $70 billion worth of public debt the governor has said is unpayable.

If Sanders wins the primary in California, America’s most populous state, it would not be enough for him to catch Clinton in the overall delegate count but could fuel his continued presence in the race. She won 29 caucuses and primaries to his 21 victories.

By all objective measures, she and her allies argue that the race is over. Jerry Brown, who overcame a decades-long rivalry with the Clinton family to endorse her last week, many superdelegates expressed a desire to close ranks around a nominee who could defeat Trump in November. Bernie Sanders had about one-third.

A candidate typically is considered the presumptive nominee after locking up enough pledged delegates and super-delegates to win the nomination.

Even without the nomination, Sanders can claim ideological victory. That will be dependent upon superdelegates. He said during an evening rally in San Diego that Democratic leaders should take notice that the “energy and grassroots activism” that will be crucial to the party in the fall “is with us, not Hillary Clinton”. It wasn’t until recently, however, that Clinton began addressing her status as the potential first woman nominee for a major political party.

US Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton inched closer to the party nomination on Saturday, sweeping caucuses in the US Virgin Islands by winning all seven delegates at stake. Polls show Sanders leading Trump by 10 percentage points versus Clinton’s tiny 1.5 point lead.

A robust showing Tuesday could give Sanders a strong closing argument in his pitch to superdelegates. “I know there is a lot of work still going on”.

For Sanders, the long Democratic primary is coming to an end amid feelings of astonishment and regret. Bill Clinton enjoyed high approval ratings in the summer of 2000, but his administration was still facing criticism following the Monica Lewinski scandal.

While those watching the results in Puerto Rico focused on their impact on the race for the Democratic nomination, the focus of many voters on the island was its ongoing economic crisis.

Sanders refuses to say what his goal would be if he does not win the nomination. In a statement, his spokesman Michael Briggs said, “Our job from now until the convention is to convince those superdelegates that Bernie is by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump”. But that could be a tall order, considering he just joined the party to run for president. And, good news for the Sanders camp, Clinton’s tendency has been to lose support as voting nears.

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”. Her campaign has compiled a video tying her to women’s rights movements in American history.

Clinton supporters say it is time for Sanders, the self-styled democratic socialist US senator from New Hampshire, to acknowledge he has lost.

For that reason, the Democratic national committee has echoed the Sanders campaign, saying the superdelegates should not be counted until they vote at the convention in Philadelphia.

Clinton will celebrate Tuesday’s primaries in her home state of NY with a campaign event at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, not far from where her campaign is headquartered.