Hillary Clinton wins DC primary, as she meets with Sanders

Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

Sanders wants to leverage his endorsement of Clinton to make sure she keeps steering in the leftward direction he has nudged her during the primary campaign, and his statement suggested he was optimistic that would be the case. “It’s not a surprise that the American people are skeptical of all of us in political life”.

But even as the final results were being tallied, Clinton and Sanders met for almost two hours at the Capital Hilton, just a few blocks from the executive mansion they both hoped to occupy next year.

According to both the Associated Press and CNN, Sanders and Clinton both met privately at the Capital Hilton in Washington last night.

“The two discussed a variety of issues where they are seeking common ground: substantially raising the minimum wage; real campaign finance reform; making health care universal and accessible; making college affordable and reducing student debt”, Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said in a statement. However, Sanders showed no indication of conceding or endorsing Clinton.

At a news conference before the Washington meeting, Sanders said he would also demand changes to make the Democratic nominating process more equitable, including replacing the Democratic National Committee leadership, letting independents take part in the voting and eliminating superdelegates, who are unelected and are free to support any candidate.

The polling stumble comes as Trump has spent the better part of June fending off criticisms from Democrats in addition to members of his own party – related to his heritage-based criticism of a federal judge, his renewed call for a Muslim travel ban, and lingering resistance to his nomination for president. “We will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate”, Sanders said last Tuesday.

But compare this to ABC/Washington Post polls from the last time both parties had a contested nomination, and it becomes clear that many Americans see 2016 as a contest of who they hate least.