Obama endorses Hillary Clinton for president following Sanders meeting

“Dependent on how Secretary Clinton comes down on many of these major issues will determine how closely we can work with her”, he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation”. He said he would compete in the in Washington, D.C., primary on Tuesday, but noted his interested was largely in pushing for statehood.

Clinton declared victory over Sanders on Tuesday, having captured the number of delegates needed to become the first female nominee from a major party.

“Our goal must not be to allow politicians, Donald Trump or anyone else, to divide us”, Sanders said outside his Washington headquarters, telling reporters he will continue to “fight as hard as we can” to transform the Democratic Party.

Sanders requested the Oval Office meeting with Obama, who has held off an endorsement until after the primary season is over.

The situation has put Obama, the outgoing leader of his party, in the sensitive position of having to broker detente between Clinton and Sanders without alienating the runner-up’s supporters, many of whom are angry over what they see as the Democratic establishment’s efforts to strong-arm him out of the race. The message was not signed “-H”, which is how Clinton usually signs tweets she authored, suggesting this specific tweet was written by Clinton’s staff. But Sanders has maintained he’ll stay in the race.

Washington Democrats will go to the polls next Tuesday in the last contest of the party’s primary process.

Citing the “extraordinary campaign” that Sanders has run this year, Clinton told NBC News that “I really appreciate all that he’s contributed to the Democratic Party and our country and the issues that we’re going to be focused on in the general election”.

Mr Trump, who has made extensive use of Twitter during his insurgent Republican presidential campaign, took the opportunity to tweet back: “Obama just endorsed Crooked Hillary”.

Obama’s testimonial came less than an hour after he met privately with Sanders at the White House to discuss the future of the senator’s “political revolution”. That’s a diplomatic way of saying Obama wanted to know what Sanders wants. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Sanders stopped by the Naval Observatory later in the afternoon to meet with Biden.

Even some of Sanders’ staunchest supporters have started looking to Clinton. Sen. “Now it’s, basically, instead of Obama being progressive, he’s fallen for party politics, and he’s gotta endorse Clinton to keep it in the Democratic Party”. “It was productive, it was good, it was vintage Bernie”, Tester said.

Now head-to-head in the presidential race, Clinton and Trump have one thing in common: Both are working to woo Sanders supporters. They said Obama wants to congratulate Sanders on his campaign and discuss a fall campaign strategy that will include numerous economic issues he raised in the primaries. And more than half of registered voters had unfavorable views of Trump (55 percent) and Clinton (52 percent).