Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Hung Out Last Night
As votes in the Washington, D.C., primary were tallied on Tuesday night—adding up to one last win for Hillary Clinton—the two Democratic candidates met at a hotel on Capitol Hill to make peace after a moderately acrimonious primary season. According to the New York Times, the chemistry between Clinton and Bernie Sanders was “strained.”
Two advisers to Mr. Sanders described him as concerned that Mrs. Clinton might say all the right things now but embrace more politically moderate positions later if she thinks it necessary to win states like Florida, Ohio and Virginia.
The advisers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the campaign had not authorized them to speak, said Mr. Sanders felt no pressure to endorse Mrs. Clinton quickly. He wants her to take steps to win his confidence in the five and a half weeks before the Democratic convention, where his voters and delegates expect him to speak and Clinton advisers hope he will give a full-throated speech backing her.
However leery Clinton may be of Sanders and his demands, his colleagues seem happy to have him back: He had lunch with the Democratic senators earlier on Tuesday. “He got a standing ovation and a warm welcome back to the caucus,” Delaware senator Chris Coons told the Guardian. “I think his primary campaign had succeeded in engaging and mobilizing millions of average Americans, particularly working class Americans who feel disaffected from our political process.”
The support the Vermont senator has accrued is not insignificant: 12 million votes and 1,877 delegates, and 28 percent of his supporters said in a poll last month that they would not vote for the former secretary of state were she to be nominated. The Clinton camp is split, the Times reports, over whether those voters need to be brought back into the fold, or whether the prospect of President Donald Trump will sufficiently unify the party.
Then again, Trump may resolve the issue for them on his own. A new poll from Bloomberg Politics showed Clinton holding a 12 point lead over Trump nationally, and 63 percent of women said they would never vote for the presumptive Republican nominee. But wait! There’s more. From the Times:
Since shortly after Mr. Trump became the presumptive nominee in early May, the “super PAC” supporting Mrs. Clinton, Priorities USA, has aired ads in battleground states portraying him as disrespectful and even offensive to women.
Those ads have gone unanswered by Mr. Trump’s campaign for a month now, as his team, plagued by internal battles, has struggled with fundamental staff moves, like naming a political director, and with raising money as donors decline to lend their names to fund-raising events.
It’s almost like he doesn’t even really want to be president.