I am with Hillary Clinton

​Washington: Barack Obama launched a coordinated push to unify Democrats against Donald Trump on Thursday, formally endorsing Hillary Clinton for the first time after a conciliatory meeting with her primary opponent Bernie Sanders.

In a rapid sequence of events in Washington that contrasted with renewed rancour among the Republicans, Sanders emerged from the Oval Office peace talks with the President to say he was now prepared to meet Clinton and work with her after losing Tuesday’s primary elections.

Hillary Clinton has got the courage, the compassion, and the heart to get the job done – Barack Obama

“I spoke briefly to Secretary Clinton on Tuesday night and I congratulated her on her very strong campaign,” the Vermont senator told a throng of reporters outside the West Wing.

“I look forward to meeting with her in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump and to create a government that represents all of us and not just the 1%.”

But within an hour the meeting was upstaged by Obama’s own, more emphatic endorsement of his former Secretary of State, which was confirmed in a video released by the Clinton campaign. “I’m with her,” said Obama, in remarks recorded on Tuesday. “I don’t think there has ever been someone so qualified to hold this office,” he added, in pointed contrast to a claim made by Sanders in April.

“She’s got the courage, the compassion, and the heart to get the job done … I have seen her judgment,” said the President. “I’ve seen her toughness. I’ve seen her commitment to our values up close.

And I’ve seen her determination to give every American a fair shot at opportunity, no matter how tough the fight – that’s what’s always driven her, and still does.”

Obama and Clinton are due to appear at a rally together next Wednesday in Wisconsin, a blue-collar battleground targeted by Trump.

Despite Sanders insisting he would still compete in the last primary election in Washington DC next Tuesday and fight for his policies to be adopted at the party convention next month, the growing thaw was underscored by the Vermont senator in separate meetings with Joe Biden and Senate minority leader Harry Reid.

Reid told reporters after their sit-down that he had invited Sanders to address the Democratic caucus next Tuesday at its weekly luncheon. The Nevada senator also said he believed Sanders had accepted that Clinton is the nominee and should be given the opportunity to make his own decision on how to proceed. “I’m in a good place with Bernie … I’m not pushing him to do anything,” Reid said.

An endorsement from Elizabeth Warren followed on Thursday night, and the champion of the party’s progressive wing also put herself in the frame as a possible vice-presidential running mate for Clinton.

In an interview with the Boston Globe, Warren said: “I’m ready to jump in this fight and make sure that Hillary Clinton is the next President of the United States and be sure that Donald Trump gets nowhere near the White House.”

She described Clinton as “a fighter, a fighter with guts”, while stressing to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that Bernie Sanders’s campaign had also been “powerfully important” in bringing millions of people into the democratic process.

Even Martin O’Malley, who dropped out of the contest with Clinton in February after he was eclipsed by the growing popularity of Sanders, joined in on Thursday with his own endorsement.

Source: Agencies