Sanders Makes Big Speech, Stays in Race

But he says he's willing to work with Clinton
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 17, 2016 12:53 AM CDT

Bernie Sanders delivered a much-anticipated live-streamed video to his supporters Thursday night—and at the end of it, he was still a candidate for president of the United States. He neither withdrew from the Democratic race nor endorsed Hillary Clinton during the 23-minute speech, though he is no longer discussing the possibility of winning the nomination, Politico reports. Instead, he thanked his supporters, hailed successes in taking on "virtually the entire political establishment," and said the grass-roots movement "must take that energy into the Democratic National Convention on July 25 in Philadelphia, where we will have more than 1,900 delegates." He said he was willing to work with Clinton to transform the Democratic Party into a party for "working people and young people, and not just wealthy campaign contributors."

"The major political task that we face in the next five months is to make certain that Donald Trump is defeated and defeated badly," Sanders said. "And I personally intend to begin my role in that process in a very short period of time." The Guardian notes that Sanders met with Clinton two days ago and negotiations on a shared agenda appear to be ongoing. "It is no secret that Secretary Clinton and I have strong disagreements on some very important issues. It is also true that our views are quite close on others," Sanders said. "I look forward, in the coming weeks, to continued discussions between the two campaigns to make certain that your voices are heard and that the Democratic Party passes the most progressive platform in its history and that Democrats actually fight for that agenda." (Sanders is not among the contenders Clinton is vetting for VP.)

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