“She’s got the courage, the compassion, and the heart to get the job done.”
Watch President Obama endorse Hillary.https://t.co/DzKgMFgdmP
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 9, 2016
[S]hortly after an hourlong White House meeting with Bernie Sanders, President Barack Obama formally endorsed Hillary Clinton on Thursday in an upbeat prepared video that also hailed the Vermont senator’s primary campaign.
“Look, I know how hard this job can be,” Obama said in the video. “That’s why I know Hillary will be so good at it. In fact, I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office.”
“I’m with her,” Obama concluded. “I am fired up, and I cannot wait to get out there and campaign for Hillary.”
The president’s endorsement comes as the biggest step yet in Democratic unification after the tough primary season. Obama’s popularity — which now hovers around 50 percent — could help Clinton attract Sanders supporters as the general election heats up.
Obama stayed officially neutral throughout the primary season, though he occasionally offered warm praise for Clinton. Vice President Joe Biden also did not endorse a Democrat, though he was more openly effusive of Sanders’ campaign than Obama.
“I like the idea of saying, ‘We can do much more,’ because we can,” Biden said in an April interview with The New York Times. “I don’t think any Democrat’s ever won saying, ‘We can’t think that big — we ought to really downsize here because it’s not realistic.’”
Though Biden hasn’t officially backed Clinton, she received a slew of endorsements Thursday. The former secretary of state’s new supporters included former Democratic presidential primary candidate Martin O’Malley, as well as various political groups, including the Sierra Club.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who is wildly popular among progressives, is expected to endorse Clinton within the coming days, according to Reuters.
In a short statement made Thursday outside the White House, Sanders vowed to fight on through the last primary contest, set for Tuesday in the District of Columbia.
He thanked Obama and Biden for showing “impartiality” throughout the race and offered his most reassuring remarks that he would eventually endorse Clinton and help her court his passionate supporters.
“I look forward to meeting with (Clinton) in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump and to create a government which represents all of us and not just the 1 percent,” Sanders said.
In Obama’s endorsement video, he said Sanders ran “an incredible campaign.” Obama revealed that during their meeting he personally thanked the Vermont senator for “shining a spotlight on issues like economic inequality and the outsized influence of money in our politics and bringing young people into the process. Embracing that message is going to help us win in November.”
