Sen. Bernie Sanders wants to set the record straight. After the widespread misinterpretation of his statement after Secretary Hillary Clinton’s sweep of the Tuesday primary, at a rally on Wednesday he said
“Let me make it clear so there is no confusion. We are in this campaign to win and become the Democratic nominee.”
With the exception of Rhode Island, Clinton won all states voting in Tuesday’s primary, increasing her delegate lead over Sanders. Clinton has 1,644 pledged delegates to Sanders’ 1,316. Sanders congratulated Clinton, but said
“We are in this race until the last vote is cast. That is why this campaign is going to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia with as many delegates as possible to fight for a progressive party platform.”
Instead of declaring defeat, Sanders maintains he still has a path to the nomination.
During the Wednesday rally at Purdue University in Indiana, he explained his position:
“I am very good in arithmetic and I can count delegates, and we are behind today. But unusual things happen in politics and we are going to win the pledged delegates, and with your help, superdelegates may well reach the conclusion that Bernie Sanders will be the strongest candidate against Donald Trump.”
He plans to make his case to the superdelegates by relying on polls that have shown him beating Trump by wider margins than Clinton in a general election, where independent and unaffiliated votes are counted, as they are in an open primary. Sanders won Rhode Island 55 percent to Clinton’s 43 percent, in the only state out of the five holding an open primary.
Sanders is now focused on winning the California primary on June 7, as well as on the other 13 remaining primaries. On Wednesday he laid out plans to let go of hundreds of campaign staffers around the country in states that have already voted, and concentrate his staff in delegate-rich California.
If his efforts to become the nominee fail, Sanders has previously stated he will support Clinton. In that event, he plans to use his delegates to “put together the strongest progressive agenda any political party has ever seen.”
https://youtu.be/2f0ny9b6jDo?t=14m
Featured image by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images.
