Unity move: Sanders backs Clinton in N.H.
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — For months, two dangers have hovered over Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign — the possibility of criminal proceedings resulting from the investigation into her email practices and the risk that large numbers of Bernie Sanders supporters would desert her in the fall.
Last week, the first of those evaporated with a statement by FBI Director James Comey that sharply criticized her but closed the door on prosecution. Tuesday, the second risk diminished greatly with a sentence from Sanders at a rally in a crowded high school gymnasium.
“I am endorsing Hillary Clinton,” Sanders declared to cheers from thousands of partisans. “She must become our next president.”
One rally, of course, will not bring every Sanders voter over to Clinton — some will not shift for weeks, others never will.
But Sanders’ words, which were noticeably more enthusiastic than many Democrats had expected, will almost certainly hasten Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders unite at a Democratic rally Tuesday in Portsmouth, N.H., a party unification process.
“This campaign is about the needs of the American people and addressing the very serious crises that we face,” Sanders said as Clinton stood nodding at his side. “And there is no doubt in my mind that, as we head into November, Hillary Clinton is far and away the best candidate to do that.”
Although long-awaited and, to some extent, anticlimactic — many of Sanders’ backers already have moved Clinton’s way — the rally was a positive moment that the Clinton campaign had wanted and worked hard to achieve.
It opens the way for a nominating convention later this month that can showcase party unity.
Sanders dispelled doubts about how strongly he would back the woman who had beaten him by delivering a half-hour address that not only denounced Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, but praised the exsecretary of state, saying repeatedly that “Hillary Clinton understands” key issues he campaigned on.
On issues including health care, the minimum wage and aid for college students, he stressed how much he and Clinton agreed — a sharp turnaround from months of detailing their differences.
He said he would “go to every corner of this country” to try to ensure her election.
Clinton returned the favor, inserting into her standard stump speech a strong endorsement of Sanders’ position on an issue on which they have differed — one that the Vermont senator had not mentioned.
In her administration, she said, the U.S. would say “no to unfair trade deals … including the Trans-Pacific Partnership.”
President Barack Obama has asked Congress to approve the trade agreement, which Clinton had praised while it was being negotiated.
Earlier in her campaign, she said the final agreement fell short of her standards and she would not support it, but many of Sanders’ supporters have doubted her commitment.
Thanking them, Clinton pledged, “You will always have a seat at the table when I am in the White House.”
Not everyone in the crowd was convinced.
Earlier in the event, some pro-Sanders hecklers jeered New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan whenshe praised Clinton.
And among Sanders’ delegates to the Democratic convention, some said they were still not sure they could bring themselves to vote for her.
“I still can’t speak to that,” said Natalie Higley, 23, a delegate from Lake- port, Calif. “I think he’s doing what he has to do,” she said of Sanders.
Nominating Clinton “is going to greatly reduce the participation in the Democratic Party, to elect a candidate who has some of the lowest favorable ratings in history, who is squeaking by, barely beating Trump in November. I think they are committing suicide, honestly,” she said.
In an email to supporters, Sanders acknowledged “that some of you will be disappointed” by the decision to endorse Clinton. But, he said, Clinton had embraced “the most progressive Democratic platform in the history of our country,” in part because of the pressure exerted by the 13 million people who had voted for him in the Democratic primaries.
If Trump were to win, not only would none of those policies be adopted, his victory would be “a devastating blow to all that we are fighting for,” he warned.