US President Barack Obama formally endorsed Hillary Clinton’s White House bid yesterday and called for the Democratic Party to unite behind her after a protracted battle with Bernie Sanders for the party nomination.
Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said it “means the world” to her that Obama has her back in a bruising campaign for the Nov. 8 election.
The endorsement increases pressure on Sanders, a US senator from Vermont, to bow out of the race and lend his support to Clinton so that the party can focus on defeating Donald Trump, the Republican candidate.
“It is absolutely a joy and an honour that President Obama and I over the years have gone from fierce competitors to true friends,” Clinton told Reuters in an interview.
After an unexpectedly tough battle against Sanders’ challenge from the left, former first lady Clinton made history when she reached the number of delegates needed to win the party nomination this week.
That made her the first woman to lead a major US party as its White House candidate.
Obama, who enjoys strong approval ratings after nearly eight years in office, will appear with Clinton on the campaign trail next week in Wisconsin, her campaign said.
The pair were opponents in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary race which Obama won but they buried their rivalry and she served as his secretary of state for four years.
Clinton is the 2016 candidate who the White House believes will best safeguard Obama’s legacy.
“I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office,” Obama said of Clinton in a video.”I’m with her. I am fired up, and I cannot wait to get out there and campaign for Hillary.”
Trump assailed the endorsement on Twitter: “He wants four more years of Obama-but nobody else does!”
Clinton’s campaign tweeted a brash response: “Delete your account.”
Sanders, who galvanised young voters with his calls for more social equality and measures to rein in Wall Street, has been reluctant to concede the race, despite concerns among leading Democrats that continuing party divisions could hamper Clinton’s efforts to beat Trump. Page 6