Without endorsing Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders vowed on Thursday to work with her to defeat Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump.
Clinton beat Sanders in the Democratic race, but the Vermont senator has lingering issues with the party’s hierarchy.
“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 in a much-anticipated live-stream address.
“And I personally intend to begin my role in that process in a very short period of time.”
Sanders did not offer details on how he plans to fulfil that role. Much of the video amounted to a version of Sanders’ standard stump speech and he encouraged his legions of followers to run for local office.
He once again pledged to take his bid all the way to the Democratic Party’s convention next month. He described his differences with Clinton as “strong” but limited.
“It is no secret that Hillary 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 vowed to take his campaign’s “energy” into the Democratic convention. But Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver told Bloomberg News earlier on Thursday that the campaign was no longer actively lobbying super delegates.
