Bernie Sanders meets President Obama amid calls to quit

With calls growing for him to quit, Bernie Sanders went to the White House for a meeting that President Barack Obama hoped to use to try to nudge the Vermont senator to accept defeat in the Democratic race.

Bernie Sanders meets President Obama amid calls to quit

With calls growing for him to quit, Bernie Sanders went to the White House for a meeting that President Barack Obama hoped to use to try to nudge the Vermont senator to accept defeat in the Democratic race.

The high-profile meeting in the Oval Office illustrated the intensifying effort within the Democratic Party to unite behind Hillary Clinton as the nominee so the party can focus fully on defeating Republican Donald Trump in the fall.

Mrs Clinton declared victory over Sanders on Tuesday, having captured the number of delegates needed to become the first female nominee from a major party.

Mr Sanders, accompanied by his wife, Jane, arrived at the White House on Thursday by motorcade, stopping first for coffee and a scone at a cafe nearby, his spokesman said. He and Mr Obama walked together along the Rose Garden colonnade, smiling and laughing before entering the Oval Office.

After the private meeting, Mr Sanders was expected to address reporters in the West Wing driveway before heading to the Capitol to sit down with Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid.

Though Mr Sanders has shown signs he understands the end of his race is near - he was is off about half his team - he has vowed to keep fighting, stoking concern among party leaders eager for the primary race to conclude. Still looking like a candidate, Mr Sanders planned a rally Thursday evening in Washington, which holds the final primary contest next week.

The situation has put Mr Obama, the outgoing leader of his party, in the sensitive position of having to broker detente between Mrs Clinton and Mr Sanders without alienating the runner-up's supporters, many of whom are angry over what they see as the Democratic establishment's efforts to strong-arm him out of the race. Mrs Clinton is counting on Mr Sanders's supporters backing her to defeat Mr Trump.

Mr Obama, who has made clear he believes the race is over, was expected to formally endorse Mrs Clinton following his meeting with Mr Sanders. Aiming to pay tribute to the historic nature of the self-described Democratic socialist's candidacy and his throngs of young supporters, Mr Obama has sought to give the senator the courtesy of exiting the race on his own terms.

"It was a healthy thing for the Democratic Party to have a contested primary. I thought that Bernie Sanders brought enormous energy and new ideas," Mr Obama said on Wednesday during a taped appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. "And he pushed the party and challenged them. I thought it made Hillary a better candidate."

Mr Obama planned to use the meeting, requested by Mr Sanders, to discuss how to build on the enthusiasm Mr Sanders brought to the primary, the White House said.

Now head-to-head in the presidential race, Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump have one thing in common: Both are working to woo Sanders supporters. Mr Trump has said he welcomes Mr Sanders's voters "with open arms" while Mrs Clinton has vowed to reach out to voters who backed her opponent in the Democratic primary.

"He has said that he's certainly going to do everything he can to defeat Trump," Mrs Clinton said of Sanders. "I'm very much looking forward to working with him to do that."

Mr Trump, despite a string of victories this week that reaffirmed his place as the Republican nominee, was still working to convince wary Republicans that he is presidential material. Looking ahead to an upcoming speech attacking Mrs Clinton and her husband, Mr Trump tried to turn the page following a dust-up over his comments about a Hispanic judge's ethnicity.

That controversy and others before it have led prominent Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, to openly chastise their party's nominee. Yet MrTrump's dominance in the Republican race is hard to overstate: He now has 1,542 delegates, including 1,447 required by party rules to vote for him at the convention. It takes just 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination.

For Mr Sanders, any rationale for staying in the race has grown more tenuous as even some of his staunchest supporters have started looking to Mrs Clinton. Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the one Senate Democrat to endorse Sanders, said Mrs Clinton was the nominee and offered his congratulations. And Representative Raul Grijalva, a Sanders backer from Arizona, suggested the time to rally behind Mrs Clinton would come after the District of Columbia primary on Tuesday.

"Bernie's going to do the right thing," Mr Grijalva said.

Mr Sanders has promised to continue his campaign through Tuesday's contest. But about half his campaign staff was being laid off, two people familiar with the plans said.

Mr Obama's aides have said he is itching to get off the sidelines and take on Mr Trump. The key question is whether voters who helped elect him twice will follow his lead now that he is not on the ballot.

"It's going to be hard to get African-American turnout as high as Obama got it, and to get youth turnout as high as Obama got it," said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster. "We have to work really hard."

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