Hillary Clinton Quickly Shoring Up Democratic Support
U.S. President Barack Obama formally endorsed Hillary Clinton’s White House bid on Thursday and called for Democrats to unite behind her after a protracted battle with Bernie Sanders for the party nomination.
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts also backed Clinton on Thursday, telling MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was “a genuine threat to the country.”
Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said it “means the world” to her that Obama had her back in a bruising campaign for the Nov. 8 election.
Clinton also said she had the “highest regard” for Warren, a fiery critic of Wall Street, and was “really pleased to have her good ideas and support.”
Vice President Joe Biden also waded into the campaign on Thursday. “Whoever the next president is, and God willing in my view it will be Secretary Clinton,” Biden said in a speech at the American Constitution Society in Washington.
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 galvanized 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.
Warren told MSNBC she was endorsing Clinton because “a female fighter in the lead is exactly what this country needs.”
Warren’s populist credentials will boost Clinton’s ability to court Sanders voters as she prepares to battle Trump. Warren was the only female Democratic U.S. senator who did not endorse Clinton during the primary race.
Clinton told Reuters she and Warren had similar views about issues such as economic policy and protecting the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Warren pushed to start.
Trump said in an interview with Reuters last month that he would try to dismantle the Dodd-Frank law.
(Additional reporting by Ginger Gibson, Steve Holland, Roberta Rampton, Megan Cassella, Doina Chiacu, David Morgan, Susan Cornwell, David Morgan and Alana Wise in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney)
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