'He Was Here' For Boston: Elizabeth Warren Endorses Joe Biden For President

BOSTON (CBS/CNN) -- Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren officially endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden Wednesday morning. The former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate tweeted out a video announcing her support and sent an email to supporters.

"Even though I'm not running for president anymore, our work goes on — there's too much at stake to sit on the sidelines in the fight against Donald Trump," Warren said. "That's why today I'm proud to endorse Joe Biden for president of the United States."

She highlighted Biden's visit to Boston in 2014 on the first anniversary of the marathon bombings.

"I've seen the vice president help a community heal. One year to the day after the Boston Marathon bombings that tore up bodies and tore our sense of safety and community, here was here," Warren said. "People who'd been hurt, people who were afraid, he gave them peace and he gave them grace. I watched it up close."

Warren is the last of Biden's top former rivals to throw their support behind the former vice president. The endorsement comes as the Democratic Party attempts to unify and turn its focus to a general election campaign against President Donald Trump.

Warren's endorsement comes two days after Sen. Bernie Sanders officially got behind Biden's campaign, with the Vermont senator calling on his allies to now support the presumptive Democratic nominee.

When Warren ended her campaign last month, there was intense speculation about whether she would get behind either Biden or Sanders.

But as time passed and Biden continued to grow his delegate lead, when asked about a potential endorsement, Warren publicly said that she was focused on the coronavirus pandemic and also that she wanted to give Sanders "space to decide what he wants to do next."

Warren, a leader in the progressive movement, was at one point considered a top contender for the Democratic nomination. The senator centered her presidential bid on fighting corruption in Washington, and released more than 70 comprehensive policy plans that addressed a wide range of issues. But after disappointing finishes in primary contests across the country on Super Tuesday and failing to build a broader political coalition in a Democratic Party, Warren ended her presidential campaign in March.

Warren, who is more aligned with Sanders on policy positions and ideology, was fiercely critical of the former vice president in the primary campaign. The same night former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke endorsed Biden, Warren said at a rally in Los Angeles that "no matter how many Washington insiders tell you to support (Biden), nominating their fellow Washington insider will not meet this moment." Biden had previously accused Warren on a radio show of having an "elitist attitude," and told donors that her campaign was based on a "my-way-or-the-highway attitude."

But in an attempt to win over progressive voters, Biden has been taking steps to embrace his former rivals, including Warren, and adopt parts of their platforms. Biden in March backed Warren's bankruptcy proposal to repeal portions of a law Biden and Warren had clashed over 15 years earlier. Biden and Warren in 2005 had a high-profile battle over a bill that made it more difficult to declare bankruptcy, when Biden was a Delaware senator and leading advocate of the measure and Warren was a Harvard professor and vocal opponent. Warren is an expert on bankruptcy law and was an adviser to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission in the 1990s.

(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. CNN's MJ Lee and Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.)

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