Bernie Sanders, Obama to meet at the White House
Cedar Falls Bernie Sanders will meet with President Obama in the Oval Office on Wednesday morning, before returning to Iowa for the final sprint to the caucus.
"The president and Senator Sanders first discussed this meeting last December when Senator Sanders attended the Congressional Holiday Ball," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. "The two will meet privately in the Oval Office, and there will be no formal agenda."
News of the meeting comes the day after Politico posted a podcast interview with the president in which he all but endorsed Hillary Clinton, Sanders' rival for the Democratic nomination. Mr. Obama called her "smart" and "extraordinarily experienced."
"Bernie came in with the luxury of being a complete long shot and just letting loose," he said in the interview. "I think Hillary came in with the both privilege, and burden, of being perceived as the front-runner...You're always looking at the bright, shiny object that people haven't seen before. That's a disadvantage to her."
When asked if Sanders, the Independent senator from Vermont, reminded Mr. Obama of himself in 2008, the president said no: "I don't think that's true."
Some have compared Sanders to Mr. Obama as a candidate as he has risen in the polls, particularly in Iowa, thanks in part to the support of young voters who are drawn to his inspiring message. In Iowa over the last week, Sanders has projected confidence about his chances in the state.
He told reporters in Underwood last Tuesday that Clinton should be "nervous."
"You tell me, which campaign, objectively speaking, is creating the energy and enthusiasm for a large voter turnout?" he said. "Everybody knows that is our campaign."
But a week later, as Clinton continued to paint his ideas as unrealistic, Sanders gave reporters in Des Moines a reality check of his own.
"Obama in 2008 ran a campaign which is really going to stay in the history books," he said, standing next to his campaign bus. "It was an unbelievable campaign. In places they ran out of ballots, as I understand. The turnout was so extraordinary, nobody expected it. Do I think in this campaign that we are going to match that? I would love to see us do that, I hope we can."
"Frankly, I don't think we can," he said. "What Obama did in 2008 was extraordinary."
In an interview with the Associated Press aboard a chartered flight to Duluth, where Sanders held a campaign rally later Tuesday, Sanders did not bristle at Mr. Obama's comments to Politico. He said that he believed the president and Vice President Joe Biden were being "objective and letting the people decide."
Mr. Obama met with Clinton at the White House in early December for a 90-minute lunch. The White House billed the meeting as a "social occasion."