Bernie Sanders Presses On, Says He'll Take Campaign To Democratic Convention
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (CBSNewYork) -- Hillary Clinton presented herself as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in a speech Tuesday night, but hours later, Bernie Sanders told a crowd that he would continue his campaign up to the Democratic National Convention.
Sanders had been scheduled to speak at 10 p.m. local time – 1 a.m. Eastern time – but he did not take to the podium until nearly 45 minutes after his scheduled starting time. But the crowd cheered exuberantly as he began speaking, and said his campaign would continue on..
He noted that his campaign had won 22 states and received more than 10 million votes – noting his success in particular with young voters.
"When so many young people are on board and understand that our vision is a vision of social justice, economic justice, racial justice, environmental justice must be the future of America," Sanders said. "Our vision will be the future of America. Our campaign from day one has understood some very basic pints and that is first, we will not allow right-wing Republicans to control our government. And that is especially true with Donald Trump as the Republican candidate."
Of Trump, Sanders said, "The American people, in my view, will never support a candidate whose major theme is bigotry."
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But Sanders said there was more to his campaign than defeating Trump, and reiterated his platform of breaking up banks, immigration reforms, campaign finance, and making "the billionaire class" pay its fair share of taxes."
Sanders won North Dakota on Tuesday and was ahead in Montana, while Clinton won New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota and was ahead in California. But he said he would be continuing his campaign on to the last primary in Washington, D.C., and then to the convention.
"We are going to fight hard. We are going to fight hard to win the primary in Washington, D.C. And then we take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia," Sanders said.
Sanders conceded that he had a "very, very steep fight" ahead, but would "continue to fight for every vote and every delegate."
Meanwhile, President Obama released a statement late Tuesday congratulating Clinton on securing the nomination, and thanked Sanders for inspiring millions of Americans. Obama also reported that he would be meeting with Sanders on Thursday at Sanders' request.