Hillary Clinton warmly thanked Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for endorsing her at a Tuesday rally in New Hampshire, saying they were “joining forces to defeat Donald Trump, win in November, and yes, together, build a future, we can all believe in.”
Sanders offered unqualified support for Clinton at the boisterous Portsmouth event, saying she “must” win the 2016 election, though he did not yet concede the race.
Calling it a “privilege” to appear side by side, the former of secretary said the election would be “much more enjoyable” now that they were on the same team.
“We are stronger together,” she said.
Clinton applauded Sanders for stirring up the Democratic base and bringing voters into the political process.
“He has energized and inspired a generation of young people who care deeply about our country, and are building a movement that is bigger than one candidate or one campaign,” she said. “So thank you, thank you, Bernie, for your endorsement, but more than that, thank you for your lifetime of fighting injustice. I am proud to be fighting alongside you.”
The New Hampshire rally served as a flashy show of unity between two candidates who often clashed during the primaries, in which Sanders painted Clinton as a corrupt tool of Wall Street while Clinton framed Sanders as an unrealistic idealist unfit to serve as commander-in-chief. Despite lagging in the delegate count and popular vote, Sanders withheld his endorsement after Clinton became the presumptive nominee, pointing to their core disagreements.
Trump’s position as the GOP’s presumptive nominee helped soften the divisions between them, and Sanders had in recent weeks promised to do “everything we can” to help Clinton get elected.
This post has been updated.
