Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Thursday that a report saying President Barack Obama suggested his presidential campaign was nearing its end was “absurd.”
Sanders told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that he didn’t “want to speculate” about Obama’s exact comments.
“But the bottom line is that when only half of the American people have participated in the political process, when some of the larger states in this country, people in those states have not yet been able to voice their opinion on who should be the Democratic nominee, I think it’s absurd for anybody to suggest that those people not have a right to cast a vote,” Sanders said.
While not endorsing either Democratic candidate, Obama reportedly signaled to Democratic donors at a private event in Austin, Texas that it was time to thrown their support behind Hillary Clinton. Anonymous sources who were present after reporters left the room said Obama suggested Sanders’ campaign was coming to an end, according to the New York Times.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters on Thursday that Obama reminded fundraiser attendees that “electing a Democratic president” would require the entire party to give their support to the eventual nominee.
Sanders said it would be “a very bad mistake” to prematurely end his campaign.
“I am extremely proud that in state after state we are winning the votes of working people … so to suggest that we don’t fight this out to the end would be, I think, a very bad mistake,” he said.
