Sanders Dismisses Idea That Obama Is Siding With Hillary

Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) dismissed the idea that President Obama has been tipping the scales in favor of his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton.

“I know there was some discussion the other day about a political interview where he was tipping the scale towards Secretary Clinton,” Sanders said Wednesday at the White House after his meeting with the President in the Oval Office. “I don’t believe that at all. I think he and the vice president have tried to be fair and even-handed in the process, and I suspect they will continue to be that way.”

Earlier this week, Politico published an interview with Obama, in which the president praised his former secretary of state while throwing cold water on comparisons between Obama’s 2008 and Sanders’ current campaigns. Journalists took that and other comments in the interview as a sign that Obama was subtly elevating Clinton above Sanders. Tuesday evening the White House announced the president would meet informally with Sanders Wednesday. The Vermont senator said after the meeting that it was a discussion “to just get myself updated on some of the current issues facing this country.”

Sanders said he did not ask for the President’s endorsement, but the two discussed addressing the Islamic State and the U.S.’s relationship with Iran.

While pointing out the issues that the president and Sanders disagree on, he also praised Obama in general.

“By and large, over the last seven years on major issue after major issue, I have stood by his side where he has taken on unprecedented Republican obstructionism, has tried to do the right thing for the American people,” Sanders said.