When Bernie Sanders made a speech on Hillary Clinton’s behalf during the Democratic National Convention, many of his supporters booed him. Since then, he’s been working to bring those supporters into the fold, telling them that the price is President Trump.
Speaking with CBS’ Face the Nation, Sanders admits that some of his supporters might not end up coming around, but he makes an appeal for why they should, which you can also watch in the above video:
“We have over 13 million people who supported my candidacy. And I have no doubt that there are some of those people who will not vote for Hillary Clinton,” Sanders said on CBS’ Face the Nation. “But I would say that the vast majority of them — and I think as the campaign progresses and people take a hard look at the issues … I think more and more of those people will come on board Sec. Clinton’s campaign.”
Sanders may be saying this because of the alternative that Donald Trump would provide, but also because Clinton has since incorporated some of his policies into her own plan, most notably in promising to provide free tuition to low-income students attending public universities. In this interview, he mentions that Clinton wants to overturn Citizens United, raise the minimum wage, believes that climate change is real, and wants to raise taxes on the wealthy. This could be behind why Sanders tells his supporters that when it comes to the issues, Clinton is their candidate:
“I would ask … of my supporters to get away from the personality conflicts that media tries to bring forward and focus on the real issues impacting the American people,” Sanders continued. “And when you do that, I think the choice is pretty clear and that is that Hillary Clinton is far and away the superior candidate.”
He also says that while Trump’s campaign is one about division, disappointed Bern supporters should resist going that route in supporting Clinton. Sanders supporters are a vocal bunch, and the anti-Clinton ones have been especially so. Maybe in three months time, they will have come around. Maybe even Susan Sarandon will do so as well.