Sanders pledges to work with Clinton

US Senator Bernie Sanders speaking at a rally in Washington, DC, on June 9. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

WASHINGTON • Mr Bernie Sanders has promised to work with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to defeat Republican Donald Trump in the Nov 8 election, but did not formally pull out of the race for the White House.

Mr Sanders did not endorse Mrs Clinton during an online speech to his supporters, but made it clear he was shifting his focus to building a grassroots movement to fight for his liberal policy agenda and transform the Democratic Party.

"The major political task that we face in the next five months is to make certain that Donald Trump is defeated and defeated badly, and I personally intend to begin my role in that process in a very short period of time," the United States senator from Vermont said.

"I also look forward to working with Secretary Clinton to transform the Democratic Party so that it becomes a party of working people and young people, and not just wealthy campaign contributors," he said in a speech broadcast from his home town of Burlington, Vermont.

Mr Sanders, who has resisted pressure from Democrats to exit the White House race and back Mrs Clinton since she clinched the party nomination last week, said he would keep fighting for his goals of reducing income inequality, removing big money from politics and reining in Wall Street.

"Defeating Donald Trump cannot be our only goal. We must continue our grassroots efforts to create the America that we know we can become," he said.

REUTERS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on June 18, 2016, with the headline Sanders pledges to work with Clinton. Subscribe