Presidential races

Clinton will call Sanders Tuesday night

Hillary Clinton on Monday night said she will contact Democratic rival Bernie Sanders following the results of Tuesday’s primary elections, most notably in California.

{mosads}”Our campaigns are certainly talking,” Clinton said in an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that aired Monday. “I’ll be reaching out after tomorrow night because I obviously want to unite the party.”

“We have so much more in common and we face a serious threat from Donald Trump,” she continued. “There’s no doubt that Donald Trump is the threat … that is going to unite the Democratic Party.”

The interview was taped prior to The Associated Press reporting that Clinton had secured the 2,383 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination for president. 

The AP’s tally comes ahead of primary contests in six states on Tuesday.

“According to the news, we are on the brink of a historic, historic, unprecedented moment, but we still have work to do,” Clinton said at the start of a Monday rally in Long Beach, Calif., shortly after the AP made the call. 

In a response, the Sanders campaign said it was wrong to count the superdelegates — party leaders free to support either candidate — before they actually vote at the Democratic National Convention in July.

“It is unfortunate that the media, in a rush to judgment, are ignoring the Democratic National Committee’s clear statement that it is wrong to count the votes of superdelegates before they actually vote at the convention this summer,” the campaign said.

During the Maddow interview, Clinton called Sanders’s quest to sway superdelegates “perplexing” and said her campaign is not lobbying them.

“I find it perplexing. What he basically seems to be saying is that the will of the people should be overturned,” Clinton said, noting that she has 3 million more votes than him. “That’s hard for me to understand. The people have already spoken.”

Polls show a tight race in California. Sanders has closed the gap recently, and one survey from last week found him leading Clinton by 1 percentage point.

Sanders has vowed to remain the race until the national convention in Philadelphia. At a press conference earlier on Monday, he said, “Let’s assess where we are tomorrow,” when asked about the future of his campaign if he loses in California.

Tags Bernie Sanders Donald Trump Hillary Clinton

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