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Bernie Sanders Sticks in Race After Meeting With Obama

Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders / AP
June 9, 2016

Bernie Sanders said Thursday he would take his campaign to the final Democratic primary election in Washington, D.C., next week following an Oval Office meeting with President Obama aimed at unifying the party.

Without ending his presidential bid, Sanders said he would do everything in his power to prevent Donald Trump from winning the White House in November, which he said would be a disaster for the nation.

"I look forward to meeting with Clinton in the very near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump and to create a government which represents all of us and not just the 1 percent," Sanders said at the White House following his meeting.

He did not detail specifics from his talks with the president, but said he intended to take his priority issues to the Democratic National Convention in July.

The Vermont senator will head to Capitol Hill Thursday afternoon to meet with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), who has said publicly he should give up the race.

Sanders requested the meeting with Obama after Tuesday's primary results bolstered Clinton's claim to the nomination.

Though he planned to lay off roughly half of his campaign staff Wednesday, he said hours after his considerable defeat in California that "the struggle continues."

Obama has not yet endorsed anyone in the Democratic primary.

The president said Wednesday that the contentious primary race was "healthy" for the party and strengthened Clinton as a candidate during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

"I thought Bernie Sanders brought enormous energy, and his new ideas and he pushed the party and challenged them," he said. "My hope is, that over the next couple of weeks, we’re able to pull things together."