Bernie Sanders senior adviser Larry Cohen said Monday that President Barack Obama has, as expected, thrown his support behind Hillary Clinton.
In an interview with CBS Sunday, President Obama said Clinton entered the race with the "privilege and burden of being perceived as the frontrunner." Then, in an interview with Politico on Monday, Obama praised Clinton’s experience, saying that Clinton "can govern and she can start here, [on] day one, more experienced than any non-vice president has ever been who aspires to this office."
CNN hosts John Berman and Kate Bolduan asked Cohen if he interpreted Obama’s comments as a show of support for Hillary Clinton.
"You see his comments, hear them, and it does seem as if he’s putting his thumb on the scales—as the White House adviser is quoted in that—putting his thumb on the scales in support of Hillary Clinton and not Bernie Sanders. That’s how you see it?" Berman asked.
Cohen said Obama seemed to be supporting Clinton because she is the establishment candidate.
"Well, yeah. I see it minimally that way ... [It’s] to be expected the cabinet members that served with her are mostly supporting her," Cohen said. "As Bernie puts it, the political establishment—and it doesn't mean they’re bad—the political establishment is supporting continuity."
Cohen said that Clinton served in the Obama White House and that she belonged to Obama’s segment of the Democratic party.
"She was the Secretary of State. He made a political decision, after that election, to unite with that part of the Democratic Party," Cohen said.
Clinton has fought against the idea that she is an establishment candidate, arguing that Sanders has been in office longer than she has. In an interview with CNN on Thursday, she said that she didn’t even know what the term establishment meant.
"I just don’t understand what that means," Clinton said. "He’s been in Congress, he’s been elected to office a lot longer than I have. I was in the Senate for eight wonderful years representing New York. He’s been in the Congress for 25, and so I’ll let your viewers make their own judgments."