Hillary Clinton supporter Rep. Charlie Rangel (D., N.Y.) dismissed Tuesday the chances of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) winning Tuesday night’s New York primary and the Democratic Party nomination for the White House, saying the Vermont Senator’s "15 minutes of fame" has come to an end.
"I think he’s had his 15 minutes of fame," Rangel told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, describing Sanders’ unexpected popularity and ability to challenge Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.
"He certainly struck the frustration that a lot of people have. So has Donald Trump for that matter," the congressman added, referring to the Republican presidential frontrunner.
"That's a long 15 minutes," Cavuto said.
"It has been long, but who in the heck ever heard of Bernie before he decided to run for president?" Rangel asked.
The New York congressman said he was positive the general election will be between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and that the outcome of both primaries will be over after the results in New York on Tuesday are tallied.
"I don’t think that there’s anymore [Sen. Ted] Cruz or anymore Bernie Sanders. I think that we’re really going to show tonight that it‘s all over," Rangel said.
Sanders has defied expectations by posing a serious challenge to Clinton for the Democratic nomination after being written off when he entered the race in April 2015. He has promised to stay in the race through the party convention in July and has raised millions of dollars for his campaign despite having no support from super PACs.
Clinton is still expected to secure the nomination because of her large superdelegate lead over Sanders. Superdelegates are elected officials and prominent members of the Democratic Party who have disproportionate influence over the overall delegate count.
Clinton is expected to win in New York by double digits, according to the polls.