After a long-fought primary battle with Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders has now hit the campaign trail in her support.
This comes as a surprise to some, as Sanders seemed reluctant to endorse Clinton and when he finally did, the endorsement was lukewarm at best.
But now, Sanders has delivered his first campaign trail speech for Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. Let me be more specific, Bernie Sanders delivered an anti-Trump speech rather than a pro-Clinton speech.
Of course Sanders did recognize Hillary’s achievements and touch on some of her plans and policies for the first part of his speech. He did, however, wrap up his introduction of Clinton by saying, “No candidate is perfect.”
The second part of the speech was a more in-depth attack on Trump, which Sanders ended by saying. “I intend as a United States Senator, between now and Election Day, to do everything I can to make sure Donald Trump does not become the next President of the United States,” according to ABC News.
It is rather telling that his stated goal was not to ensure that Hillary Clinton was the next president, but rather to prevent Trump from gaining the presidency.
In reality, it all comes down to Bernie’s base supporters who could almost never agree unanimously on supporting Hillary Clinton, but who certainly would never want Donald Trump as their president.
For Sanders, keeping a distance between himself and Clinton is key in keeping together the grassroots movement that formed behind him after his campaign ended.
Sanders and his group founded an organization that promotes the progressive politics that Bernie espoused and the ones he claimed Hillary did not have. The main goal of the organization is to get more progressive Democrats on the ballot and successfully win them seats in state legislatures and in Congress.
With this progressive agenda in mind, Bernie Sanders must be cautious with what he says as not to alienate his base supporters.
