Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton on Sunday put the onus on rival Bernard Sanders to consolidate the party before the general election, saying she will sit down with the Vermont senator “when he’s ready to talk.”
“Well, certainly, we’re going to talk with him when he’s ready to talk, and listen to him,” Mrs. Clinton said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And we will take into account what he’s asking for. I think that’s part of the process.”
Mrs. Clinton declined to call for Mr. Sanders to drop out of the race, but did say she expects to be the party’s eventual nominee.
She said her lead at this point in the nominating process is greater than that enjoyed in 2008 by then-Sen. Barack Obama, hinting that her nomination is inevitable and it’s time to unite the party.
“I’m going to say, when it’s time, I am reaching out to do my part to try to unify the party,” she said. “I expect him to do the same. I did that when I lost a much closer race to Senator Obama.”
“I have far more pledged delegates,” she said. “It was much close between me and Senator Obama, and I am going to be the nominee.”
The former secretary of state said she is much more focused on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“And I want to spend a lot of time, as you’ve seen me do, really taking on Trump,” she said. “Because I find what he says, the kind of candidacy he’s presenting, to pose a danger to our country.”
Mr. Sanders has declined to drop out of the race, saying he will take the nomination fight into the convention.
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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