Bernie Sanders endorses Hillary Clinton today in New Hampshire

© AFP PHOTO, KENA BETANCUR, Getty Images This file photo taken on June 22, 2016 shows Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders during an event in New York. Bernie Sanders will join Hillary Clinton at a presidential campaign rally…

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Bernie Sanders officially endorsed Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid here Tuesday, ending a primary campaign that defied expectations and tested the notion that Clinton’s claim to the Democratic nomination was inevitable.
The Vermont senator, appearing with Clinton at Portsmouth High School, thanked his supporters and contributors for showing the world that a campaign could be run with small contributions.
"I have come here today not to talk about the past but to focus on the future," he said in prepared remarks released as he took the stage. "That future will be shaped more by what happens on November 8 in voting booths across our nation than by any other event in the world. I have come here to make it as clear as possible as to why I am endorsing Hillary Clinton and why she must become our next president."
Other joint appearances are still being nailed down, according to Sanders' campaign.
The rally drew supporters of Clinton and Sanders, some of whom chanted "Bernie" while others chanted "unity." At one point, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said "we need to elect Hillary" and was interrupted shouts of "NO!" and chants of "Bernie, Bernie."
The appearance in the Granite State, where Sanders trounced Clinton in the Feb. 9 primary and received more votes than any other candidate in the contest's history, recalls the moment in 2008 when Clinton and then-senator Barack Obama held their first large rally together in Unity, N.H., after Clinton conceded the Democratic nomination race to Obama.
But the lead-up to Tuesday's event was very different. Clinton endorsed Obama shortly after the final 2008 primary. Assuming Sanders finally does concede this year's nomination battle to Clinton, he waited much longer — and he didn't come to the decision without a fight.
Amid intense pressure to concede, he held back as part of a strategy to gain leverage in advancing his top priorities. His campaign worked with Clinton’s staff on proposals she announced this past week to expand access to health care and eliminate college tuition for working families.
Sanders' stamp also can be found on the Democratic Party platform that will be submitted at the party's national convention in Philadelphia later this month. That platform calls for a $15 minimum wage, expanding Social Security, abolishing the death penalty and breaking up large financial institutions — all staples of Sanders' agenda.
Michael Briggs, Sanders’ spokesman, said the two campaigns have been discussing ways to bring their candidates closer together since they met in Washington a month ago.
“The most progressive platform in Democratic Party history adopted over the weekend by the Platform Committee is one result,” Briggs wrote in an email. “Another is Saturday's announcement that Secretary Clinton would double funding for community health centers to dramatically expand access to primary care. Another is last week's announcement that Secretary Clinton supports tuition-free public colleges and universities for students from families with annual incomes up to $125,000. The millions of supporters of Senator Sanders deserve credit and should be proud that their energy and enthusiasm has yielded these solid results."
Some of Sanders’ supporters, commenting on his Facebook page, voiced profound frustration and disappointment with his decision to campaign with Clinton.
“By supporting Hillary you are watering down everything you stood for," Marvin Daniels Jr. posted. "This is the definition of a sellout. Don’t sell your soul.”
Doc Masters wrote that endorsing Clinton “would be stabbing all of us in the back. Go Green or third party and we’ll put you in the white house...”
Sanders, who declared his White House bid on April 30 last year, said during the campaign that he respects Clinton. He described her as a friend, though he told NPR last year, “I’m not gonna tell you we are bosom buddies.” He turned down opportunities to target obvious vulnerabilities, such as the scandal involving Clinton's use of a private email server when she served as secretary of State.
But the two traded blows over policy and judgment.
At campaign rallies, Sanders targeted Clinton’s donations from Wall Street and other special interests, and called on her to release transcripts of her paid speeches to Goldman Sachs and other corporations. Ahead of the New York primary, he alleged that Clinton wasn't qualified to be president — a statement he later walked back — after Clinton declined to say whether she thought Sanders was qualified.
Sanders also questioned Clinton's judgment based on her vote in favor of the Iraq War and her affiliation with a super PAC, and he criticized her decision to hold a “high-dollar fundraiser” at a hedge fund that invests in fracking, which he wants to end.
Clinton countered that Sanders wasn’t tough enough on guns, and she cast his policies as unrealistic. She said a widely criticized interview that Sanders gave the New York Daily News raised questions about his judgment, his ability to answer questions about foreign policy, and his understanding of the details involved in one of his core issues — breaking up big banks.
It’s still unclear whether a decision by Sanders to endorse Clinton would sway his die-hard supporters — many of whom are young and independent — to also support her. But recent polls show most Sanders supporters are ready to back Clinton over presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.
A Bloomberg Politics national poll taken June 14 of likely general-election voters found that 55% of those who had supported Sanders' bid for the Democratic nomination planned to vote for Clinton. Twenty-two percent said they would vote for Trump, and 18% said they would vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson.
And a Pew Research Center survey, conducted June 15-16, found that 85% of Democrats and Democratic leaners who backed Sanders in this year's primaries said they plan to vote for Clinton in the general election, compared with 9% who said they will vote for Trump and 6% who said they'll vote for another candidate or don’t know.
Sanders has said he will do everything possible to ensure Trump doesn't get elected, and he has rejected the idea that his supporters would vote for Trump. But his recent praise for Clinton has been qualified.
During a June 22 C-SPAN interview, he described Clinton as “very intelligent,” saying she has had to fight “a lot of sexism” and that she's far ahead of Trump in command of policy. But he added, “There are areas where we have strong disagreements.”
Asked whether he could work with Clinton if she's elected president, Sanders said “it really depends issue by issue.” He said he would work with Clinton “where she is prepared to stand up and fight for working people and take on big-money interests.”
“She is more or less an establishment Democrat,” he said on C-SPAN. “It’s kind of hard to deny that. And I think we’ve got to move beyond that.”