Sanders signals the end is near After meeting with Obama, Sanders gives strongest sign yet that he will soon bow out. But he's going to compete in D.C. primary first.

Bernie Sanders on Thursday gave the strongest signals yet that he will soon bow out of the presidential race, telling reporters after meeting with President Barack Obama that he will ally himself with Hillary Clinton in the fight against Donald Trump.

But he's not quite ready to go yet.


The Vermont senator declared that he will stay in the race for the Democratic nomination until next Tuesday's District of Columbia primary and said he wants to see whether the final vote count in California shows a tighter result. He also is planning to go forward with a big rally in Washington, D.C., on Thursday night.

After spending an hour meeting with Obama in the Oval Office, Sanders acknowledged that he would work with Clinton, who is now the presumptive Democratic nominee, to defeat Trump in the general election. Delivering remarks prepared before his sit-down with the president, Sanders ticked through a list of his priorities, promising to take those issues to the convention in Philadelphia next month.

"Donald Trump would clearly, to my mind and I think the majority of Americans, be a disaster as president of the United States. It is unbelievable to me, and I say this in all sincerity, that the Republican Party would have a candidate for president who in the year 2016 makes bigotry and discrimination the cornerstone of his campaign. In my view, the American people will not vote for or tolerate a candidate who insults Mexicans and Latinos, who insults Muslims, who insults African-Americans and women," Sanders said. "Needless to say, I am going to do everything in my power, and I will work as hard as I can, to make sure that Donald Trump does not become president of the United States."

Sanders continued, "I will of course, be competing in the D.C. primary, which will be held next Tuesday."

"This is the last primary of the Democratic nominating process. The major point that I will be making to the citizens of the District of Columbia is that I am strongly in favor of D.C. statehood," he said, noting that Vermont has roughly the same population as the nation's capital but does not have the same representation. He also said he looks forward to the final count from Tuesday's primary in California, anticipating a closer result.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla's office said the vote tally from Tuesday's primary will not be made official until the middle of next month.

"July 15 is when we certify all the vote. All the counties have until July 8 to send us their official votes," a spokesman from Padilla's office told POLITICO.

For months, Sanders has pointed to his superior performance against Trump in hypothetical general-election matchup polls, expressing a belief that if he were to overcome Clinton's superdelegate advantage, he would be the safer bet in November.

As Clinton continued to distance herself from Sanders in the delegate count, her allies in the Senate pivoted from telling their colleague to wind down operations in March to more recently urging the media and fellow Democrats to give him time and space to leave on his own accord.

"I think we should be a little graceful," Vice President Joe Biden told CNN on Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

Beginning his remarks Thursday, Sanders thanked both Obama and Biden "for the degree of impartiality they established during the course of this entire process."

Sanders, who began his campaign last April outside the Capitol encircled by a gathering of media, found himself Thursday just miles down the road and faced with a crush of reporters. The senator said he spoke "briefly to Secretary Clinton" on Tuesday night, congratulating her "on her very strong campaign." And he said he will soon be sitting down with the former secretary of state as she readies for an epic battle with Trump.

"I look forward to meeting with her in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump and to create a government which represents all of us and not just the 1 percent," Sanders concluded, before rushing away from reporters back into the White House.

Less than two hours later, Clinton's campaign trumpeted Obama's endorsement in a video that was taped on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Sanders was to meet with Biden at his Naval Observatory residence later in the afternoon.

"I think you could describe the conversation as a friendly conversation that was focused on the future. Part of that future conversation was about the importance of the upcoming general election," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday. "You've heard the president say on a number of occasions how important it is to him personally that he be succeeded in office by a president who is committed to building on the remarkable progress that our country has made over the last seven and a half years."

Dan Spinelli contributed to this report.