Nicole Gaudiano

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders told his supporters Thursday night in a live, online video address that their next major political task is to help make sure presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump "is defeated and defeated badly" in November.

The Vermont senator, speaking from his hometown of Burlington, Vt., didn't suspend his presidential campaign or endorse Hillary Clinton during the 23-minute address, even though Clinton has secured enough delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination and the primary season has ended. But Sanders said he will begin making his own contribution "in a very short time" to the effort to defeat Trump.

"We cannot have a president who insults Mexicans and Latinos, Muslims, women and African-Americans," he said. "We cannot have a president who, in the midst of so much income and wealth inequality, wants to give hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the very rich. We cannot have a president who, despite all of the scientific evidence, believes that climate change is a hoax."

But Sanders also said that defeating Trump can't be the only goal and that the "political revolution" he has called for throughout his presidential campaign "must continue into the future." He said he looks forward to continued discussions between his campaign and Clinton's in the coming weeks to make certain the Democratic Party passes the "most progressive platform in its history" at its convention in July in Philadelphia.

"It is no secret that Secretary Clinton and I have strong disagreements on some very important issues," said Sanders, who met with Clinton on Tuesday, hours after the District of Columbia held the nation's final 2016 primary. "It is also true that our views are quite close on others."

Many Bernie Sanders backers have no interest in conceding to Hillary Clinton

Sanders said he also wants to work with Clinton to "transform the Democratic Party" to make it a party for working people and young people and one that "has the guts" to take on Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry, the fossil fuel industry and other powerful special interests that dominate political and economic life.

Sanders listed a host of his priorities that he said the party must work to achieve, including a $15 federal minimum wage, breaking up the largest financial institutions, a ban on fracking, defeat of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, expanding Social Security, and, in the wake of last weekend's mass shooting in Orlando, Fla., an assault weapons ban.

He said his call for a political revolution means that “at every level, we continue the fight to make our society a nation of economic, social, racial and environmental justice.”

Sanders also called for a 50-state strategy for the Democratic Party. He accused current party leaders of turning their backs on dozens of states and allowing right-wing politicians to win in some states with virtually no opposition. The party must recruit quality candidates In states Democrats have ignored, and provide them with resources, Sanders said.

“The Democratic Party needs leadership which is prepared to open its doors and welcome into its ranks working people and young people,” he said in his address. “That is the energy that we need to transform the Democratic Party, take on the special interests and transform our country.”

He asked his supporters to visit his website at berniesanders.com/win to learn about running for office.

“We need a new generation of people actively involved in public service who are prepared to provide the quality of life the American people deserve,” he said.

Though Sanders hasn’t conceded the Democratic nomination race, he hasn’t spoken of winning it since Clinton defeated him in California’s primary on June 7.

“We are going to take our campaign to the convention with the full understanding that we’re very good in arithmetic and we know who has received the most votes up to now,” Sanders said Sunday evening after meeting with his advisers.

Jeff Weaver, Sanders' campaign manager, told Bloomberg Politics earlier Thursday that Sanders is still a candidate for the the Democratic nomination but is not lobbying superdelegates to support him and doesn't plan to do so anytime soon. Superdelegates are party leaders and elected officials who may vote for the candidate of their choice at the national convention.

"You'll see at the convention, we'll have a unified party coming out of it," Weaver said. He said that after Sanders has "a period of conversation" with Clinton's campaign and his own supporters, "we would like to get to a place where we could very actively support the nominee."

Bernie Sanders calls for 'fundamental transformation' of Democratic Party

Part of Sanders' strategy before California had been to get superdelegates to switch their allegiance to him at the convention by persuading them he would perform better than Clinton against Trump.

On Tuesday, Sanders called for doing away with superdelegates as part of a "fundamental transformation" of the Democratic Party. He also called for open primaries in which independents could vote for Democratic candidates, and for new leadership at the Democratic National Committee.

Sanders has feuded often with the DNC and its chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, over a variety of issues involving whether his campaign was being treated fairly. CNN reported Thursday that Clinton installed Brandon Davis, national political director for the Service Employees International Union, as the DNC's new general-election chief of staff.

Weaver called Davis' appointment "a very positive step forward" but said the campaign would prefer that Wasserman Schultz "be removed or that she step down."

"That's really the best course for the party," he said. "I find it hard to believe that at the convention there won't be hundreds or a couple of thousand people booing when she comes on stage, despite our efforts to make sure that doesn't happen."