Obama chief: President has met privately with Sanders

President Barack Obama has met privately with Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton several times in recent months, but his chief of staff said Sunday that he's powwowed with her chief rival, Bernie Sanders, too.

"He has seen Senator Sanders, both with the Senate Democratic Caucus and privately," Denis McDonough said on NBC's Meet the Press. "And so, we'll continue to do that. He's obviously a leading senator in our caucus and we'll continue to do just that."


McDonough said Obama won't endorse in the presidential primary, despite his recent signal that he'll weigh in on down-ballot races over gun control issues.

"That's not our job. That's the job of the party to make those decisions and then they'll take a look at the agendas and the positions of those candidates," he said. "Then we'll make some final decisions. ... Well, we'll do exactly what has been done in the past, which is when the nominee will be set, then the President will be out there."

McDonough offered minimal insight into the president's State of the Union address, which he'll deliver Tuesday night.

"You'll hear a big, optimistic generous view of the future of America from the President on Tuesday," he said.

"The President sat us down late last year to say, 'Look, I don't want it to be a list of policy choices,'" he said. "We have a lot of policy and you will hear a lot about that over the course of this year, but what he wants to do is talk about a vision for the future of this country."