Democratic senators want to hear a concession speech from Bernie Sanders — soon.

Hillary Clinton’s coronation as the presumptive Democratic nominee has ratcheted up frustration with Sanders’ defiant fight for the Democratic nomination, exposing divisions when party leaders want the spotlight trained on Donald Trump's flaws. But Sanders' campaign remained unyielding after The Associated Press called the nomination for Clinton, with one top aide calling the news outlet's declaration "one of the most appalling things I’ve seen in a long time."


“He should stand down now. That’s my conclusion,” said Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida. “Democrats will come together after the convention, anyway. But it’s an unnecessary diversion at this point.”

Democrats believe they have Republicans on the ropes after Trump’s repeated allegations that a federal judge overseeing a case against Trump University can’t be impartial because of his Mexican heritage. Anything distracting from that is a wasted opportunity, they say.

“It’s time to focus on making sure there’s an adult in the White House and not Donald Trump,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). Sanders’ leverage over the Democratic platform could “reach a point of diminishing returns” if he refuses to concede to Clinton soon, the senator added.

And as Sanders disregards Clinton’s insurmountable lead, his continued campaign is obscuring Clinton’s historic status as the first female presumptive nominee from a major party.

“We expect to hear Secretary Clinton claim this historic, fantastic result,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland said Tuesday. “We’ll wait to see what [Sanders] does tomorrow or the day after. Today is Hillary’s day. Today is Hillary’s day. Today is Hillary’s day.”

If Sanders suspends his campaign — or even stays in the race and aims all of his fire at Trump, the animosity among Democrats would dissipate quickly. But Sanders has built a nationwide, multimillion-voter movement of progressives based on antipathy for Clinton’s pragmatism. The Vermont independent showed little interest in declaring the campaign over before Tuesday’s primaries in states including California and New Jersey.

But The AP’s call for Clinton undermined one of Sanders’ core arguments that he has some path to the nomination. And top Democrats worry that if he stays in until the convention, the ongoing rift could overshadow Trump’s disastrous reception by members of his own party.

“The biggest threat is Donald Trump becoming president, and [Sanders] needs to do all he can to make sure that doesn’t happen,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.

Sanders has more capital with the party than at any time in his career — and he could use it to try to change the party platform and extract concessions from Democratic honchos if he begins sending signals that he will back down, Democratic sources said.

But that capital will diminish the longer he stays in the race, Democrats said.

“He has an opportunity to take parts of his movement and what he believed in and see it become part of the Democratic Party mainstream. But the only way he can achieve that is by coming together and supporting Secretary Clinton as the nominee,” said Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey. “I’d like to see him to do it as early as possible.”

Most Democrats say that directly calling on Sanders to drop out might be counterproductive. His supporters are hardened against the party establishment and bristle at suggestions that Sanders needs to wrap up his candidacy or stop exposing differences with Clinton.

But with Clinton’s ascendancy and new status as presumptive nominee, it’s getting harder and harder for some Democrats to contain themselves.

“If Bernie claims to be a good Democrat, that’s what he would do,” said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), when asked whether Sanders should concede. “Hillary had to come to the same conclusion eight years ago. So it’s very clear this is how it’s done.”

But Manchin wondered aloud what “incentive” Sanders has to rejoin the fold with the caucus’ Clinton supporters, given that Sanders is not a Democrat but still an independent and may see little reason to play nice. Perhaps Sanders will be motivated by the fact that he will eventually have to work with his Democratic colleagues again.

And they may pay him far more heed than when he was a liberal bomb-thrower protesting tax cuts and bipartisan deals. Or, if Sanders takes things all the way to the convention, they may not.

“It all depends on if he’s willing to be a team player and willing to come together and help the party move on and not create a problem. You go out and you’re trying to turn over all these superdelegates — not going to work. But the effort is divisive in and of itself,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California said.

Asked to expand, she replied: “OK. Enough’s enough.” Then she walked away.

Indeed, some in the party seemed pained as they contemplated how to urge Sanders to wind things down after weeks of trying to nudge him out of the race. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said last week that Sanders is “going to lose” and suggested that perhaps the Vermont senator should “give up” given the state of the race.

Asked on Tuesday whether Sanders should concede, Reid demurred: “I’m not going to get into that. I’m not going to talk about it.”

Similarly, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who has been one of Sanders’ toughest critics in the Senate, breezed by reporters eager to ask about Sanders.

“Not going to talk about that!” she said. “We’ve got a vote today.”

The vote was in three hours.

