23:47

After Clinton’s string of victories on Tuesday, her campaign said her lead would be “very hard to overtake” but stopped short of saying it was insurmountable. The campaign also refused to call on Sanders to exit the race, writes the Guardian’s Lauren Gambino:

“It is not up to us when the Democratic primary ends,” Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton’s communications director, told reporters after Clinton’s speech in Florida. “But we believe that it is a very strong lead, twice the size of any lead Senator Obama had as a candidate over then Senator Clinton.”

Clinton takes the stage in West Palm Beach, Florida. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

Palmieri added: “When she ran against president Obama in 2008 she stayed in until the end. She said that she would never call on someone to drop out.”

But soon after Clinton’s speech ended, Correct the Record, a Super pac backing Clinton’s candidacy, said Tuesday’s victories “effectively ended the Democratic nomination for president” and taunted Sanders for staying in the race.



“If Sanders soldiers on, it will be for the same reason he made a politically calculating decision to run as a Democrat to begin with: to get media coverage for his own personal ambition,” said Brad Woodhouse, the Pac’s president.