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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders during a campaign rally on New Haven Green in New Haven, Conn. | AP Photo Clinton camp: 'Virtually impossible' for Sanders to catch us after tonight

If Bernie Sanders loses all five states up for grabs and falls further behind Hillary Clinton in the pledged delegate count, the Democratic front-runner's chief strategist said Tuesday that Sanders has a "virtually impossible" task in front of him.

"Right now, Hillary Clinton with five contests tonight which we’re working very hard to win," chief pollster and strategist Joel Benenson told MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports." "We believe we are going to expand our lead in pledged delegates."

He continued, "It’s going to, you know, make it virtually impossible for Senator Sanders to catch us after this as the nominee."

Referring to Sanders' comments at an MSNBC town hall the previous night in which he said he would work to prevent a Republican from being elected president, Benenson remarked that if the Vermont senator "stays true to his words last night, then he will be out there helping the nominees."

"But those are his decisions to make," Benenson said. "We are confident that Hillary Clinton will be at the top of the ticket leading the Democratic Party in November and in a spirited race against Mr. Trump, be elected president of the United States."

Benenson echoed those points in an earlier interview on CNN, in which he declined to tell Sanders to get out of the race but also said Clinton's campaign would welcome his supporters.

"We want everyone's support," he told CNN. "I think we can win this election by running a campaign on the issues, the kind of issues we've talked about and debated with Bernie Sanders where we have a lot more agreement than disagreement. That's why I think he will be with us in the fall."

