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Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president on Monday during a livestream with the two men, telling Biden “we need you in the White House.”

“I’m asking every Democrat, I’m asking every independent, I’m asking a lot of Republicans to come together in this campaign to support your candidacy, which I endorse,” Sanders said.

Sanders exited the Democratic primary on Wednesday, effectively making Biden the apparent nominee to take on President Donald Trump in November.

The endorsement was expected, though the timing was a surprise, and could give Biden a boost as he seeks to rally the party’s young liberals who backed Sanders in 2016 and again in 2020.

© Provided by CNBC Democratic presidential hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden (C) and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders shake hands ahead of the third Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season hosted by ABC News in partnership with Univision at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas on September 12, 2019. Biden called the endorsement a “big deal,” including to him personally.

“If I am the nominee, which it looks like now you just made me, I am going to need you, not just to win the campaign, but to govern,” Biden said.

The two men have apparently been in talks in recent weeks. Sanders said that his staff had been working with Biden’s staff to come up with a number of “task forces” to address the pressing issues of the day, listing the economy, education, climate, criminal justice, immigration reform and health care.

“It’s no great secret Joe that you and I have our differences, and we are not going to paper them over. That’s real,” Sanders said. “But I hope that these task forces will come together, utilizing the best minds and people in your campaign and in my campaign, to work out real solutions to these very, very important problems.”

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