Nicole Gaudiano

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bernie Sanders won’t be the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, but his influence on party priorities was evident Wednesday.

A day after Hillary Clinton claimed the nomination, Sanders supporters on a committee drafting the party platform played an active role in the first of a series of regional public hearings across the country. Former Attorney General Eric Holder, one of the witnesses at the hearing, found himself on the defensive when civil rights activist Cornel West asked why there isn't an “equal application of the law when it comes to Wall Street,” a common target for Sanders.

“How can we ensure as we write this platform that we have got some serious law enforcement when it comes to crime on Wall Street?” asked West, one of five supporters selected by Sanders to serve on the 15-member committee.

Holder acknowledged the Justice Department has been criticized for not charging Wall Street executives in connection with the housing crisis, saying the reason wasn’t lack of desire or resources. He urged the platform drafting committee to consider the standards of proof required for economic crimes.

“If you think we could have made those cases, do you think we would not have?” he asked.

Sanders has made a priority of fighting for “the strongest progressive agenda that any political party has ever seen.” He was granted five platform drafting committee members – just one fewer than Clinton – after he pressured Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to give him strong representation on the committees that will guide the Democratic National Convention in July.

Sen. Bernie Sanders aims to maximize impact on Democratic platform

Climate activist and Vermont author Bill McKibben, one of the Sanders supporters on the drafting committee, said he'll push the Vermont senator's ideas as the committee crafts the platform, which will get a vote at the convention.

“I think it’s got to be one of the vehicles for uniting people in a common effort against Donald Trump,” said McKibben. “There are millions and millions and millions of people who (Sanders) brought into this process. So it’s good to see those views represented so far here.”

Key losses on Tuesday in primaries in California and New Jersey guarantee Sanders has no chance at the nomination. Clinton claimed victory in a historic speech Tuesday night after surpassing the 2,383 delegates needed to become the presumptive nominee. Her delegate haul includes superdelegates, party leaders and elected officials who can vote for the candidate of their choice at the convention.

But Sanders has long pledged to fight for every delegate possible to increase his leverage at the party convention in July. He will hold a rally Thursday in Washington, which holds the party’s final primary on Tuesday.

“We are going to fight for every vote in Tuesday's primary in Washington, D.C., and then we will bring our political revolution to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia,” he wrote in a fundraising email on Wednesday.

Sanders says 'the struggle continues' even as Clinton declares victory

Sanders will meet with President Obama at the White House on Thursday, a meeting he requested. He will meet later with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

“Bernie’s going to do the right thing,” Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the first member of Congress to endorse Sanders' presidential bid, said Wednesday. “I think his conversation with the president will be about unifying the party.”

Sanders, who flew home to Burlington, Vt.,on Wednesday, had hoped a strong performance in Tuesday’s contests would help him make the case to superdelegates that they should switch their allegiance from Clinton to him. His surrogates had been calling superdelegates, hoping to convince them he’s the better candidate to defeat presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.

Asked Wednesday whether those calls have been suspended, Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said, “Nothing has changed.”

But Grijalva, who testified on immigration reform at Wednesday's platform drafting committee hearing, said he'll hold off on lobbying superdelegates on Sanders' behalf until the Vermont senator tells him to do so.

Jim Zogby, a DNC official representing Sanders on the platform drafting committee, also said he won’t follow up with superdelegates until he hears from the campaign, given Sanders' loss in California.

“It’s obviously a different story now,” he said. “The senator will decide. I will do what the campaign decides to do.”

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