ABC/ Ida Mae Astute(WASHINGTON) — Bernie Sanders said Sunday morning that he will likely meet with Hillary Clinton on Tuesday evening, the same day the Democratic Party’s nominating process officially comes to a close with the final primary in Washington, D.C. An aide with the Clinton campaign also confirmed the meeting to ABC News.
During an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, the Vermont senator said the two of them would discuss Clinton’s priorities as well as the party’s platform, which he hoped would be the “most progressive” the party has adopted to date.
“What I need to see is a commitment that there will be progressive taxation, that Wall Street and the large corporations who are making billions of dollars a year and billionaires start paying their fair share of taxes so we can address the crises facing inner cities and the fact that we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on Earth,” Sanders said.
He also discussed other key parts of his own agenda such as expanding health care, fighting climate change, and making public colleges tuition free, which he hoped to discuss with Clinton, too.
“I think what millions of people really want to understand and see is what kind of commitment she has to addressing the real crises in this country and transforming the Democratic Party away from a party which simply is there in many respects, to raise money from the wealthy into a party which listens to the pain of a declining middle class,” Sanders said.
Last week, Sanders met with President Barack Obama just hours before Obama endorsed Clinton. On This Week, Sanders said he hoped to continue to work with party leaders to transform the Democratic Party into a more “grassroots” party and said he was most proud of his small dollar fundraising machine and success with small voters.
Sanders has not formally conceded to Clinton nor suspended his campaign, and he promised last week to continue to compete in the primary in Washington, D.C. That said, his tone last week and over the weekend shifted significantly as he shifted his remarks on the importance of beating the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump and less on securing the delegates needed to win the nomination.
Sanders said it was unlikely that he would be Clinton’s vice presidential pick at this point, but said he hoped to see the former Secretary of State choose a running mate ready to represent the progressive wing of the party.
Clinton met with another progressive superstar, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, on Friday, as speculation continued to swirl that Warren could be on Clinton’s short-list for a vice presidential pick. Sanders talked briefly with Stephanopoulos about his admiration for Warren.
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