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Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton Talk Truce After She Wins Final Primary

The pair spent more than 90 minutes trying to find common ground and discussing Donald Trump.
Photo by Seth Wenig/AP

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders had a "positive" 90-minute meeting Tuesday evening in an attempt to find common ground on a range of issues, including the danger that Donald Trump poses to the the country, according to statements from their campaigns.

The pair met as Clinton clinched the last remaining primary state, Washington DC, Tuesday night with 79 percent of the vote. Her victory comes a week after Clinton was declared the presumptive democratic nominee and received endorsements from key Democrats, including Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren, and Joe Biden.

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Sanders has so far resisted pressure to bow out and endorse Clinton, instead choosing to continue his campaign as leverage to win concessions from Clinton on the Democratic Party's policy platform and nominating process. But the meeting Tuesday indicated that the pair is at least willing to find "common ground," according to the Sanders campaign.

Both camps described the meeting as "positive" and said the two noted their shared commitment to stopping Trump and pursuing objectives like raising the minimum wage, eliminating undisclosed money in politics, making college affordable, and making healthcare coverage more accessible.

Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said the meeting was "a positive discussion about how best to bring more people into the political process and about the dangerous threat that Donald Trump poses to our nation."

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The Clinton campaign said in a statement both candidates had "a positive discussion about their primary campaign, about unifying the party and about the dangerous threat that Donald Trump poses to our nation."

Also attending were Sanders' wife Jane, his campaign manager Jeff Weaver, Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta, and her campaign manager Robby Mook.

Sanders had promised to stay in the Democratic race until the final vote was cast in the Washington, DC, primary, although in the past week he has stopped talking about capturing the party's nomination and instead focused on ways to advance his policy goals.

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He scheduled a national video address to supporters on Thursday night, telling them in an email message that "the political revolution continues."

At a news conference before the Washington meeting, Sanders said he would also demand changes to make the Democratic nominating process more equitable, including replacing the Democratic National Committee leadership, letting independents take part in the voting and eliminating superdelegates, who are unelected and are free to support any candidate.

"The time is long overdue for a fundamental transformation of the Democratic Party," Sanders said.

Clinton easily beat Sanders in the District of Columbia, winning 38 of 46 delegates to Sanders's 6 in a primary that closed the more than four-month, state-by-state battle for the Democratic nomination that began on Febuary 1 in Iowa.

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During a visit to Capitol Hill earlier on Tuesday, Sanders told Democratic senators he would take his message of progressive values and party reform to the convention.

"I'm open to that, I think we should all be open to that," Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois told reporters afterward. "It's not a surprise that the American people are skeptical of all of us in political life. And we ought to step back and reassess why, and what we can do about it."

Clinton already has turned her attention on the campaign trail to the race with Trump, rejecting the New York businessman's renewed calls for a ban on the entry of foreign-born Muslims into the United States after the mass shooting at a gay club in Orlando, Florida, by an American man who claimed allegiance with Islamic State militants.

"I have clearly said that we faced terrorist enemies who use a perverted version of Islam to justify slaughtering innocent people. We have to stop them, and we will," Clinton said in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday. "But I will not demonize and declare war on an entire religion."