I am proud to stand with her today”: Bernie Sanders makes it official, finally endorses Hillary Clinton

More than a month after securing enough delegates to become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton finally received the biggest endorsement of this cycle. “Secretary Clinton has won the Democratic nominating process and I congratulate her for that,” Bernie Sanders declared on Tuesday, standing besides his beaming former rival. “I have come here to make it as clear as possible as to why I am endorsing Hillary Clinton.”

While not quite as symbolic as her first joint appearance with one-time rival Barack Obama in Unity, New Hampshire, after the 2008 Democratic primary, Clinton finally saw her long-awaited unification with Sanders in the Granite State Tuesday. The endorsement comes two weeks before the start of the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. “I intend to do everything I can to make certain she will be the next president of the United States,” Sanders told a cheering crowd at a joint rally of both Clinton and Sanders supporters in Portsmouth. Sanders, the Independent senator from neighboring Vermont, defeated Clinton by a wide margin in New Hampshire, the nation’s first primary. While many of Trump’s primary challengers have yet to endorse him, Clinton has enjoyed the support of Democratic heavyweights like President Obama, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden on the campaign trail. Her surprisingly competitive upstart challenger, however, has been reluctant to publicly push her campaign until today. “Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president and I am proud to stand with her here today,” he boomed. “Together we have begun a political revolution to transform America, and that revolution continues.” “Hillary Clinton believes that we must substantially lower student debt, and that we must make public colleges and universities tuition free for the middle class and working families of this country,” he assured his hesitant supporters, lauding his campaign’s achievements pushing Clinton to the left. “I am happy to tell you that…we produced by far the most Progressive platform [in history].” “I learned that this campaign is not about Clinton, Trump, or Sanders…[it’s] about the needs of the American people,” he continued. “This is about moving the U.S. towards universal health care.”