Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist and underdog presidential nominee, has seemingly admitted that his campaign against front-runner Hillary Clinton has ended in defeat. In a taped C-SPAN interview that aired Wednesday, Senator Sanders stated, "It doesn't appear that I'm going to be the nominee."
This appearance is based on the 389 pledged delegates Sanders trails to Clinton with just over a month before the Democrats will hold their national convention in July. Despite his remarks to C-SPAN, Sanders has yet to officially drop from the presidential race.
Sanders' comments followed a question about whether or not he would be speaking at the DNC next month. Sanders also added that he has met with Hillary Clinton in recent weeks that the meeting was "very good."
The Senator further noted,
Where we are right now, what we are trying to do, which is no secret to anybody, is A) to create the most progressive platform that we possibly can, reflecting the needs of working families and students, and the environment, health care and so forth. And secondly, we are trying to do nothing less than transform the Democratic party.
He also rejected Donald Trump's comments, made Wednesday during a press conference in New York City, in which Trump invited Sanders supporters to join him in his quest to defeat Hillary Clinton. In his remarks, Sanders called Trump "literally unfit" for the presidency:
I think the vast majority of the people who voted for me understand that Donald Trump, in a dozen different ways, is literally unfit to be president of the United States.
As for where this leaves dedicated Sanders supporters, a new Bloomberg Politicsnational poll of voters shows that nearly half have no pledged intentions of supporting Clinton in the general election. 55 percent of those who currently favor Sanders said they would vote for Clinton in November, while 22 percent claim they'll vote instead for Trump. Even Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson got a chunk of Sanders supporters, with 18 percent of those polled saying they’d vote for the third-party candidate.
In order for Sanders to take the nomination, there would need to be an unprecedented shift among the party's superdelegates, many of whom have stated they will vote for Clinton.
