Two of Sanders' congressional supporters say that it's time for him to exit the race

Bernie Sanders.
(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Two of Sen. Bernie Sanders' top congressional supporters aren't onboard with the candidate's decision to "continue to fight," even after Hillary Clinton claimed the Democratic Party's nomination Tuesday. In an interview with The Washington Post's Greg Sargent, Sanders' sole supporter in the Senate, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), pushed Sanders to put the nomination battle behind him and move forward in supporting Clinton. "This is the moment when we need to start bringing parts of the party together so they can go into the convention with locked arms and go out of the convention unified into the general election," Merkley said. He added that he "would not support a battle that involves trying to flip superdelegates."

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, offered a similar assessment of the situation. "The reality is unattainable at some point," Grijalva told Sargent. "You deal with that. Bernie is going to deal with this much more rapidly than you think. At some point, when we're trying to flip 400 superdelegates, and it's not gaining traction, I think you have to come to the conclusion that it's not going to happen."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us