Some Bernie Sanders fans want President Obama to back off

Sen. Bernie Sanders supporters at a rally

(Image credit: David McNew/Getty Images)

published 9 June 2016

If President Obama wants to successfully encourage Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to support Hillary Clinton, he's going to have to word his pitch very carefully. Politico reports Sanders supporters are already bristling at the suggestion that Obama might try to push Sanders "to end the fight prematurely" in their meeting Thursday. "The president is not Senator Sanders' boss. We've got to get this straight here," Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator and a Sanders supporter, told Politico. "There's respect that's for the commander in chief ... But Senator Sanders is duly elected, and he'll make his own decisions."

Strategists contend Obama will have to use flattery rather than force. "They don't want to see him shoved to the side," one Democratic strategist told Politico. "A lot of love is going to be more productive than a lot of pressure. There's a strain out there that just wants to hit [Sanders] with a two-by-four and say, 'get out.' The better course is to show appreciation and engagement and show how much the party needs this guy."

Turner seemed to agree. The Sanders supporter said that while Obama should definitely "weigh in on these kinds of things," he just needs to "make sure it's not in a way that you are dictating to progressives." "It should be more of we hear you, and this is what we are willing to do," Turner said.