President Barack Obama endorsed presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Senator Hillary Clinton, for the November US presidential in a web video Thursday.
“I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office,” Obama said in the 3:15mins video.
“I want those of you who have been with me since the beginning of this incredible journey to be the first to know that I’m with her,” Obama continued. “I am fired up. And I can’t wait to get out there and campaign with Hillary.”
Obama will campaign with Clinton next week in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
“It’s probably the first of many campaign events between now and November,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, adding that no more campaign events are scheduled yet. Earnest said Obama recorded his video Tuesday.
His endorsement made note of the historic nature of Clinton’s being the first female presidential nominee of a major political party. Obama’s endorsement brings full circle a relationship that began when the two were rivals in the hard-fought 2008 Democratic nominating contest.
Clinton thanked Obama for his endorsement in a tweet posted to her account Thursday.
“Honored to have you with me, @POTUS. I’m fired up and ready to go!” she wrote, signing it with ‘-H’ to indicate the tweet was from her personally.
Honored to have you with me, @POTUS. I’m fired up and ready to go! -H
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 9, 2016
Obama’s endorsement comes as Clinton’s rival for the Democratic Party ticket, Senator Bernie Sanders, vowed to work together with the former First Lady to defeat Donald Trump.
Sanders’ decision to continue his White House bid even after Clinton became the party’s presumptive presidential nominee has had Democrats on high alert as they seek to quickly change gears and take on Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Sanders’ first explicit promise on Thursday to join forces with Clinton to take on the Republicans will help quell concerns among Democrats about divisions in the party.
Emerging from the White House after a meeting with Obama that lasted more than an hour, Sanders warned that a Trump presidency would be a “disaster” and that he would “work as hard as I can to make sure that Donald Trump does not become president of the United States.”
“I look forward to meeting with (Clinton) in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump and to create a government which represents all of us and not just the 1%,” Sanders told reporters.
