Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday that he plans to meet Tuesday night with Hillary Clinton about her agenda as the Democratic presidential nominee and will make other decisions about the future of his campaign after that.
“I simply want to get a sense of what kind of platform she will be supporting, whether she will be vigorous in standing up for working families and the middle class, moving aggressively in climate change, health care for all, making public colleges and universities tuition-free,” Sanders, I-Vt., said during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And after we have that kind of discussion, and after we can determine whether or not we are going to have a strong and progressive platform, I will be able to make other decisions.”
Sanders told host Chuck Todd that he will have more than 1,900 delegates at the convention and that he needs to determine “what kind of agenda there will be if Secretary Clinton gets elected, if she wins the election.”
During a separate TV appearance Sunday, Sanders said he thinks it is “very unlikely” that Clinton would pick him as her vice-presidential running mate.
Asked about the prospect of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., filling that slot, Sanders said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” that he is a “great admirer” of Warren.
Asked on the same show if Clinton is capable of leading a “political revolution” — a phrase that has motivated Sanders’s campaign — Sanders said she was not, but that she could implement some solid progressive policies.
“Will she got as far as I would like her to go? No, she won’t,” Sanders said.
“Meet the Press” and “This Week” were two of four morning talk shows on which Sanders was scheduled to appear Sunday.
The interviews are his first since Sanders met with President Barack Obama on Thursday, the same day that Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Warren endorsed Clinton.
The senator from Vermont said Thursday that he plans to compete in the final Democratic primary of the year, Tuesday in the District of Columbia, making good on his pledge to stay in the race until all voters have had a chance to weigh in on the nomination.
Sanders previously vowed to stay in the race until the convention, in a last-ditch attempt to win the nomination by flipping the allegiances of hundreds of superdelegates who’ve previously announced their support for Clinton, the party’s presumptive nominee.
He made no mention of that during his “Meet the Press” or “This Week” interviews on Sunday.
As of Sunday, Clinton had accumulated 2,784 delegates, including superdelegates, more than 400 needed to clinch the nomination, according to the latest Associated Press tally, which put Sanders’s’ total at 1,877.
To have a shot at wresting the nomination from Clinton, Sanders would need to flip the allegiances at least 400 of the 581 superdelegates who have announced their support for Clinton — about 70 percent of them.
Sanders was scheduled to gather Sunday night with leading supporters in Burlington, Vermont, to discuss his future.