WASHINGTON, June 12 (UPI) — Bernie Sanders will meet with Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night in Washington, D.C., as a step toward working with his Democratic presidential rival.
“I look forward to sitting down with Secretary Clinton to see what kind of platform she is going to support and, in fact, how aggressive she is going to be in addressing the major crises that we face,” the Vermont senator said in an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Sanders said his top concerns are income inequality, healthcare and student loan debt.
Clinton became the presumptive nominee last week after winning several primaries Tuesday, including in California. Clinton has 2,784 delegates, including 581 superdelegates, according to RealClearPolitics and needs 2,382 to become the nominee at the national convention in July in Philadelphia.
But Sanders said his campaign would continue through the convention. The only remaining primary is Tuesday in the District of Columbia.
“I think we do need to change the primary and caucus system in a profound way,” he told John Dickerson on CBS. “I think the idea that 400 superdelegates were on board Secretary Clinton’s campaign eight months or nine months before the first ballot was cast in Iowa is totally absurd.”
His No. 1 goal now is helping defeat presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“First of all, I will do everything that I can to make sure that Donald Trump does not become president of the United States,” he said. “I think the fact that we have a candidate running on a campaign of bigotry … is just not the kind of president, obviously, that this country needs.”
And another priority is the convention platform.
“Generally speaking a platform is a piece of paper tucked away in some kind of drawer but I do not want that to be the case,” he said.
At a campaign rally outside RFK Stadium in Washington on Thursday, hours after meeting with President Barack Obama, he said, “Here we are in mid-June, and we’re still standing!”
