Hillary Clinton revealed that she felt “disappointed” when Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took his time endorsing her for president and expressed her hope that he would treat other candidates differently in 2020.
While Clinton cinched the number of delegates to secure her party’s nomination on June 7, 2016, her then-opponent Sanders took more than a month before he officially endorsed her.
Asked by radio host Howard Stern Wednesday whether Sanders could have thrown his support behind her in a more timely manner, the former secretary of state answered affirmatively.
“He could’ve. He hurt me. There’s no doubt about it, he hurt me,” she said.
Sanders’ concession to Clinton was a culmination of more than a year of inner-party turmoil. When he made his announcement at a New Hampshire high school on July 12, 2016, Sanders supporters could be heard jeering Clinton and threatening to withhold their votes for her in the general election, according to The New York Times. Two weeks later, Sanders addressed a crowd that booed him when he referenced his support for Clinton.
But Clinton clarified that she was not “upset” with Sanders.
“No, disappointed,” she told Stern. “And I hope he doesn’t do it again to whoever gets the nomination.”
Although he is generally ranked among the top Democratic presidential contenders, Sanders is facing a dramatically wider set of competitors this time around ― some of whom have voiced support for the same kind of progressive policy proposals he championed in 2016.