early and often

Hillary Clinton: ‘There’s No Way I Won’t Be’ the Nominee

Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton
Clinton/Sanders ‘16? Photo: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images; Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

It seems Hillary Clinton is now referring to herself as the presumptive Democratic nominee. In an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Thursday that covered several subjects, Clinton implied she’s past pretending the Democratic primary is still an open contest. “I will be the nominee for my party, Chris,” she said. “That is already done, in effect. There is no way that I won’t be.”

Clinton also said Bernie Sanders would need to “do his part” to bring the party together before the general election, pointing out that even after her long and sometimes nasty primary race against then–Senator Barack Obama in 2008, she moved quickly to endorse Obama after she lost.

Despite his campaign’s anti-Clinton attitude in recent weeks, Clinton neither embraced nor ruled out the idea of sharing the ticket with Sanders as a means of unifying the party. “I won’t get into that,” she said. “That’s something down the road.”

Naturally, the Sanders campaign reacted with indignation to Clinton’s assertion that she had the nomination locked up.

In the past three weeks, voters in Indiana, West Virginia and Oregon respectfully disagreed with Secretary Clinton,” his campaign said in a statement issued later on Thursday. “We expect voters in the remaining eight contests also will disagree. And with almost every national and state poll showing Senator Sanders doing much, much better than Secretary Clinton against Donald Trump, it is clear that millions of Americans have growing doubts about the Clinton campaign.”

Clinton: ‘There’s No Way I Won’t Be’ the Nominee