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The win helps Clinton extend her already strong lead over the Vermont senator.Video provided by Newsy Newslook
Hillary Clinton delivers remarks at a primary night campaign event on April 26, 2016, in Philadelphia.(Photo: Win McNamee, Getty Images)
Hillary Clinton was declared the winner in the Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut <span style="color: Red;">*</span>and<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Delaware primaries<span style="color: Red;">*</span>by news organizations Tuesday night as she was poised<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>put the Democratic nomination mathematically out of reach for Sen. Bernie Sanders.
But Sanders was the winner in Rhode Island, and he made<span style="color: Red;">*</span>clear he is not<span style="color: Red;">*</span>getting out of the race. Shortly after Clinton was declared the Maryland winner,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sanders told a West Virginia rally that<span style="color: Red;">*</span>he expects to win that state's May 10 primary and that general election polls show him as a stronger candidate against Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton.
“The reason that we are generating this enthusiasm is because we are doing something very unusual in contemporary American politics,” Sanders said. “We are telling the truth," he said, without mentioning Clinton by name during an extended version of his stump speech.
Clinton, speaking to a crowd in Philadelphia,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>made a direct appeal Sanders’ progressive backers, stressing all of the areas of agreement among Democrats and saying she wants to speak to those “who feel beaten down, left out and left behind.”
“Our campaign is about restoring people’s confidence in our ability to solve problems together” and setting bold progressive goals “backed up by real plans,” she said, vowing to build on "a strong progressive tradition" dating to Franklin Roosevelt.
Clinton added,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"I applaud Sen.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Sanders" for pushing the party to focus on<span style="color: Red;">*</span>money in politics and income inequality. Among her supporters and Sanders' supporters,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>"there is much more that unites us than divides us," Clinton said.
The big question beginning Wednesday is whether Sanders will continue<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to hammer<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Clinton — including over her prior<span style="color: Red;">*</span>paid Wall Street speeches — as she attempts to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>pivot to a general election campaign.
Clinton is expected to<span style="color: Red;">*</span>have about 90% of the delegates needed to clinch the nomination after all the votes are counted Tuesday. Sanders himself acknowledged in an MSNBC forum Monday night “it will be very hard for us to win” if he continues to lose ground in the pledged delegate count.
Yet a new poll from USA TODAY/Suffolk University found 40% of Sanders’ voters aren’t sure they’ll vote for Clinton, and Republican Donald Trump has been invoking him in lobbing attacks on her. "The Democrats have treated Bernie very badly," Trump said in his victory speech, suggesting Sanders should run as an independent.
USA TODAY
Poll: Trump, Clinton face divides in their parties even if they win nominations
In her own appearance on MSNBC Monday,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Clinton seemed to implore Sanders to let up on his critiques by referencing her own role in rallying her supporters behind then-senator Barack Obama in 2008.
“I did not put down conditions. I did not say, you know what, if Senator Obama does X, Y and Z, I will support Senator Obama,” she said. ”I spent an enormous amount of time convincing my supporters to support Senator Obama.”
Still, Sanders, who sees himself as the father of a new political movement that’s already pushed Clinton leftward on issues including trade agreements and the Keystone pipeline, doesn’t appear ready to ease off.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>As Clinton’s victories rolled in, Sanders spoke for over an hour, hitting all of his core issues, including income inequality, a “corrupt campaign finance system,” a “rigged economy,” and Wall Street greed.
Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator and Sanders surrogate, told MSNBC,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“I got some breaking news. Senator Bernie Sanders is not getting out of this race.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>He is going all the way to the convention.”
USA TODAY
Analysis: 4 ways to see the emerging and polarizing Clinton-Trump fall campaign
Going in to Tuesday's voting,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Clinton's delegate<span style="color: Red;">*</span>lead stood<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at 1,946 to 1,192, according to a count by the Associated Press, which includes<span style="color: Red;">*</span>about 500 party leaders known as "superdelegates" who have endorsed Clinton.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>That put<span style="color: Red;">*</span>her at 81%<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of the 2,383 delegates needed<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to win the nomination. By late Tuesday she had<span style="color: Red;">*</span>2,100 delegates, and was likely to end the night about 250 delegates short of clinching the nomination.
Clinton's goal is now to court voters like Joel Nagourney, a Democrat from Bethesda, Md. Nagourney<span style="color: Red;">*</span>voted for Bernie Sanders despite explaining that he knows he is a long shot. “There’s an old saying that you vote with your heart at first and you vote with your head the second time. This time, I voted with my heart, and in the fall, I’ll vote for Hillary.”
For her part, Clinton is<span style="color: Red;">*</span>making clear her focus is no longer Sanders, rather Republicans. <span style="color: Red;">*</span>In her victory speech Tuesday night, she answered his latest attack on her, that she is playing "the woman card."
If that means advocating for women's health care and equal rights, "then deal me in," said Clinton.
Bernie Sanders addresses the crowd during a campaign rally at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena, on April 26, 2016, in Huntington, W.Va.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>(Photo: John Sommers II, Getty Images)
She also hit him<span style="color: Red;">*</span>at an earlier get-out-the-vote event in Wilmington.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“You know, at some point, if you want to be president of the United States, you’ve got to get familiar with the United States.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>You’ve got to spend time with Americans of all sorts and backgrounds in every part of our country,” Clinton said .
“Don’t just fly that big jet in and land it and go make a big speech and insult everybody you can think of. And then go back, get on that big jet, and go back to your country club house in Florida or your penthouse in New York,” Clinton said.
Contributing: Nicholas Zazulia, Medill News Service
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