President Obama said Thursday that Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have grown a little “grumpy” with each other, but predicted that the Democratic primary contest would be over by the convention at the end of July and both sides will mend fences.
“It’s been my view to let this play out, let voters make up their minds and during primaries people get a little grumpy with each other,” he said. “It’s just the nature of the process.”
“When you’re having to report every day on campaigns that every little blip, speed bump, conflict, trash-talking that takes place is elevated,” he added later.
After two hard-fought campaigns, he said he’s learned that that kind of “day-to-day choppiness is not indicative of longer-term trends.”
Obama didn’t weigh in, nor was he asked, about whether Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., should remain as the chair of the Democratic National Committee during a week in which Democratic activists have questioned whether she should remain there. Sanders has also announced his support for her primary challenger.
Instead, Obama tried to characterize the Democratic divisions as similar to those he experienced during his own Democratic primary contest with Clinton in 2008, which escalate in the heat of an intense campaign only to dissipate afterward.
“You start off [in a primary] and everybody’s thinking this is fine, this is going to be a friendly competition, we’re gong to debate ideas,” he said. “And then somebody says one thing and then another person says another thing and that felt a little sharper than I expected… and somebody’s supporter pops off and there’s a certain build-up of aggravation.”
But, he stressed, at the end of the day, “there’s not that big of a difference ideologically” between Clinton and Sanders.
Both, he said, believe that every American should have healthcare, that college should be more affordable, and that it’s important to close corporate tax loopholes to pay for new infrastructure spending and early childhood education programs.
“They’re differences are primarily tactical,” he said.
Once the primary process is resolved, he said, Democrats should focus on the “ability for us to pull together around a common vision that is in sharp contrast with the vision that is being offered by the other side.”
That ability, he argued, is “I think is one that will get done by the time of the convention.”
He urged Clinton and Sanders to “stick to the issues” and avoid personal attacks or ones about personality or “character” because he believes that’s where “a lot of the grumpiness arises.”
“They’re both good people, I know them well,” he said. “I think it’s important for us to try to end this in a way that leaves both sides feeling proud of what they have done, and both sides have run serious competitive races and debates issues in a serious way so I’m proud of Democrats for dong that.”
