Hinting at a unifying effort to neatly tie up the Democratic nomination process, Vice President Joe Biden said that Bernie Sanders plans to announce his endorsement of rival Hillary Clinton. However, soon after the news broke, the senator from Vermont pumped the brakes, saying he’s “not quite there yet.”
In an interview excerpt with NPR’s Weekend Edition published Thursday, Biden said he spoke to Sanders, whom he claimed is “going to endorse her, this is going to work out.”
“The Democrats are coalescing even before this occurs,” he added.
Later in the evening, during an appearance on MSNBC, Sanders confirmed that he did in fact speak with the vice president three weeks ago by his estimate, but that while he pledged to put in work to defeat presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, there are still some issues with which he hopes to further find common ground with Clinton.
“Right now my hope is that we can reach an agreement on some very important issues and I can go forward to the millions of people who supported me and say, ‘Look, this is the progress that you’ve made. This is where we’re gonna go as a country,'” Sanders said.
“So, I hope it happens. As of this moment, we’re not there quite yet,” he added.
Biden, who last year was mulling a presidential run of his own, will hit the campaign trail for Clinton next month, making an appearance with the former secretary of state in Scranton, Pa.
