Clinton on Sanders: ‘I will support the nominee’

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that she “will support the nominee” in 2020 when asked about her 2016 rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

The former secretary of State was asked at the Berlinale film festival — where she was promoting the new documentary about her, “Hillary” — about whether she would support a democratic socialist for the nomination, a scenario the Democratic establishment is increasingly nervous about as Sanders emerges as a clear front-runner. 

“I’m going to wait and see who we nominate,” Clinton said, “I will support the nominee, and it won’t surprise you to hear me say that I think it’s imperative that we retire the incumbent.”

Clinton and Sanders ran a hard-fought primary in 2016 prior to President Trump’s election. In a clip from the docuseries obtained by The Hollywood Reporter last month, Clinton is quoted saying “nobody likes” Sanders, with whom she worked with in the Senate.

“Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done. He was a career politician,” she said. “It’s all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it.”

Clinton has said in the past that she would support whoever the nominee is, though it was before Sanders’s campaign had shown its strength. The Vermont senator came in first in the Nevada caucuses and New Hampshire primary — and a close second in Iowa. 

“I’ve said I’m going to support the nominee,” Clinton told Variety last month. “But I do think it’s important to look at somebody’s record and look at what they’ve gotten done and see whether you agree with that or not. I think that’s what every voter paying attention should do.”

When Variety asked about her critical comments on Sanders, she responded, “I think we did that interview about a year-and-a-half ago. I wasn’t thinking about the election by any means.”