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Bernie Sanders Urges Reluctant Supporters to Back Hillary Clinton

Sen. Bernie Sanders argued on Sunday that his signature issues stood the best chance of being addressed by a President Hillary Clinton.
Image: U.S. Senator Sanders endorses Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Clinton during campaign rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders endorses Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during a campaign rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, U.S., July 12, 2016.BRIAN SNYDER / Reuters

While acknowledging that some of his supporters "will not vote" for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders argued on Sunday that his signature issues stood a better chance of being addressed by a President Clinton than they would by a President Donald Trump.

"I would tell all of my supporters, and we got over 13 million votes, to take a hard look at the issues impacting the American people," Sanders said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "Which candidate, for example, wants to overturn this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, which allows billionaires to buy elections and is undermining American democracy? That is Hillary Clinton's position."

Sanders continued to say that he took issue with Trump's economic plans and contended that the Republican nominee was "running a campaign based on bigotry."

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"Which candidate wants to give huge tax breaks to billionaires amidst massive levels of income and wealth inequality? That's Donald Trump ... Which candidate is trying to bring us together, which is Hillary Clinton, and which candidate is trying to divide us up running a campaign based on bigotry? That's Donald Trump."

Sanders then said he would ask his supporters to "get away from the personality conflicts that media tries to bring forward."

Host John Dickerson pressed him on why some of his supporters were remained unswayed by Sanders' breakdown of the issues.

While conceding that there is "no doubt that there are some of those people who will not vote for Hillary Clinton," Sanders insisted that he would "vigorously" campaign on her behalf.

"In that capacity, I surely will do everything that I can to make sure that a Clinton administration and a Democratic Senate and the House, to the degree that I can, stands up for working families, is prepared to take on the billionaire class, is prepared to try to create a vibrant democracy not allowing billionaires to buy elections," he told Dickerson. "I will do all of those things."