In a livestreamed address, Sanders didn’t drop out or endorse Hillary Clinton, but he didn’t not drop out or not endorse Hillary Clinton either. Instead, Sanders looked backwards—thanking his supporters for their passion and hard work, and taking a deserved victory lap for pushing issues like income inequality into the mainstream—before addressing his political future. This was a representative chunk of the first half of the speech, in which Sanders discussed both big-picture national issues and the pain of individual communities:
This campaign has never been about any single candidate. It is always about transforming America.
It is about ending a campaign finance system which is corrupt and allows billionaires to buy elections.
It is about ending the grotesque level of wealth and income inequality that we are experiencing where almost all new wealth and income goes to the people on top, where the 20 wealthiest people own more wealth than the bottom 150 million.
It is about creating an economy that works for all of us, not just the 1 percent.
It is about ending the disgrace of native Americans who live on the Pine Ridge, South Dakota, reservation having a life expectancy lower than many third-world countries.
Then he made it clear that, while he wouldn’t be conceding just yet, he would be working with Clinton to enact a progressive party platform and defeat Donald Trump in the general election. “It is no secret that Secretary Clinton and I have strong disagreements on some very important issues. It is also true that our views are quite close on others,” Sanders said, delivering his most conciliatory note in months.
But Sanders judging from his remarks, he may not drop out of the race until the convention. “I look forward, in the coming weeks, to continued discussions between the two campaigns to make certain that your voices are heard and that the Democratic Party passes the most progressive platform in its history and that Democrats actually fight for that agenda,” he said. The emphasis was on the word “weeks.”