U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders had a rare Oval Office meeting on Wednesday with President Barack Obama, days after Obama praised Hillary Clinton, Sanders' rival and front-runner in the race to be the Democratic presidential candidate in the Nov. 8 election.
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Democratic presidential hopeful meets with Obama, says president will remain neutral in primary race
Obama suggested Sanders had not faced intense scrutiny and would need to broaden his populist message to go further in the race for the nomination.
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Emerging from the White House after an hour, Sanders said the meeting was "constructive" and that Obama was trying to be as "even-handed" as possible in the race, dismissing commentary that Obama was favoring Clinton, his former secretary of state.
"I know there was some discussion the other day about a Politico interview, where he was tipping the scale toward Secretary Clinton - I don't believe that at all," the Vermont lawmaker told reporters on the White House driveway.
While Obama has not explicitly endorsed a candidate, he showered praise on Clinton's experience in the interview with Politico while noting that Sanders had the "luxury of being a complete long shot."
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The Sanders-Obama meeting came just before the first contests to pick the Democratic and Republican nominees: Iowa, on Monday, and New Hampshire, on Feb. 9. While Sanders has surged in recent opinion polls, Clinton still has the edge nationally.
Sanders said he received an overview of foreign policy issues from Obama and that the two talked "a little politics."
Asked whether Obama, who beat Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2008, had given him advice on how to defeat her, Sanders laughed and said: "No, no."
Obama said he had a "good meeting" with Sanders and noted that he had previously met with Clinton during the campaign.
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