By Tim Marcin
Presumptive Republican
nominee Donald Trump made a bold pitch to supporters of Democratic presidential
candidate Bernie Sanders on Wednesday.
"We’re asking Bernie
Sanders voters to join our movement so together we can fix the system for
all Americans," Trump said during a speech in New York City.
Sanders has
not officially dropped out of the Democratic race, but his rival, former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has secured enough delegates to effectively
lock up the nomination. If and when the Vermont senator bows out,
where his backers migrate could be a major factor in deciding the 2016
race.
In an interview with
C-SPAN, Sanders indicated he didn't think his voters would back Trump.
"Well, I suspect he ain't
gonna get too many of those [voters]," Sanders said. "I think
the vast majority of people who voted for me understand that Donald Trump in a
dozen different ways is literally unfit to be president of the United
States."
The businessman has
made "bigotry the cornerstone of his campaign," Sanders said.
A recent
poll indicates that Trump — a brash, divisive figure —
could already have the support of a sizable chunk of Sanders' base, should
their preferred candidate exit the race. A Bloomberg Politics national poll released last week found that Trump
pulled 22 percent of Sanders' supporters. Clinton still received the
lion's share of her Democratic rival's backers, earning 55 percent.
In perhaps a bit of a surprise, Libertarian
candidate Gary Johnson — who recently
sat down for a one-on-one with
International Business Times — got 18 percent. The Bloomberg poll
talked with 1,000 adults, including 750 who said they're likely to vote in
November's general election. The margin of error among likely voters
was 3.6 percentage points, and 3.1 percentage points among all
respondents.
The Vermont senator dominated
the young demographic, earning more votes from people under 30 than Clinton and
Trump combined, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and
Engagement (Circle). Trump earned about one-third of the youth vote in
the Republican primaries, while more than 40 percent of his supporters
were 45 years or older, according to Circle.
For his part, Sanders has said
he would work to stop Trump. "The major political task that we face in the
next five months is to make certain that Donald Trump is defeated and defeated
badly," Sanders told supporters in a recent video. "And I personally
intend to begin my role in that process in a very short period of time."
He stopped short, however,
of endorsing Clinton.
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