Hillary Clinton Endorsed For President By Reverend Jesse Jackson

Hillary Clinton, now confirmed to be the Democrat presumptive nominee, today had her bid for president endorsed by civil rights crusader Reverend Jesse Jackson, according to a report from CNN.

Jackson, who had previously been in touch with representatives of both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders to encourage party unity against Donald Trump and the GOP, said that he trusts Hillary Clinton to look out for the interests of marginalized people in America, including refugees, immigrants, and the poor in his statement.

“We trust her to work on health care, to fight for the poor… for the willingness to fight for civil rights.”

According to NBC Chicago, Rev. Jackson made the announcement at the “Kids Off The Block” memorial, located in Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood and dedicated to child victims of gun violence. Roseland is over 97 percent African-American, and is still recovering from a history of economic repression and gang violence. Clinton visited the memorial together with Jackson in March, prior to the Illinois primary, and met several mothers who had lost their children to gun violence.

Jackson took pains to point out that he was endorsing Clinton as a private citizen, as the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, of which Jackson is the founder, has a policy of not endorsing political candidates. He also tweeted the endorsement, adding that he felt Hillary could be trusted on healthcare and gender equality issues as well.

Jackson had initially declined to endorse Hillary Clinton, stating that he felt that both Clinton and Bernie Sanders were “outstanding candidates” who were “going in the right progressive direction.” Now that the primaries have been decided, Jackson apparently wants to reiterate to voters the need for party solidarity; in the wake of the June 7 primaries, voter support for both Democratic candidates has remained seriously polarized.

Interestingly enough, when Jesse Jackson ran for the Democratic nomination in 1988 (he also ran in 1984,) he was endorsed by the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, at the time: Bernie Sanders.

Jackson also said that Sanders “must support the winner, Hillary, over Donald Trump. That’s his very public position and I hope he will hold that position.” A lot of pundits and members of the public have termed Sanders and his supporters “sore losers” after losing the nomination to Clinton, as he has refused to back down from the campaign trail or cede to Clinton a nomination that she’s already won, and many of his supporters are not only with him in this, they continue to question the validity of the primary votes and accuse the other side of tampering.

Jackson, meanwhile, stated earlier in the race that Bernie Sanders had “every right” to remain in the race until someone reached the delegate threshold, but firmly believed that once this happened, it was the losing party’s responsibility to step down so as not to encourage his supporters to either “stay home or support Trump” come November.

In the meantime, Clinton has scored a plethora of other high-profile endorsements since clinching the nomination, including President Barack Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden, and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren; the AFL-CIO has also moved toward backing her.

Meanwhile, according to CNN, Sanders has given his pledge to work together with Clinton to defeat Trump in November, but he doesn’t seem to be holding to it very well.

Perhaps the best possible outcome for Democrats in this election would be if Sanders and Clinton could put aside their difference to become running-mates; and hopefully Rev. Jesse Jackson’s support and encouragement of party unity will help them do just that — or at least stop trying to stab each other in the back.

[Photo by Jeff Schear/Getty Images for Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence]