WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton brought a close to the presidential primary season with a win Tuesday in the nation’s capital and a meeting with dispatched rival Bernie Sanders, hoping to set a tone of Democratic unity heading into next month’s party convention in Philadelphia.
Clinton’s win in the District of Columbia, the final primary of 2016, had no bearing on her role as the presumptive nominee, but it nevertheless marked a transition in the lengthy primary fight between the rivals.
‘‘We’re going to have a wide-ranging conversation, because we share a lot of the same goals,’’ Clinton said Tuesday night in an interview with Telemundo. ‘‘We both want to raise the minimum wage, we want to fight inequality of income, we want to make college affordable, and we certainly want everybody to get health care.’’
She added, ‘‘I very much am looking forward to having his support in this campaign, because Donald Trump poses a serious threat to our nation.’’
Before polls closed in Washington, Sanders vowed again to do all he can to prevent the presumptive Republican presidential nominee from reaching the White House — but he declined to endorse Clinton.
The Vermont senator has said the private meeting will help him determine how committed Clinton will be to the policy issues he has staked out in his 13-month campaign.
‘‘Our goal must not be to allow politicians, Donald Trump or anyone else, to divide us,’’ Sanders said outside his Washington headquarters, telling reporters he will continue to ‘‘fight as hard as we can’’ to transform the Democratic Party.
Sanders said he would push for new leadership in the Democratic National Committee — his campaign has sparred with Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the party’s chair — along with a progressive platform in the summer convention and electoral changes, such as primaries that allow independents to participate and the elimination of superdelegates. ‘‘We need major, major changes in the Democratic Party,’’ he said.
Sanders was warmly received Tuesday by Senate Democrats at their weekly luncheon, where he offered an update about his campaign and some of the lessons he had learned during the past year. Lawmakers in attendance said Sanders did not indicate his plans.
‘‘He had an opportunity to talk to us about his campaign and how it has changed him and what he has learned,’’ said Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri. ‘‘I think we all listened intently because we are anxious to always do better and grow as a party and be more inclusive.’’
Senator Jon Tester of Montana, who leads the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, said Sanders ‘‘absolutely will’’ support fellow Senate Democrats in the fall elections. ‘‘It was productive, it was good, it was vintage Bernie,’’ Tester said.
Sanders met last week with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, who both later endorsed Clinton, and signaled to Democrats that he hopes to play a constructive role in helping the party regain control of the Senate in 2016 .
The self-described democratic socialist says he will take his campaign to the convention in July and advocate for his policy issues in the platform while urging Democrats to be more inclusive of independents, young people and working-class voters, all of whom were pivotal in his victories in 22 states. But what that will look like still remains unclear, and Sanders has been soliciting advice from supporters on how he should take his campaign forward.
Associated Press
Russian hackers break into files, messages of DNC
WASHINGTON — Sophisticated hackers linked to Russian intelligence services broke into the Democratic National Committee’s computer networks and gained access to confidential e-mails, chats, and opposition research on presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, people familiar with the breach said Tuesday.
CrowdStrike Inc. said the DNC asked it to investigate a suspected breach of its systems, which began as early as last summer. CrowdStrike said it quickly found traces of two of the best adversaries in the hacking arena, both tied to the Russian government.
The newly revealed attacks join a host of high-profile digital breaches affecting current and past White House hopefuls, underscoring vulnerabilities in digital networks that increasingly hold sensitive data about political candidates, their opponents and their donors.
DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz called the incident serious and said the committee moved quickly to ‘‘kick out the intruders and secure our network.’’ The DNC said donor, financial, and personal information did not appear to have been accessed.
But an individual knowledgeable of the breach said at least one year’s worth of detailed chats, e-mails, and opposition research on Trump were stolen. That kind of research, a staple of political campaigns, often contains detailed information — sometimes factual and sometimes specious — about a candidate’s personal and professional history.
The individual, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the breach, said DNC officials first learned about the hack in late April when technology staff discovered malware on its computers.
Associated Press
ACLU sues Cleveland over rules set for GOP gathering
CLEVELAND — The American Civil Liberties Union says in a lawsuit that Cleveland’s rules governing protesters expected at the Republican National Convention in July violate free speech rights.
The civil rights organization filed the complaint Tuesday in federal court in Cleveland against the city and Mayor Frank Jackson.
The lawsuit wants the size and regulations of the Event Zone covering 3.3 square miles in downtown Cleveland reduced. The lawsuit argues the broad restrictions over people and their conduct in that area will infringe on the privacy and movement of everyone living or working downtown.
The group also wants the city forced to immediately act upon permit applications from groups seeking to protest.
Associated Press
