Sanders Indicates He Won't Openly Support Clinton if He Loses the Democratic Nomination: 'She Has Got to Go Out to You

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders indicated Monday night that, if he loses the Democratic nomination to front-runner Hillary Clinton, he won't openly support the former secretary of state or encourage his supporters to support Clinton's campaign.

During an MSNBC town hall, the Vermont senator was asked if he will tell his supporters to support Clinton should she secure the 2016 Democratic nomination. Sanders said it wasn't his job to tell his supporters who they should support and, instead, said it was Clinton's job to ask for their support.

"We’re not a movement where I can snap my fingers and say to you or to anybody else what you should do, that you should all listen to me. You shouldn’t. You make these decisions yourself," Sanders said.

"And if Secretary Clinton wins, it is incumbent upon her to tell millions of people who right now do not believe in establishment politics or establishment economics, who have serious misgivings about a candidate who has received millions of dollars from Wall Street and other special interests," he added. "She has got to go out to you."

Though he said he wouldn't openly encourage his supporters to back Clinton, Sanders later said that he would do "everything" in his "power" to prevent a Republican from winning the White House.

During an earlier town hall on MSNBC, Clinton said that she did not "put down conditions" before supporting then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008 and that she hopes Sanders will follow her lead in 2016.

"We got to the end in June and I did not put down conditions. I didn’t say, 'You know what, if Sen. Obama does W, Y, and Z maybe I’ll support him.' I said I am supporting Sen. Obama," Clinton said. "I hope that we will see the same this year."

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