US President Barack Obama endorses Hillary Clinton for presidency

US President Barack Obama has formally endorsed Hillary Clinton and called her the most qualified candidate to seek the White House, imploring Democrats to come together to elect her, the media reported. In a video posted on Clinton’s Facebook page on Thursday, Obama said: “I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office,” The New York Times reported. “I’m with her. I’m fired up and I cannot wait to get out there and campaign with Hillary,” Xinhua news agency quoted Obama as saying. Obama’s endorsement came just moments after his meeting with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s rival in the nomination race, in the White House. Although he still declined to endorse Clinton at the moment, Sanders told reporters after the meeting that he would do everything “to make sure Donald Trump does not become president of the United States.”

US presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (front) and President Barack Obama

US President Barack Obama has really officially endorsed presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s bid for the White House, saying she is the most qualified for the job.

“I know how hard this job can be, that is why I know Hillary would be so good at it,” Obama said in a video message on Thursday, after meeting with the former first lady’s rival Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders at the White House.

“In fact I don’t think there has ever been someone so qualified to hold this office,” the president said of Clinton, who became the party’s presumptive nominee on Tuesday, after reaching the 2,383-delegate threshold.

"I want those of you who have been with me since the beginning of this incredible journey to be the first to know that I'm with her," Obama continued. "I am fired up. And I can't wait to get out there and campaign with Hillary."

Referring to his own battle with the former secretary of state in the 2008 presidential election, Obama said Clinton had “the courage, the compassion and the heart to get the job done,” citing his more than 20 debates with her.

Obama’s endorsement for Clinton came shortly after Sanders’ pledge to work together with her to defeat presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Describing a Trump presidency as a "disaster," the Vermont senator said he would "work as hard as I can to make sure that Donald Trump does not become president of the Untied States."

This is while after his Tuesday defeats, Sanders had promised to continue his White House bid regardless of Clinton’s delegate count.

"I look forward to meeting with (Clinton) in the near future to see how we can work together to defeat Donald Trump and to create a government which represents all of us and not just the 1 percent," Sanders told reporters after his hour-long meeting with Obama.

Obama had on several occasions hinted at backing Clinton’s White House bid, with his administration going so far as blocking the release of significant documents in her email case.

During her tenure as the top US diplomat between 2009 and 2013, Clinton sent and received more than 30,000 emails using a private email server at her home in New York, 2,100 of them classified.

President Obama offered his formal endorsement of Hillary Clinton with a video Thursday and plans to campaign with the former secretary of state in Wisconsin next week, efforts aimed at speeding the Democratic Party's unification around its presumed presidential nominee.

"I know how hard this job can be, that's why I know Hillary will be so good at it," Obama says in the video. "In fact I don't think there's ever been someone so qualified to hold this office. She's got the courage, the compassion and the heart to get this job done."

The swift endorsement came after the president met with Sen. Bernie Sanders at the White House earlier Thursday and the senator from Vermont indicated he is preparing to exit the Democratic nominating battle.

Sanders has been under pressure to stand down and help unify the party after a long and contentious battle with Clinton for the nomination. Obama's endorsement will add to that pressure, although most party leaders, including the president, have urged that Sanders be allowed to decide his plans on his own timetable.

"He is seeking out the counsel of people he admires and respects," Briggs said of Sanders.An afternoon meeting with Vice President Biden was also added to Sanders's schedule for Thursday. The two are set to meet at the vice president's residence at the Naval Observatory, said Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs.

The president's decision to move quickly to give his public support to Clinton indicates his desire to begin to play a more active role in making the case against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump as unqualified to be president and to try to rally those who have backed Sanders behind Clinton's candidacy. Clinton and Obama will campaign together in Green Bay, Wis., her campaign confirmed.

After meeting with Obama, Sanders said he is looking forward to working with Clinton to defeat Trump in the fall."Needless to say, I'm going to do everything in my power, and I'm going to work as hard as I can, to make sure that Donald Trump does not become president of the United States," he told reporters, as his wife, Jane, stood behind him.

Sanders said he still plans to compete in Tuesday's final Democratic primary in the District, but he added that "in the near future" he hopes to meet with Clinton - who this week clinched the Democratic nomination - to talk about ways they can work together.

His comments suggested that Sanders is preparing to exit the long and grueling presidential race, as long as leading Democrats make a genuine effort to incorporate his policy ideas into their broader agenda.

The hour-long meeting with Obama came on a busy day for Sanders in Washington, where he also has an early afternoon meeting planned on Capitol Hill with Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who has sought to play the role of peace broker at the end of a contentious nominating contest between Sanders and Clinton.Before flying back home Thursday night to Burlington, Vt., Sanders plans to stage the kind of large-scale rally that has become a signature of his campaign, this one at RFK Stadium in the District.

Sanders said he would make statehood for the District a major focus of his campaign here, noting that it has a similar population to Vermont, which is represented by two senators and a congressman in Washington.

The rally comes four days ahead of the Democratic primary in the District. Twenty delegates are in play, but there is little at stake following Clinton's clinching of the nomination this week, punctuated by her decisive win Tuesday in California, the nation's most populous state.

Sanders has vowed to stay in the race through the Democratic convention in July, in a last-ditch bid to win the nomination by flipping the allegiance of hundreds of superdelegates who have already announced support for Clinton. A growing number of Sanders's supporters have acknowledged that the scenario is far-fetched.Increasingly, Sanders's aim seems to be using the leverage that he and his millions of loyal followers now have to ensure that his campaign agenda - anchored around issues of income and wealth inequality - has a central place in the Democratic Party's platform and general-election strategy.