The former secretary of state and First Lady triumphantly took the stage in a rousing rally at the Brooklyn Navy Yard as the first-ever female presidential nominee from a major party in U.S. history and offered an emotional tribute to the women whose own struggles aided in her historic success.
“We all owe so much to those of us who came before,” Clinton said after a lengthy video highlighting women’s political progress in America going back a century was played. “Tonight belongs to all of you.”
“This campaign is about making sure there are no ceilings for any of us, no limits on any of us,” she added.
Coming eight years to the day after she ended her first White House bid against Barack Obama, Clinton also congratulated her rival Bernie Sanders and offered an olive branch to his supporters.
“It never feels good to put your heart into a cause or a candidate you believe in and come up short. I know that feeling well,” she said. “But as we look ahead to the battle that awaits, let’s remember all that unites us.”
Underscoring the significance of the evening, President Obama called Clinton to congratulate her “for securing the delegates necessary to clinch the Democratic nomination for President,” the White House said — a gesture that likely signals an endorsement is imminent.
The historic moment wasn’t lost on Clinton’s campaign team, either — and they wanted to make sure no one else missed it. Supporters at the Brooklyn rally waved letters spelling out “history,” using Clinton’s signature “H” logo, while. her team quickly changed her Twitter avatar to “History.”
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In a particularly heartfelt moment of the speech, Clinton said her mother’s birthday had just passed, pointing out that she’d been born the day women gained the right to vote.
“Of course, I wish she could see her daughter become the Democratic Party’s nominee,” she said.
The speech came hours after Clinton was declared the winner in the New Jersey, South Dakota and New Mexico primaries.
The Associated Press later declared her the winner in California, where Sanders had hoped a win would help keep his candidacy alive and aid his longshot attempt to convince superdelegates, who can support whomever they choose, to switch from Clinton to him.
Sanders, for his part, peeled off a win in Montana and North Dakota.
According to NBC, with her wins Tuesday, Clinton has amassed enough pledged delegates to surpass the 2,383 required to be nominated at the Democratic National Convention next month in Philadelphia — not including superdelegates.
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She assumed the mantle as her party’s standard-bearer in sweeping fashion, poetically and repeatedly taking aim at GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump.
“The stakes in this election are high and the choice is clear: Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be President of the United States,” Clinton said.
“We believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division . . . and bridges are better than walls,” she added. “He’s not just trying to build a wall between America and Mexico, he’s trying to wall off Americans from each other.”
“When he says ‘let’s make America great again,’ that’s code for ‘let’s take America backward’ — back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all,” she said. “We, however, we want to write the next chapter in American greatness with a 21st-century prosperity that lifts everyone who has been left out and left behind, including those who may not vote for us, but deserve their chance to make a new beginning.”
Trump, who won a clean sweep in all five states holding Republican primaries Tuesday, took the stage at his own highly choreographed event at his golf club in Briarcliff Manor, Westchester County, to read a lackluster script from a teleprompter that feebly repeated many of his existing attack lines against Clinton.
“The Clintons have turned the policies of personal enrichment into an art form for themselves,” said Trump, who secured enough delegates last month to become the GOP presumptive nominee.
But the mogul, flanked by wife Melania and daughter Ivanka, did not mention the exploding controversy surrounding his racially charged comments about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over lawsuit involving Trump University.
Instead, he simply suggested that he wouldn’t continue making fabulous follies that could easily become fodder for his detractors.
“I understand the responsibility of carrying the mantle, and I will never ever let you down,” he said.
Sanders, meanwhile, spoke late Tuesday from Santa Monica, Calif., rallying his supporters and telling them he would continue on to the next primary in Washington next Tuesday.
"You all know, it's more than Bernie," he said to cheers. "It is all of us together."
If he remains in the race until the convention, as he’s vowed, it would require Clinton to continue a two-front war for another month.
Despite winning an impressive 22 contests throughout the primary season, the Vermont senator trailed Clinton in total delegates the entire race.
Obama also called Sanders Tuesday evening to thank him “for energizing millions of Americans,” according to the White House. The two are scheduled to sit down on Thursday, a meeting requested by Sanders, the White House said.
A tally Monday night by The Associated Press had already shown Clinton had more than the necessary number of total delegates to claim the nomination. But the pronouncement did little to dissuade Sanders from continuing a primary challenge that was much more vigorous — and much more successful — than many had anticipated.
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