Hillary Clinton to hold farewell rally and throw her support behind Obama

13 April 2012

Hillary Clinton will pull out of the race to be the Democratic candidate and throw her support behind Barack Obama in his race for the White House, it was revealed last night.

While she has still not admitted in public that she lost the contest, Mrs Clinton is set to use a speech on Saturday to announce her withdrawal from the race and to thank her supporters.

‘Senator Clinton will be hosting an event in Washington D.C., to thank her supporters and express her support for Senator Obama and party unity,' Clinton's communications director told ABC News.

Hillary Clinton is set to formally abandon her White House campaign at the end of the week after having bid an emotional farewell to her loyal staff

Hillary Clinton is set to formally abandon her White House campaign at the end of the week after having bid an emotional farewell to her loyal staff

Clinton will also use the speech to urge once-warring Democrats to focus on the general election and defeating Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Mrs Clinton surprised many on Tuesday when she refused to concede defeat after Barack Obama gained enough delegates to win the nomination.

A number of her supporters, including the New York member of Congress, Charlie Rangel, are said to be furious with Mrs Clinton for failing to acknowledge Obama's victory.

Mrs Clinton has told colleagues in her home state of New York that she would be willing to become Barack Obama's running mate if it would help Democrats win the White House.

Wiinner: Barack Obama claims victory in the race to be Democratic candidate for the White House

Wiinner: Barack Obama claims victory in the race to be Democratic candidate for the White House

Mr Obama , however, has remained steadfastly non-committal about his rival receiving the vice-presidential nomination.

He told ABC News that Clinton is a 'special case' to consider as a candidate for the vice presidency.

'She's somebody who travelled this journey with me. She was extraordinarily capable and tenacious. I mean, she is just a great candidate,' Obama said.

He added: 'We're going to be having a conversation in coming weeks, and I'm very confident how unified the Democratic Party's going to be to win in November.'

On Tuesday a flurry of superdelegates – Democrat Party insiders who remained on the fence until the eleventh hour – sided with Mr Obama to push him past the magic figure of 2,118 delegates he needed to claim a famous victory.

He  will be crowned the Democratic nominee at the convention in August and will face Republican John McCain in November's election to choose a successor to President Bush.

The win by Mr Obama, son of a black Kenyan father and white mother from Kansas, marked a milestone in U.S. history. It came 45 years after the height of the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King, who was assassinated in 1968.

It followed one of the closest and longest nomination fights ever. Mrs Clinton, who would have been the first woman nominee in U.S. political history, won more than 1,900 delegates.

Celebration: Barack Obama is mobbed by supporters in St Paul after declaring victory

Celebration: Barack Obama is mobbed by supporters in St Paul after declaring victory


Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in