Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders on Friday said he will vote for presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, with whom he has been competing in the United States presidential race. Sanders has been riding a wave of popular support, but has not had enough votes to pip her to the nomination. “My job right now is to fight for the strongest possible platform at the Democratic convention”, he said during an interview with MSNBC.

The self-proclaimed democratic socialist said his main focus was keeping presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump at bay, even as Trump steps up his efforts woo Sanders’ voters away from Hillary. “The issue right here is I'm going to do everything I can to defeat Donald Trump. I think Trump in so many ways would be a disaster for this country if he were to be elected president…We do not need a president whose cornerstone of his campaign is bigotry,” Sanders said. Experts believe Trump and Sanders both appealed to the sections of the US electorate that are fatigued by the establishment and want a radical overhaul of the country's politics.