President Barack Obama will meet at the White House Wednesday with Sen. Bernie Sanders, days after heaping praise upon the Vermont senator’s rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton.
In a statement, White House press secretary Josh Earnest described the upcoming meeting as “informal,” saying Obama and Sanders discussed arranging the session during last month’s Congressional Holiday Ball.
“The two will meet privately in the Oval Office and there will be no formal agenda,” Earnest wrote.
It will be the first time the pair have met for a substantive discussion since Sanders’ candidacy began surging in early voting states, a come-from-behind boost that some have compared to Obama’s own race against Clinton in 2008.
In Iowa, which holds the first nominating contest of the 2016 race on Monday, Sanders and Clinton are running in a dead heat, polls show.
Despite the apparent similarities between Obama and Sanders’ Iowa runs — including their pull with young voters — the President rejected any comparison in an interview taped last week.
“There’s no doubt that Bernie has tapped into a running thread in Democratic politics that says: Why are we still constrained by the terms of the debate that were set by Ronald Reagan 30 years ago?” Obama told Politico. “You know, that has an appeal, and I understand that.”
But Obama soon moved on to praising Clinton, who he deemed ready to begin governing as soon as she assumed the job.
“She can govern and she can start here, Day 1, more experienced than any non-vice-president has ever been who aspires to this office,” Obama said, clearly tilting toward his former secretary of state but avoiding a full-fledged endorsement.
Both Sanders’ campaign and the White House said Wednesday’s sit-down has been scheduled for some time.
The meeting with Obama has been on the books “for days,” Sanders’ spokesman Michael Briggs told CNN.
Obama, who the White House says will not endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary but will campaign for the eventual nominee, is watching the current election with an eye toward his legacy. Many of his most sweeping actions have been accomplished through executive order, making the next president critical in carrying out his agenda.
When Obama said earlier this month he would withhold his support for any political candidate that didn’t support “commonsense” gun control laws, it was widely regarded as a rebuke of Sanders, who has voted for provisions that would protect firearm manufacturers from liability after shooting deaths. Later, the White House noted that Sanders’ said he would revisit his position following Obama’s warning.
Clinton, meanwhile, has largely embraced Obama’s record on the campaign trail, touting his health law as a game-changer for uninsured Americans and accusing Sanders of planning to scrap it. A number of Obama’s former aides now work for Clinton’s campaign, and the President is personally closer to the candidate who served in his administration for four years.
Obama and Clinton last met in December for lunch. The White House did not disclose the session ahead of time, and said afterward it was mostly a “social occasion.” It was the latest in a long series of meetings between the two former colleagues, both at the White House and on Martha’s Vineyard, where both of their families spend time in August.
On Wednesday, Obama and Sanders are set to begin meeting behind closed doors at 11:45 a.m. ET. The President’s public schedule lists a lunch with Vice President Joe Biden beginning 45 minutes later, at 12:30 p.m. ET.
When Obama met for lunch with Clinton in December, the White House said the gathering lasted an hour-and-a-half — twice as long as the block for Sanders (though, like many of Obama’s meetings, the session could run long).