Team Clinton to Sanders: No path toward victory now

US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has no pathway toward victory after a loss in New York’s primary Tuesday, Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook says. 

“I don’t see a clear path for them at this point. The numbers are pretty daunting,” Mook said on Wednesday of Sanders who after scoring major victories last month said, “We do have a path toward victory.”

Clinton, a former New York senator, took 58 percent of the vote in New York on Tuesday, winning 139 more delegates, while Sanders clinched 106 delegates, according to The Associated Press.

There were 247 delegates up for grabs in the Democratic primary in New York, the second biggest prize on the map nationwide. Clinton got a lead of about 277 delegates over Sanders.

Clinton came out of the primary with a total of about 1,428 pledged delegates, ahead of Sanders with 1,151.

With the addition of the so-called superdelegates — party leaders who can support any candidate — Clinton’s delegate count grows to 1,930 and Sanders’s to 1,189. Some 2,383 delegates are needed to win the Democratic nomination.

Clinton said the New York win puts former secretary of state in the homestretch and well on her way to winning the Democratic nomination, leaving no path for Sanders.

“The voters have spoken. Now that it is basically mathematically impossible for Bernie Sanders to win the Democratic nomination, it is time for our party to come together in support of Hillary Clinton,” said Eric Jotkoff, a Democratic consultant who worked on Clinton’s 2008 campaign.

“My hope is that after New York it becomes clear to everyone that Secretary Clinton will be the nominee,” he continued.

Bradley Bannon, a Democratic strategist, claimed the Vermont senator has moved from “implausible to impossible” territory for clinching the nomination.

“His campaign is starting to remind me of a big Hollywood disaster movie where you’re expected to ignore reality and suspend disbelief,” Bannon said. “At some point, you can’t suspend disbelief anymore.”

Sanders, whose campaign was boosted by landslide victories in Alaska, Washington, Hawaii and Wisconsin, was hoping to cut further into Clinton’s lead in New York.

Sanders has long been critical of US foreign policy and was an early opponent of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Clinton, in contrast, is almost universally recognized as being far more hawkish and inclined to use military force.

Sanders, 74, is also a leading proponent of issues such as income equality, universal healthcare, parental leave, climate change, and campaign finance reform in the US.

However, the incomes of Bill and Hillary Clinton put them at the upper end of the top 0.1 percent of earners in the US population, according to government data. The exorbitant pay for light work can distance them from the realities most Americans experience at their jobs.

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