Jones: N.Y. Delegation Should Have Let Clinton Talk To Backers

Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) criticized New York’s congressional delegation for calling on Hillary Clinton to drop out of the presidential race and back Barack Obama before Clinton had a chance to speak again to her supporters.

Clinton was urged to end her bid in a conference call Wednesday featuring Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) and other Clinton backers from New York. Jones told MSNBC Thursday that Clinton had made clear that she was going to back the Democratic nominee regardless of what happened to her campaign.

“The unfortunate part of what happened in that phone call, and we won’t cry about it, was it did not give her the opportunity to be able to talk — call all of her supporters and say to them what she had in mind,” she said. “It broke before she had that opportunity.”

Jones said she’s excited about Clinton’s Saturday event, at which the New York senator will end her bid and thank her supporters. Jones added that both Obama and Clinton will need to reach out to one another to help unify the party.

“I mean, you don’t turn a campaign on and off like a light switch,” Tubbs Jones said. “There are going to be things that the Obama campaign is going to have to do to invite members of the Hillary Clinton campaign in, and to say, ‘You’re welcome and we’ll be glad to have you’ for a victory. And there will be things that the Hillary Clinton campaign will have to do to send out a message that they want to be part of the campaign for a Democratic victory.”